---

Mississippi 8 Conference Championship

The Wildcats girls’ track team finished third in the Mississippi 8 Conference championship held Wednesday, May 24 at Big Lake while the North Branch girls came in fifth.  On the boys’ side, the Wildcats came in last out of eight teams and NB seventh.  Seventh-grader Annika Hall won the 3200-meter run in 11:37.85, finishing 24 seconds ahead of Makenna Sjoberg of Cambridge-Isanti.  She also came in second in the 1600-meter run.  And sophomore Catharine Larson won the triple jump with a leap of 34’2”.

For North Branch, the 4x400 relay team of Derrian Dick, Ella Kuhlman, Sophia Thorsen and Dakota Esget won the Vikes’ only event.

Girls

In addition to the two event winners, the Wildcats had several other top three finishes:  sophomore Kaia Osmundson, third place, 800 meter run; senior Hatatu Killeen, second, 100 meter hurdles; 4x100 relay team of Killeen, sophomore Ava Bringgold, eighth grader Chelsea Stipe and sophomore Bene Smith, second;  4x400 relay team of Osmundson, Bringgold, Smith, and Killeen, second;  Bringgold, second, high jump; and junior Lily Hubbard, third, high jump.

For the Lady Vikes, they had plenty of top three finishes. Shaenya Andreotti came in third in the 100 hurdles and second in the 300 hurdles. The 4x100 team and 4x200 teams both grabbed top three finishes, and Esget finished third in the pole vault with a personal record 10 feet and Madison Whitman came in third in the long jump with a personal best.

Boys

The only Wildcats boy who finished third or better in an event was senior Christian Marchant, who came in second in the shot put.

For North Branch, their best finishes came in the jumping events. Nick Bovitz finished second in the long jump and third in the triple jump, and Carson Weber grabbed a second place in the triple jump

Track Tidbits

The Section 7AA preliminaries were held at Hibbing High School yesterday.  The section finals will be held Saturday at Hibbing High School starting at 9 a.m.  The Wildcats could get a record number of athletes through to the state tournament, especially on the girls’ side.

---