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The North Branch girls track and field team is in fine form after running in two meets last week. They are hoping their top performances led them to a lot of team success at the True Team Section this week, which happened after the County Press went to print.

BISON INVITE

Girls

North Branch stacked up against some tough teams at the Bison Invite on Tuesday, April 30, including three schools in a class above them. The meet out west featured Monticello, St. Cloud Tech, Irondale, Buffalo and Sartell. But, those big schools didn’t deter at least the girls from taking plenty of high finishes home.

Sophia Benedict got the first win on the board for the Vikings when the junior finished in the top spot in 200 meter run. Ella Kuhlman was right behind her and finished in third place in the event.

Sophia Thorsen, Dakota Esget and Derrian Dick then all finished in the top six in the 400 meter run, and Madiso Whitman added a third place in the 800 to really cap off a strong day in the middle distances.

In the long distance runs, Ava Witkowski and Lilly Stelmack each grabbed top five finishes in the 3,200 meter run. Witkowski, an eighth grader, came in third with a personal best time of 12:30.00 and Stelmack, just a seventh grader in her first year of varsity track, came in seventh with a PR of 14:06.90.

The hurdle events saw some great finishes as well, highlighted by Shaeyna Andreotti finishing first in the 100 meter hurdles and second in the 300 hurdles. She only got second in the longer event because Kuhlman, her teammate, nabbed first place with a season best time of 48.24 seconds.

The relay teams were of course strong for NB, as well. The 4x100 quarter of Kuhlman, Ella Dick, Kailie Kopp and Benedict won the event going away, the 4x200 relay team of Derrian Dick, Thorsen, Benedict and Esget finished second and the 4x800 team of Alexis Sway, Elle Nielsen, Witkowski and Whitman came in third.

In the least surprising news of the meet, North Branch dominated the pole vault event in the field portion of the meet. Ella Dick and Brooke Giese each had personal bests, finishing first and second. Dick cleared 11’6” and Giese cleared the 10 foot mark for the first time. Esget rounded out the podium sweep with a third place finish at nine feet.

Kopp and Ella Dick finished second and fourth, respectively, in the triple jump, both with PRs, Thorsen grabbed a fourth in the high jump and ninth grader Brooklyn Maki finished seventh in the shot put. Whitman also produced a season best leap in the long jump to finish seventh.

All of those finishes contributed to a first place for the Vikings girls. They had 138 points, just edging Monticello’s score of 134.5 points. Sartell was third with 111.

Boys

The boys didn’t get any first place finishes, but there were a few second and third places to highlight their meet.

Zachary Sway finished second in the 200 meter dash, Blake Lelm earned second in the high jump and Eli Steinke finished in second in the pole vault event. Both Sway and Steinke had personal records in the respective events.

Brody Rothe had a nice meet, finishing in third place in both the 100 and 300 hurdle events and being a part of the 4x200 meter relay team that came in third. Brody Beaver, Carson Weber and Michael Dragicevich were the other members of that relay squad.

As a team, the boys finished in fifth place out of six teams, compiling 53.5 points. Buffalo won the event with 130.5

COON RAPIDS INVITE

Girls

The number and size of the teams got bigger at the Coon Rapids Invite on Thursday, May 2, but the girls team still performed great.

They got a win from Benedict in the 200 meter run, who had a personal best of 25.72 seconds. Benedict also teamed with Derrian Dick, Thorsen and Esget to win the 4x200 relay with a time of 1:46.18, and she finished in third in the high jump.

And of course, the pole vaults stole the show in the field events. Ella Dick and Esget claimed a share of the top spot with 

Andreotti grabbed a third in the 100 hurdles and a second in the 300 hurdles, Whitman finished fourth in the 400 meter run. Seventh grader Rachel Halseth had a great long jump of 15’2” to come in third. It was a personal best for the youngster.

The 4x400 relay team of Derrian Dick, Whitman, Witkowski and Sway finished in third place for North Branch.

The Vikings got third place out of nine teams on the women’s side. They scored 95 points, coming in behind champion Chisago Lakes, who had 144.5 points, and Duluth East, who had 136.5 points.

Boys

Rothe had the best performance on the boys side, finishing in fourth place in the 300 hurdles, seventh place in the pole vault and part of the 4x400 relay team that finished third with Austin Anderson, Dragicevich and Matt Fenton.

Carson Weber came the closest to a win for the Vikings, with a second place finish in the triple jump with a season best 41’1”.

As a team, the boys finished in eighth palace with 33 points, besting only Columbia Heights. Coon Rapids dominated their home meet, scoring 208.5 points. Not only were they the only team to eclipse 200, they were the only team in triple digits as second place Duluth East had 90 points.

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