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by CHUCK FITZER

Section 7AA Championships

After an excellent season, the Wildcat track team  performed well at the section championships.   Both the girls’ and boys’ teams won the team titles.  The girls demolished the field, finishing nearly 50 points ahead of the second place North Branch Vikings.  The boys edged out second place Cloquet by seven points.  The girls will send eleven athletes to the state tournament, some in multiple events, and the boys will send nine.  First and second place finishers in each even qualify for the state tournament.

Girls

Freshman Annika Hall won the 1600 meter run with a time of 5:03.27 and the 3200-meter run with a time of 10:48.57.  The Wildcats swept the top three spots in the shot put and the top two spots in the discus.  Freshman Madison Eagle won the discus with a throw of 110’1” and came in second in the shot put with a throw of 35’10”.   Senior Laura Carlson won the shot put with a throw of 37’6.25”.  Junior Marian Cooksley’s shot put throw of 33’11” put her in third place, one spot short of state.  Sophomore Linnea Carlson’s discus throw of 110’0” was one inch short of Eagle’s winning throw but still gave Carlson a spot at the state tourney.  Freshman McKaylie Malek won the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.19 seconds.  And the 4 x 800 relay team of senior Kaia Osmundson, eighth-grader Kara Hall, junior Lauren Kowarsch, and freshman Averiana Gellerman won with a time of 9:48.61.

Three of the top four finishers in the pole vault were from North Branch.  But Wildcat senior Bene Smith’s vault of 10’6” tied for second place, and both she and the North Branch athlete hit the state meet standard and will go to state.

In the 300-meter hurdles final, they had to go to an extra digit to determine who finished in second place, and senior Ava Bringgold missed second by .003 seconds.  But her time of 46.08 seconds met the state meet standard, so she is headed to state in the 300-meter hurdles.  And her leap of 5’2” in the high jump was good enough for second place in that event, so she is headed to state in two events.  

Boys

The Wildcat boys did very well in the field events.  Senior Nathaniel Bear won the pole vault with a height of 13’0’, and senior Trent Guth’s height of 11’11” vaulted him into second place in the event.  Junior Cohen Underhill came in first in the long jump with a jump of 20’9.75”.  Sophomore Judah Appleby hopped, skipped, and jumped his way to a win in the triple jump with a distance of 42’6.5”.  William Pearson’s heave of 46’4” earned him a second place finish in the shot put.   Senior Biruk Killeen will be going to state in two events.  He came in second in the 3200 meter run with a time of 9:37.87.  And he is part of the 4 x 800-meter relay team that came in second with a time of 8:18.36.  Junior Kaden Osmundson, freshman Nach Cooksley, and sophomore Remy Larsen will join Killeen in the 4 x 800 at state.  It’s not too many times that runners from four different grades have run a relay at the state tournament, for any team.  Senior Blake Siefert’s high jump of 6’0” put him in third place, just short of state.

North Branch

For the Vikings, they dominated the relays, pole vault and middle distances for the girls.

Ella Kuhlman won the 400 meter run and Sophia Thorsen won the 200 meter dash events to punch their tickets to state.

In pole vault, Ella Dick won the event with Dakota Esget and Brooke Giese also qualifying for the state meet. 

The foursomes from the 4x100 and 4x200 relays also earned a trip to state. 

The 4x100 team was comprised of Kuhlman, Esget, Ella Dick and Thorsen. The 4x200 relay featured Kuhlman, Esget, Thorsen and Sophia Benedict.

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