Kiminski Shows Class

November 1st, 2014

Tyler Peterson-NSO

One of the unseen heroics of Saturday’s State Cross Country races won’t ever show up in the results as WEM-JWP junior Tierney Winter and Esko senior Kailee Kiminski helped Jackson County Central freshman Jessica Christoffer over the finish line.

That actually disqualified all three runners, because of a high school league rule, but Winter says she was happy to help and Christoffer was grateful for the assistance to finish the race in her first trip to state.

Christoffer says, “I just got tired and I fell, and it wasn’t good, and then there were two girls that helped me…helped me finish and it was really nice of them.  I’m really thankful for them.  It means a lot to me.  It means I accomplished my goal of running at state and doing well.”

Winter says, “I saw her fall, and it’s 50 meters away from the finish and I was like…I couldn’t leave her there.  I saw a couple of pictures online before, I’ve seen girls help each other out, so I was like, I’ll help her out and we’ll see what happens, and we crossed the finish line and she was like, ‘thank you’, and I’m like, ‘no problem’.  I wouldn’t want to be left out there if it was me, so I just thought of myself there too, so…just to be a friend…a friend of a runner I guess.”

The Minnesota State Cross Country tournament was held at St. Olaf college on Saturday morning. The Northland had some representatives in the tournament.

In the Class A boys meet, Proctors Cody Stevens finished 35th overall, finishing with a time of 16:52. Teammates, Jacob Welch, finished in 72nd place in the meet, running in 17:17 and Garrett Sargent, placing 89th, finished in 17:24. Moose Lake-Willow Rivers Ethan Olson finished with a time of 17:37, placing him at 111th place. Alex Mercier, another Proctor runner, placed 131st overall after finishing in 17:50 and teammate Jordan Bergquist finished in 18:02 which placed him at 144th place. Two more Proctor runners participated in the State Tournament, Ben Nicolson and Thomas Otterson-Dough, finished in 18:04 and 20:21 respectively, placing them in 146th and 174th places.

In the Class AA boys meet, Cloquets Isaac Boedigheimer placed in 20th place, finishing in 16:00. Keaton Long, representing Duluth East, had a time of 16:59, placing him at 112th place.

In the girls Class A meet, Carltons Erika Fox finished in 25th place with a time of 15:32. Proctors Annika Voss finished in 75th place after finishing in 16:02. Gracelynn Otis of South Ridge placed 88th overall, crossing the finish line with a time of 16:15. South Ridge was well represented as teammates Anna Hall, Darionna Campbell, Hannah Simek, Elizabeth Poskie, and Lily also participated. Hall finished in 117th place with a time of 16:44, Campbell finished in 16:53, which was good for 127th place, Simek placed 150th, finishing in 17:35, Poskie placed 156th with a time of 17:49, and lastly, Hall placed 158th, finishing in 17:53.

In Class AA, Anja Maijala of Cloquet, placed 39th with a time of 14:58. Duluth East was well represented in the Class AA meet, sending 7 participants to the meet. Phoebe Koski placed in 67th place, finishing in 15:15. Teammates Kelly Canavan and Molly Weberg finished back to back, placing 77th and 78th with times of 15:20 and 15:21 respectively. Also from Duluth East, Izzy Sutherland and Aria Plewa finished in 143rd and 144th place with times of 16:05 and 16:06, Nora Vos placed 151st, finishing in 16:19, and Lauren Dynek placed 157th with a finishing time of 16:28.

Northland Sports Online would like to congratulate all the runners for their successful seasons and their performances down at the State Tournament. The Northland was well represented!

Tyler Peterson can be contacted at tpeterson@northlandsportsonline.com