Northland Athletes Find The Podium As State Track Meet Concludes

Debby Decker-NSO

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Wes Vork-NSO

Saturday brought with it a conclusion of the Minnesota State Track & Field Championships at Hamline University in St. Paul with several Northland area athletes finding a spot on the winner’s podium.

The Proctor boys 4×800 team of Matt Welch, Chris Carlson, Tyler Haedrich, and Romeo Benish just missed out on a state championship, running an 8:08.31 to a winning 8:07.70 by the team from Cotter. Still the Proctor four reached their goal of setting a new school record, which they did in resounding fashion by blowing past the previous Proctor mark of 8:16. Their qualifying efforts were aided by freshman Frank DeLuca, who filled in admirably for an injured Carlson at the section meet, allowing for the state appearance. Benish also finished in 11th place in the 1600 meter run.

Jake Stainbrook of Esko cleared the bar at 6’-2” in the high jump. Stainbrook wound up tied with three others for fourth place. The event was won by Aaron Wubben of Central Mn with a jump of 6’-7”. Andrew Youngren of Barnum found a spot on the medal stand with a sixth place throw of 148’-2” in the discus.

Esko’s Maria Shady, who was seeded second going in, finished in fifth place in the 400 meter dash despite improving her seed time of 58.75 with a 58.56 sprint in the finals. Shady’s teammate Caitlyn Lilly secured the words “All-State” behind her name with a ninth place finish in the 300 meter hurdles.

The medal stand was a crowded place for the Esko girls relay teams, with all four finishing in the money, led by the 4×400 team’s third place finish. The 4×800 meter team finished in fourth, the 4×200 team finished in fifth, and the 4×100 team finished in eighth place. Eighth grader Kailee Kiminski gave everyone a snapshot of things to come with a 17th place finish in the 1600 meter run.

The Highlight of the day came from Caleb Hamp-Sill of Two Harbors when he won the long jump with a leap of 21’-10-1/4”. Coupled with his win in the triple jump a day earlier, Hamp-Sill completed the sweep of the jumping competition.

In the Class AA meet Cloquet’s Halee Peterson finished 12th in the 1600 meter run with a personal best time of 5:14.25. Peterson bettered her previous best of 5:16 by two seconds. Rachael Hoium of Hermantown jumped 34’-9-3/4” to garner a 12th place finish in the triple jump.

Comments can be sent to wes@northlandsportsonline.com

Photo: John Grones – Voyager Press