2012 State Track Meet Held At Hamline

Wes Vork-NSO

Click here for the complete boys results

Click here for the complete girls results

For additional photos click here to view our complete photo gallery

June 9, 2012

Wes Vork-NSO

ST.-PAUL – Northland athletes braved 90 plus degree heat at the 2012 Minnesota State Track & Field meet Saturday at Hamline University in St. Paul, finishing as high as second in three different events. As a team the Moose Lake –Willow River boys turned in an area best fifth place finish. The Esko girls finished seventh out of a total of 76 teams.

“It was pretty brutal, something we’re definitely not used to here in Northern Minnesota. But the thing to remember is everyone’s running in the heat, it’s not just us. So you just kind of suck it up and go out and do what you can do. ” Marisa Shady stated to Northland Sports Online after the meet.

Shady along with her sister Erica, Caitlin Lilly, and
Olivia Rengo gave the Esko girls team their best showing on the day with a second place finish in the 4×200 relay. Their time of 1:45.17 was second only to the squad from Osakis with a 1:44.78

The Eskomos also qualified for the finals in the 4×400 and 4×800 relays, where they finished fifth in both events.

The 4×800 team of Kallyn Knutson, Erica Shady, Kate Shelerud, and Kailee Kiminski found themselves at the state meet in part due to a rule change at the section level which, like the individual events, now sends the top two teams to state rather than just the top finisher only, as in previous years. The team finished just 1/100th of a second behind the team from Mesabi East at the Section Finals a week ago.

Shelerud explained they believe the rule change is the fairest way to address the issue. “Obviously we like it, but it really is the fair way to do it. Every team works so hard to get here so it makes the relays equal to the other events.” Shelerud further explained that the 1-2 finish gets lost once you are at the state meet. “Once you get down to state you’re not trying to show you are second best, you are trying to show you are the best. We kind of had that in mind going into the 4×8; we weren’t going to save anything; and we’re happy where we ended up. I am so proud of my teammates; they never give up or settle for anything less than their absolute best.”

Lilly finished up her high school career by posting the best individual finish for the Eskomos. Lilly notched a time of 46.46 in the 300 hurdles, good for a fourth place finish. “It’s really nice to finish up you’re senior year at the state meet. Although there were individual events, we have so many people here it feels like a team meet. We are like a big family so we don’t like to go anywhere alone.”

Eighth grader Rengo, already making her second trip to the state meet talked about Lilly and the other seniors who have been great mentors to her and the other underclassmen. “We are going to miss these seniors so much. They have been great leaders and it is just such an honor to be able to come down here and represent the school and section.”

Micayla Westendorf of Proctor finished her high school career by adding the title “All-State” to her name by finishing eighth in the 100 meter hurdles. Westendorf hit a personal best of 15.95 at Friday’s prelims and finished stronger yet at the finals. On Saturday, Westendorf bettered her PR again with a time of 15.86 despite running into a 3.4 mile per hour headwind.

Breena Alfredson of South Ridge and Bridget Tesser of Proctor finished 10th and 17th respectively in the high jump. Megan Bergstedt finished 15th in the triple jump.

In the 3200 meter finals, which were held on Friday, Matt Welch of Proctor finished as state runner up with a time of 9:46.19; a mere two seconds off Charley Lawrence of Foley’s state title pace of 9:44.60. Romeo Benish cut 14 seconds off his seeding time to finish sixth with a time of 9:48.37. On Saturday, Welch and Benish battled through the heat for a sixth and eighth place finish in the 1600 meter run.

Josh Cisar of Moose Lake-Willow River bested his prelim time of 50:38 in the 400 meter dash by a full second in the finals; with a 49.40 second effort. His sub 50 second time would have easily won the event last year, but this year Cisar ran into a buzz saw in the form of Wesley DeLong of Pillager, who turned in and incredible 48.69 seconds to win the event.

Cisar also anchored the 4×200 team to a third place finish. The team made up of Michael Pender, Isaak Coil, Jake Disterhaupt, and Cisar finished in a time of 1:31.82, close behind the winning time of 1:31.18 of Rochester Lourdes.

The Rebels closed out the meet by taking fifth place in the 4×400 meter relay. Coil, Disterhaupt, Cisar, and Moonen clocked in at 3:27.05. Moonen also finished fifth in the 800 meter run and Disterhaupt finished sixth in the 200 meter dash for the Rebels.

The Esko boys finished sixth in the high powered 4×100 meter relay. Riley Mudek, Max Reinertsen, Sean Peterson, and Hunter Leon finished in a time of 45.04 seconds.

Reinertsen finished sixth in the triple jump and 15th in the long jump. Esko’s Ben Bisel cleared the six foot mark for a 17th place finish in the high jump and Austin Johnson of Cromwell finished 13th in the discus with a throw of 129’-5”.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com