Cloquet River Walk/Run Held Saturday

Chris Shevich-NSO

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Sept 27

Wes Vork-NSO

The second annual Cloquet River Walk/Run was held Saturday morning in Cloquet. Organized by Churchill Elementary Partners in Education (PIE), the event features both a one mile and a 5k walk run.

Festivities began on Friday evening with a pasta and salad feed, along with a health and fitness expo at the Churchill School cafeteria and gymnasium.

The River Run is a fundraising activity designed to get children, families and community involved in healthy lifestyles and at the same time raise funds for school programs and events.

The 5k race is a hybrid course (paved and gravel trail), starting and finishing at Churchill Elementary School and traveling along the St Louis River. The 5k race includes mile markers, time splits, and water stations at the beginning, half-way point and end.

The 1 mile race is a road race, also starting and finishing at Churchill Elementary and traveling through local neighborhoods.

Nick Schultz of St Michael, MN won the 1-mile race with a time of 5:15. The top finisher on the women’s side was hometown Cloquet runner Jessica Stone, who crossed the line with a time of 7:05.

David Hyopponen of Duluth took top honors in the 5k race, clocking in at 17:08. Randy Winanen of Orr, running in the 50-59 category, was just behind Hyopponen in second place with a time of 17:48.

Jody Zeleznikar of Esko finished first in the women’s division, finishing 8th overall with a time of 20:14

Post race activities included an awards ceremony where the top three finishers in each race and age class were given trophies. Each participant also received an official 2009 Cloquet River Run race shirt. Churchill School held a design contest with fifth grader Kayla Baker’s winning design chosen to be the t-shirt artwork.

Click http://www.cloquetriverrun.com to visit the Cloquet River Run website.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com