Cloquet teams sweep a wet Eveleth race

The sky threatened the Cloquet girls cross country team and drenched the boys, but both teams raced to firsts in the Class AA boys and girls divisions at the Eveleth Lions Invitational Sept. 12.

While Cloquet senior Jordan Allen won the boys race, the rest of the story was the depth of the Cloquet team. The Lumberjacks had all seven of their runners finish in the top 11.

"I don't think the course conditions bothered our runners because we have practiced in conditions similar to those we experienced last Thursday," said Cloquet coach Chandra Allen. "The cross country team was just eager to get out there and race."

Allen won the AA boys race easily with a time of 17:06.2. Second place went to Duluth Denfeld runner Isaac Fink at 17:36.9. Cloquet's Jesse Bahen ran a time of 17:56.2 to finish third and Evan Leonidas of Duluth East was fourth in a time of 17:57.6.

Following Leonidas, four consecutive Cloquet runners finished. In order from fifth through eighth place, it was Cale Prosen, Miles Fischer, Josh Sanders and Sam Buytaert. Right behind that group was Dennis Osvold, who took 11th.

The Cloquet boys finished with a low score of 22 points for their top five runners with Denfeld taking second with 70 points and Duluth East third with 71 points. Seven teams participated in the race, along with runners from a number of schools that lacked the numbers to field a complete team.

"Our boys team had very strong performances all the way through," said first year coach Allen. "There is a lot of experience and depth on the boys team and we are excited to watch them develop throughout the season. Another notable performance was by Benjamin Bauer coming in 12th place right behind Osvold."

Led by Tracy Harmony's second-place finish and Lauren Cawcutt's third-place finish, the Cloquet girls squad also finished first with a total of 47 points.

Winning the girls division was Hermantown's Brita Birkeland with a time of 20:55.1 with Harmony in hot pursuit less than three seconds behind. Cawcutt finished in 21:19.6 and Cloquet's Amelia Allen was sixth in a time of 21:51.3. Cloquet also got a 15th place finish from Charlotte Ripp, a 21st place finish from Kellie Martin, a 22nd place finish from Araya Kiminski and a 32nd place performance from Bella Genereau.

"It was exciting to have both the boys and girls varsity teams win their first invitational of the season," Allen said. "This is a young girls team and it was exciting to see them race together."

Carlton County had a number of star runners in the Class A race at Eveleth.

Running for Cromwell-Wright/Floodwood, eighth-grader Emaleigh Olesiak took second in the girl's varsity race. Noah Foster took fifth and Cameron Dickey took ninth in the boy's varsity race. Nathan Eliason and Ben Hansen finished 24th and 25th while Micah Pocernich placed 32nd and the team took third place for the race.

Carlton-Wrenshall's Jack Riley placed 17th in the boy's race.

The top runner for South Ridge was Jillian Sajdak, who took eighth place in the girl's race, just ahead of Carlton-Wrenshall's Emma Cid in ninth. Abby Cid took 11th place for Carlton-Wrenshall.

Other notable finishers in the single-A race at Eveleth included Morgan Laveau in 26th for Carlton-Wrenshall and Aurora Gervais in 28th for Cromwell-Wright/Floodwood.

Jimmy Zupancich was the top Panthers boys runner, in 26th place.