Cloquet track teams dominate

The Cloquet boys and girls track teams are serving notice early this spring that the Lumberjacks are teams to be reckoned with. On Friday both teams won their first home triangular meet with Duluth East and Duluth Marshall.

On the boys' side, the 'Jacks outscored the Greyhounds 105 to 79 and Marshall finished third with just four points. The Lumberjack girls outpaced East 94 to 76 with Marshall finishing third again, with a score of 15 points.

Will Turnbull and Reese Turnbull were impressive on the boys side the brothers picked up 10 total scoring points for Cloquet. Will captured first place in the shot put and discus while his brother was second in the shot, and third in the discus.

"These two are very hard workers, they are an important backbone of our team," said head coach Tim Prosen. "Coach Andy Elias has them working very hard in the circles, but also in the weight room. Expect great things to happen to them in track and then moving forward in football."

Lance Konietzko also added points in the shot by finishing third, as well as fourth in the discus.

The Lumberjacks also excelled in the triple jump where they went 1-2-3. Nathan Genereau won the event with a leap of 38 feet, 4 inches followed closely by runner-up Nate Bong at 37-11 and Logan Dushkin at 36-1 to place third.

Cloquet's Dylan Heehn was second in the high jump while Luke Stillwell and Mason Beck finished third and fourth in the pole vault, respectively.

The Lumberjacks were impressive in relay events as well. In the 3200-meter relay, the Cloquet boys went 1-2 with the team of Cale Prosen, Miles Fisher, Sam Buytaert and Logan Dushkin edging out their teammates Ben Bauer, Jake Mertz, Josh Sanders and Calvin Snesrud. In the 800-meter relay the Cloquet team of Heehn, Reese Sheldon, Alex Peterson and Miigwan Tanner-Wostrel easily defeated Duluth East by running an impressive 1:35.4, nearly 10 seconds faster than the Greyhounds. Cloquet also captured first in the 400-meter relay with Heehn, Sheldon, Peterson and Nate Blatchford nabbing the honors.

Fisher and Mertz went 2-3 in the 1600 meter run and Nate Blatchford won the 110-meter hurdles with Alex Despot finishing third. In the 100-meter dash it was Cloquet's Reese Sheldon winning with a time of 11.4. Xavier Anderson of Cloquet was third in 11.8 and Alex Peterson was fourth in 12.0.

Over in the 800-meter race, Dushkin took first in an impressive time of 2:11.3. Bong finished second in the 400.

Genereau won the 300-meter hurdles in 41.1 seconds, Blatchford was second in 45.5 and Logan Kunz of Cloquet was fourth.

In the 200-meter dash, Heehn raced to a 23.7 time while teammate

Tanner-Wastral was third and Anderson was fourth.

Sam Brenner took second in the 3200-meter run and in the 1600-relay the team of Genereau, Bong, Prosen and Dushkin took top honors while Sanders, Bauer, Mertz and Fisher finished third.

On the girls side of things, Cloquet's Bella Harriman was a double winner: taking first in the shot and disc. Seija Souminen was second in the discus with Emily Vermeersch finishing third. Hannah Sandman added a third and Vermeersch a fourth in the shot put.

"Bella has worked very hard with our throwers and results are showing," Prosen said.

"Again, coach Elias along with Evan Erickson, Joe Defoe and Thomas Udenberg have been working with her. It is nice to have four legit throwing coaches working with our athletes."

Cloquet also took the top three spots in the long jump with Katie Turner in first, Lydia Stone in second and Taylor Wick in third. Wick followed up that performance by nabbing first place in the triple jump with teammate Jardis Swanson finishing second.

Olivia Jameson narrowly defeated Caley Kruse and Wick in the high jump with the latter two finishing second and third. Ashtyn Schneberger chipped in with a solid second in the pole vault.

Over in the 3200-meter relay the team of Gracie Meagher, Caley Kruse, Lauren Sertich and Charlotte Ripp finished first. In the 1,600 meter run Amelia Allen added points by taking fourth place.

Ilei Benson of Cloquet easily won the 100-meter hurdles by racing to a time of 16.9 seconds, over two seconds faster than the runner-up. Cloquet's Kaley Will added a fourth place finish in the 100-meter dash and Lily Summar scored a third place finish in the 800-meter run.

Addie Loeb, Lydia Stone, Kaley Will and Olivia McCauley teamed up to win the 400-meter relay. Sarah Turner and Alexa Shepard added a second and fourth place finish, respectively, in the 400-meter run. K Olson placed third in the 300-meter hurdles.

Katie Turner took second in the 200-meter dash and Kruse added a third place finish. In the 1600-meter relay the team of Kruse, Alexa Snesrud, Katie Turner and Stone finished first.

"I am a little surprised how the kids have responded after losing last season (to Covid)," said Prosen. "As we are out there it seems business as usual, they are improving, and they are hungry for more. Our boys are a little deeper than our girls, but both have plenty of high-end athletes. We are hoping to be healthy and hopefully our team will keep getting better and better."

On Tuesday, May 4, both Cloquet teams won decisively at a triangular meet in Superior. The girls team won with 115 points to 48 for Hermantown and 22 for Superior. The boys scored 116 points versus 38 for Superior and 32 for Hermantown.