Top-10 finishes galore in Class A

Kerry Rodd

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Carlton County was well-represented last weekend at the Class A Minnesota State High School League's boys and girls track and field state meet at St. Michael-Albertville High School. While there was no state champion from the area this season, a number of athletes made the finals and medaled for being in the top 10 places.

Barnum's Annaka Bogenholm had the best state meet of all area athletes by finishing third in the discus in Class A and seventh in the shot put.

"Annaka puts in a lot of time and effort, so it was good to see her work pay off," said Barnum girls track coach Jill Litfin. "Sam Goodwin, who graduated from Barnum, has come back to volunteer with our weight throwers, and he deserves a ton of credit for how well they performed."

Barnum's Jake Liimatainen was seventh in the shot and Mark Hall was 21st in the discus.

"Jake had a personal record on his last throw of the meet," said Barnum boys track coach Rich Newman.

Emaleigh Olesiak of Cromwell-Wright nailed a ninth place in the 1600-meter run and then tacked on an 11th-place finish in the 3200-meter run for the Cards to end her high school running career.

"Em has been to State six times in her track and cross country career," said Cards coach Dave Foster. "The best part of this year was, she saved her best for last. Not only did she finish with her first medal, but she also ran the fastest times in her career this season."

Carlton/Wrenshall also had good performances from Jack Riley, who took 14th in the 3200-meter run. South Ridge runner Alex Burkhardt finished two places behind Riley for a 16th-place finish.

"In the finals of the 3200, Jack was running pretty well, but he had one bad lap on lap 7," said Raptors co-head coach Kevin Olesen. "Our team from sections was down a member because Dylan Manning shipped out to basic training, but we still ran a respectable time."

Riley was also on the 16th-place 4x800-meters Raptors relay team with Dave Tuttle, Gavin Gibson and A.J. Olesen.

Cromwell-Wright also had a team in the boys 4x800-meters relay and fared four places better than Carlton/Wrenshall, 12th in a time of 8:24.01 for Phoenix Anderson, Braham Jordan, Lane Gervais and Dylan Nyberg.

In the girls 800, Raptors Brielle Simula ran well. "She didn't make the finals, but it was a good learning experience for her," Olesen said.

Moose Lake/Willow River medaled in the 4x200-meters

relay as the team of Layne Radzak, Chase Clausen, Jaxsyn Schmidt and Kaden Robbins ran an impressive time of 1:32.17, good for eighth place.

Elliott Wasche of ML/WR had a 17th-place finish in the 1600-meter run.

Esko had the most qualifiers among area teams in the meet.

Esko's Ryan Sturm had a podium finish in the long jump by taking sixth place. He was also part of the seventh-place 4x100-meters relay team along with Dalton Spindler, Jace Stewart and Jacion Owens.

"I was very pleased with the way the boys team performed," said Esko boys coach Gary Beaudot. "Ryan's (Sturm) long jump personal record came at a good time on his third attempt in the preliminaries. I was also pleased with the 4x100 relay team's best performance of the season in the finals."

Other Esko athletes who made the finals were Braedyn Male in the high jump, 13th; Spencer Hipp in the pole vault, 17th; Reese Kuklinski, 11th in the girls shot put; Gianna Madill 19th in girls high jump; and Whitney Hanson, 20th in the girls triple jump.