Plenty of PRs at Track & Field Polar Conference Meet

The Cook County Vikings Track and Field athletes traveled to Two Harbors for the Polar League Conference Championship on Wednesday, May 26. 
 

Track & Field Coach April Wahlstrom said it was a beautiful day, although a little windy, which challenged the athletes a bit. But overall, Wahlstrom said it was a great day with a number of participants getting their season's best in different events. 
 

WTIP asked Coach Wahlstrom for some highlights, starting with senior Hailey Smith, who throws discus and shot put. This will be her last year and she is having a good season. Her best event at the conference was shotput with a throw of 27. 
 

The relay teams did well. That was especially significant, said Wahlstrom as the usual top runners didn't take part in relays so they could better prep for individual events. Despite being less experienced, the relay teams all placed and scored team points. 

Molly Levine ended came in fifth place in the 400 at 67 seconds. 
 

Coach Wahlstrom said the 800-meter race was very interesting to watch. The racers started out slow and bunched together. Some racers got boxed in and it was exciting to see who could stretch that out and go. Wahlstrom said it was almost like a 300-meter race at the end. Viking runners Anna Hay and Malin Anderson fought their way to 7th and 8th. 
 

There was some awesome competition in the mile race. Hay and Anderson both got PR. Hay was in 6th place with a time of 5.55 and Anderson came in 8th with a time of 5:56. 
 

A first for runner Olya Wright was the two-mile race and she did really well with a time of 13:16. 
 

On the boys' side, Kevin Viren ran an 8th place finish in the 800-meter race. That race followed his mile effort and unfortunately, he did not yet reach his goal of being under five minutes. The team is rooting for him to do that at the next meet. 
 

The boys' 4.8 relay team came in 3rd place and they all ran PRs. That team was Brayden Schmidt, Norah Hausner, Tanner DeBoer, and Kian Seline. 
 

There are a lot of new participants in jump events, but they are making great strides. The top jumpers for this meet were Danny Berka and Noah Hausner in the triple jump. They both reached PRs. 
 

Sofia Sheehan jumped for the first time in the long jump. She reached 10.9. 
 

To see online results from the Polar League competition, click here. 
  

The Cook County Track team is taking part in the Subsection Meet in Esko on June 3. There are varying times for different events, but the meet starts at 10 a.m. Subsections are followed by sections on June 10 and the State Track and Field Meet on June 18.