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Panther girls earn second trip to state

Ely’s Pierce, Prigge qualify for State Meet

Tom Klein and Alyosia Power
Posted 10/31/14

CLOQUET – The South Ridge-North Woods cross country girls team earned their second consecutive trip to state, claiming second place in the Section 7A Cross Country Meet here on …

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Panther girls earn second trip to state

Ely’s Pierce, Prigge qualify for State Meet

Posted

CLOQUET – The South Ridge-North Woods cross country girls team earned their second consecutive trip to state, claiming second place in the Section 7A Cross Country Meet here on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Ely’s Teddy Pierce and Seth Prigge also qualified for state as individual runners. The top eight runners not on the first- or second-place teams advance to the State Meet, which will be held on Saturday, Nov. 1 at St. Olaf College at Northfield. The meet begins at 11 a.m.

Led by junior Gracelynn Otis, who took 11th place and completed the four-kilometer course in 16 minutes, 8.7 seconds, South Ridge-North Woods finished just nine points behind first-place CrosbyIronton, which won the meet with 99 points.

“We thought we had a chance to win the meet, but there are so many variables that you can’t control,” said the Panthers’ Head Coach Jeremy Polson. “We take a more conservative approach and work our way into the meet. Some of the other teams go all out from the start and run at a quicker pace for the whole race.”

In addition to Otis, South Ridge-North Woods runners included sophomore Anna Hall (15th place, 16:22.3), seventh-grader Darionna Campbell (23rd place, 16:51.8), seventh-grader Hannah Simek (24th place, 16:52.6), eighth-grader Lily Hall (35th place, 17:21.7), junior Elizabeth Poskie (56th place, 18:05), and junior Rachel Land (87th place, 19:47.4).

There was plenty of competition at the meet. In addition to Crosby-Ironton, Polson expected challenges from Esko, which has the top runner in the state in senior Kailee Kiminski, and from Ely.

As it turned out, Esko finished fourth in the meet while Ely took fifth with 147 points. Esko’s Kiminski, who took first in the meet with a time of 15:10.3 will advance to state as an individual, Ely sophomore Erin Bianco, who finished in ninth place with a time of 15:52.9, just missed the cut for individuals

The Tower area will be represented at state, however. Juanita Gawboy, who resides in Tower, came in seventh with a time of 15:49 for the Northern Lights Community School.

In addition to Bianco, Ely girl runners at the Section 7A Meet included freshman Ryne Prigge (19th place, 16:37.8), senior Caroline Homer (20th place, 16:38.9), freshman Morgan Moravitz (42nd place, 17:34.3), freshman Emma Terwilliger (57th place, 18:05.9), freshman Anna Nelson (68th place, 18:39.7) and sophomore Taryn Osthoff (80th place, 20:06.1).

Polson said it helped that most of his team was intact from last year when South Ridge-North Woods won the Section 7A Meet.The Panthers have been one of the top teams in Section 7A for several seasons, finishing in the top three places at the Section 7A Meet for the last four years.

The team has earned top marks in the classroom, as well. For the second year in a row, the team took home the Minnesota State High School Coaches Association’s Gold Award for their grade-point average as a team. The girls team posted a GPA of 3.93 while the boys team had a GPA of 3.81.

Coach Polson also was honored for his efforts. For the second consecutive year, he was named Coach of the Year for Section 7A.

Polson said his team would like to best Crosby-Ironton in the State Meet, but is just hoping to finish well.

Although the Panthers did not field a varsity boys team at the Section 7A Meet, Ely took seventh place in the boys division with 180 points. Proctor dominated the race, coming in first with 50 points.

Sophomore Pierce finished in sixth place with a time of 17.31.1 and qualified for state as an individual.

About 50 meters into the race, Pierce was cutting into the middle of the pack when his teammate, junior Seth Prigge, steppped on the back of his shoe.

“It was half on and half off, and I was like, ‘There’s no way I can run like this.’ So I kicked it off,” said Pierce. “Once I realized I could run with one shoe, I decided I was going to try for state.”

Pierce and Proctor runner Kody Stevens were neck and ncek, gunning for the finish. Stevens pulled ahead for fifth place.

The close contest has given Pierce a goal for state. “I’m going to find him and beat him,” said Pierce.

Joining Pierce at state will be Prigge, who took 13th place in 17:57.

Ely’s other runners on the boys team included sophomore Simon Stouffer (35th place, 18:51.6), freshman Ben Gustafson (59th place, 19:40), senior Elliott Omerza (67th place, 19:46.1), senior Ben Gantt (68th place, 19:47.1) and junior Sam Terwilliger (73rd place, 19:59.3).

Both Ely boys and girls teams were recognized with the Gold Award, given to teams with a grade point average of 3.75 or above.

The girls finished with a 3.96 average and the boys with 3.95.

Panthers, North Woods, cross country