REGIONAL- Six area cross country runners— three from Ely and three from North Woods— will be competing in the Class A state championships in Minneapolis this Saturday after turning in strong qualifying performances at the Section 7A meet in Coleraine last Thursday.
Ely senior Caid Chittum turned in the top performance of the day, rounding the Eagles Ridge Golf Course 5K circuit with a season-best time of 17:13.9 to finish third in the 112-runner event. Right on his heels in fourth place was North Woods senior Alex Burckhardt, who paced his South Ridge Panthers squad to the boys team title with a time of 17:14.4.
It will be Burckhardt’s fourth consecutive trip to the state championship meet, and the third straight trip for Chittum.
North Woods junior Lincoln Antikainen and eighth-grader Kahlil Lightfeather-Spears were also instrumental in the Panthers’ win that earned them both tickets to the state meet. Antikainen finished 15th with a time of 17:56.6, and Lightfeather-Spears was right behind in 16th with a time of 18:00.6. Both runners competed in last year’s state meet.
Two other Ely boys finished in the top quarter of the field but did not qualify to run at state. Silas Solum placed 26th with a time of 18:20.6, edging out teammate Brooks Brenny who ran 18:22.6 and finished 27th.
On the girls’ side, the Wolves had two individual qualifiers for state. A fourth-place finish by Molly Brophy earned the Ely sophomore her fourth trip to the big event, circuiting the course with a time of 20:05. She first went to state as a seventh grader in 2021. Freshman Mattie Lindsay scored a trip to Minneapolis with an 11th-place finish and a time of 20:37.6.
The South Ridge girls couldn’t duplicate last year’s team-qualifying effort, and North Woods freshman Zoey Burckhardt and senior Addison Burckhardt came up short in the running for individual berths. Zoey Burckhardt finished 17th with a time of 21:06.7, and Addison Burckhardt placed 23rd with a time of 21:28.7.