Ely runners sweep Deer River team titles

REGIONAL- The Ely boys and girls cross country teams each ran away with first-place
finishes Tuesday at the Deer River Invitational, held at the White Oak Antique Tractor
Club.
The boys dominated a 10-team field, placing all five scoring runners among the top 15
and finishing with 34 points. Mountain Iron-Buhl was a distant second with 96 points,
followed by Lake of the Woods/Rainy River with 105.
Blake Houde led the Wolves from the opening gun, winning the boys race in 17:36.7.
Wyatt Devine was close behind in second place at 17:39.1, giving Ely a commanding
start in the team competition.
Oliver Hohenstein placed sixth in 18:29.8, followed by Grady Anderson in 11th at
19:24.8 and Aksel Skustad in 14th at 19:33.1.
The Ely girls also claimed a decisive team win, scoring 31 points to finish well ahead of
East Central’s 64. International Falls was third with 76 points in the five-team girls
competition.
The girls race included several schools without enough runners to field a scoring team,
so the official team-score placings differ from the runners’ overall finishing places. Ely’s
top five scorers all finished among the first 15 runners in the field.
Molly Brophy led Ely in fourth place with a time of 21:40.2. Mattie Lindsay placed
seventh in 22:21.0, followed by Isabella Macho in ninth at 22:54.2.
Katy Brophy finished 13th in 23:49.1, and Lucy Dunn rounded out Ely’s scoring five in
15th place at 24:43.5.