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Ely girls go with youth at subsections, move many on to 7A
The Ely Timberwolves boast a plethora of young talent - and it was on display at the girls subsection track meet.
Eighth-grader Violet Udovich and freshman Kaylin Visser both grabbed first-place finishes while freshman Lydia Shultz nearly had another at the Section 7A North Subsection event held May 23 at Aurora.
Udovich and Shultz, meanwhile, also formed half of a winning relay combination as the Ely girls had a surprisingly strong day.
The girls had 10 individual qualifying finishes for sections and will also send on two relays to the 7A event, which was slated for Thursday after deadline at Duluth.
“It was a pretty good day,” said Ely Head Coach Jill Ellerbroek. “I thought more advanced than I thought we were going to do.”
Udovich, who had a series of regular season victories under her belt, kept right on rolling at Aurora and sprinted to victory in a time of 1:01.93.
Subsections also brought another victory for Visser, who advanced to state in the discus last year and won that event at subsections with a throw of 101 feet, three inches.
Shultz contended for a subsection title but was edged out via tiebreaker in the high jump. She tied Mesabi East’s Marta Forsline with the highest jump of the day at 4-10, but the subsection title went to Forsline.
Udovich, Visser and Shultz will all take high seeds into the 7A meet and figure to contend for a state berth.
Ely’s four-by-400 relay also figures to be a force in 7A.
The Wolves’ combination of Shultz, Udovich and seniors Sarah Visser and Grace LaTourell cruised to victory with a time of 4:15.86, topping their next nearest foes by almost seven seconds.
Freshman Molly Brophy also claimed a third-place finish in the subsection, taking third in the 1,600 run and moving on with a time of 5:54.65.
Ely’s four-by-200 relay also took third, with La-Tourell, Udovich and Shultz combining with Anna Larson on a time of 1:52.93.
The Wolves had two fourth-place subsection finishes.
Moving on the discus with a fourth was Rachel Carter (84-2), while eighth-grader Mattie Lindsay advanced in the 300 hurdles in 54.49.
Lindsay is a double qualifier for 7A, after taking fifth in the subsection in the 1,600 (5:54.65), while Sarah Visser took sixth in the triple jump (30-0.5) and Addison Forsman placed sixth in the long jump (14-3.25).
Carter grabbed a second 7A berth by taking seventh in the shot put (26-6.5) and seventh-grader Miriam Messerschmidt punched her tickets to sections by taking seventh in the 200 dash (28.89).
Other top-12 subsection finishes went to:
• 100 dash - 9. Messerschmidt, 13.88;
• 200 dash - 11. Larson, 29.18;
• 800 run - 8. Ivy Ohlhauser, 2:48.08;
• 1,600 run - 10. Katy Brophy, 6:11.11;
• Four-by-100 relay - 5. Shultz, Larson, Messerschmidt, Alyssa Ice, 55.81;
• Triple jump - 11. Forsman, 28-10;
• Discus - 9. Ice, 78-7. With 79 points, Ely placed fifth among 11 teams overall.
Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin collected 141 points take first, with International Falls (109), Mesabi East (89.5) and Chisholm (80) in front of the Wolves.
