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The Ely Timberwolves played to their strength at subsection competition.
While no Ely athlete grabbed a first place finish and only junior Silar Solum bagged a second, the Wolves nonetheless qualified all of their relay teams for the Section 7A meet, held Thursday at Duluth.
Two Ely relays took third and two others were fourth, giving the Wolves a clean sweep of section qualification in those events at the 7A North Subsection Meet, held May 23 at Aurora.
“I think the hallmark of this team is though we don’t have a standout athlete, we’ve very strong together,” said Ely Head Coach Will Helms. “We showed that with the relays. It was a really good day. Going into the meet we had a goal of advancing all four relays and we did it.”
Helms added that junior Milo McClelland “was a big part of that.”
“Milo anchored three of those relays, and if you look closely at the results in some we got by with a tenth of a second,” said Helms. “He did a great job anchoring those three relays.”
McClel la nd joi ned freshmen Brooks Brenny and Oliver Hohenstein and eighth-grader Wyatt Devine on the third-place four-by-800 (9:14.43) foursome, and he was with fellow juniors Dylan Durkin, Tory Hughley and Wyatt Mattson on both the fourthplace four-by-100 (48.13) and four-by-200 (1:40.6) combinations.
Also moving on was Ely’s four-by-400 unit of Eli Olson, Caleb Larson, Solum and Leo Stalmer, which took third in 3:47.4.
Individually, Solum scored a second-place finish in the 800 run in 2:13.05 to pick up his team’s best showing of the day.
“Silas had a good run,” said Helms. “And he was coming off of two or three days with a fever so for him to perform was good but to finish as well as he did was excellent.”
In the hurdles, Stalmer moved on in both the 110 and 300 meter events.
The senior was third in the 110 in 17.81 seconds and fourth in the 300 (44.51).
“Leo has run 43, low 42s so he has probably the best chance of anybody on the team to advance to state,” said Helms. “He is a really hard worker.”
Durkin had a stellar day at subsections, punching his ticket to sections not only in two relays but by taking fifth in the 200 dash (24.28) and sixth in the high jump (5-4).
Olson moved on with two fifth-place finishes in jump events, taking fifth in the long jump with a personal- best 18-3, and going 37-4 in the triple jump.
Also qualifying individually was Hohenstein. The freshman ran a personal-best 5:12 in the 1,600, ending up sixth in the subsection.
As a team, the Wolves were fifth among 11 schools, tying International Falls with 58 points and trailing fourthplace Cook County by 10. Mesabi East racked up 128 points to win the meet.
Other top-12 finishes for Ely came in these events:
• 200 dash - 12. Larson, 25.39;
• 400 dash - 9. Olson, 56.14;
• 800 run - 11. Devine, 2:25.36;
• 1,600 run - 9. Brenny, 5:16.54;
• Triple jump - 11. Solum, 34-8;
• Shot put - 11. Mattson, 34-7;
• Discus - Mattson, 90-9.
