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Brophy second in girls meet
Caid Chittum has had an impressive high school cross country career - one that has included multiple trips to state competition.
Yet the Ely senior may have had not better day than what he had Tuesday at Hoyt Lakes.
Chittum ran with a pack of talented Greenway athletes, and beat them all down the home stretch of the 5,000 meter race at the Iron Range Conference Championship.
In the process, Chittum took first and claimed the IRC individual title on a solid all-around day for the Wolves.
Both Ely teams took second, with sophomore Molly Brophy finishing as the runner- up in the girls race.
Yet the highlight of the day was definitely Chittum, according to head coach Jayne Dusich.
“Caid ran the best race I’ve ever seen him run,” said Dusich. “He stayed in the front with the Greenway guys. They have five of them but he stayed with them and beat the Greenway kid by a second. It was a tough race.”
Chittum completed the course in 17:21.19 to get the win, while Ely senior Silas Solum was also pivotal to the Wolves’ second-place finish.
Solum was seventh overall in 18:09.10, with teammates Otto Devine (10th, 18:27.64), Brooks Brenny (12th, 18:30.56) and Mason Kurnava (13th, 18:45.07) not far behind.
Senior Eli Olson was 15th overall (18:53.91) while Milo McClelland took 19th (19:44.95) in a field of 54.
Greenway easily won the team title, but Ely was a solid second and well ahead of Mesabi East, International Falls and Chisholm.
The girls event went down to the wire, with Greenway edging the Wolves by a mere two points to take the team championship.
Brophy settled for a runner- up showing as well, placing only behind Chisholm’s Olivia Pascuzzi and finishing in 19:51.79.
Freshman Mattie Lindsay took seventh (20:48.64) and sophomore Isabella Macho bagged an 11th-place finish (22:08.51).
Also making the top-20 were Ely’s Elsa Ellerbroek (13th, 23:07.82), Katy Brophy (17th, 24:15.80), Lillie O’Neill (18th, 24:46.55) and Anna Ziegenmeyer (19th, 24:47.93).
Ely had both the IRC girls and boys champion in the junior high competition.
Seventh-grader Mirabella Lepisto won the 2,600 meter girls event in 12:00.63, with Moxie Lindsay (13:14.40) and Sally Dunn (13:43.89) next in line to give the Wolves a one-two-three finish.
It was the same among the boys, as Wyatt Devine was first in 9:44.52, followed by Grant Chittum (10:36.53).
Ely claimed the top five junior high boys spots, with Blake Houde (third, 11:04.51), Oren Solum (fourth, 11:04.54) and Eli Littler (fifth, 11:08.99) following.
The Wolves have one more regular season meet Oct. 15 at International Falls - before section competition takes place the following week (Oct. 24).
“We’re finally getting there,” said Dusich. “We still have some kids coming off of being sick, so we’re not totally healthy. Hopefully by sections everyone will be feeling good.”
Ely Invitational
More than 400 runners from 14 schools turned out in Ely on a beautiful fall day for the Oct. 3 Ely Invitational.
Several larger schools took part in the event with the Ely girls taking fourth as a team, and the boys ended up fifth.
Individual results included: Boys Varsity
19. Chittum, 17:50.2;
30. Solum, 18:15.1;
36. Otto Devine, 18:33.9;
38. Kurnava, 18:37.1;
45. Olson, 18:47.7;
55. Brooks Brenny,
19:15.1;
60. Dylan Durkin, 19:27.1;
66. McClelland, 19:41.1;
68. Oliver Hohenstein,
19:43.5;
70. Aksel Skustad,
19:47.2;
87. Trenton Bishop,
20:13.7;
109. Mason Molden,
20:54.5; Girls Varsity
6. Molly Brophy, 19:41.3;
21. Mattie Lindsay,
20:53.6; 32. Macho, 22:04.7;
38. Katy Brophy, 22:26.7;
44. Ellerbroek, 22:34.6;
64. Brandy Strange,
23:53.1;
67. Ziegenmeyer, 24:08.6;
68. Anna Dunn, 24:11.6;
79. Lillie O’Neill, 24:32.8;
96. Lucy Dunn, 25:35.8;
115. Aila Ha rding,
28:19.9;
123. Ella Littler, 31:26.6.
Boys Junior High
2. Wyatt Devine, 8:46.1;
7. Houde, 9:34.1;
8. Grant Chittum, 9:35.9;
13. Littler, 9:51.1;
18. Oren Solum, 10:06.1;
31. Henry Fetterer, 10:44.3; 32. Liam Kurnava,
10:45.4;
36. Bodin Devine, 10:54;
43. Caleb Ebert, 11:21.2;
74. Owen Kurnava,
14:52.7;
75. Ryker Hart, 15:57.2; Girls Junior High
6. Lepisto, 11:04.5;
13. Moxie Lindsay, 11:20;
26. Sally Dunn, 12:11.5;
37. Jenna Bermel, 13:20.5;
44. Anna Fedder s,
14:22.4;
47. Kaija Swanson,
14:39.5;
50. Kelsie O’Neill,
15:45.1;
51. Alyssa Jones, 17:26.6;.
