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Ely track teams loaded with depth as season begins on time
In some ways, the 2024 high school track season is already better for the Ely Timberwolves than it was in 2023.
Despite a late-March snowstorm, weather conditions this year have been much better than they were a year ago, when the Wolves were unable to compete the entire month of April.
This season is beginning on time, starting with a Thursday event at Chisholm that was completed after deadline.
Both Ely teams have high hopes for the new year and are buoyed by big numbers, with roughly 40 girls participants and 30 boys.
That list includes some impressive returning varsity talent, including defending section discus champion Kaylin Visser and thirdplace distance runner Molly Brophy, both freshmen, on the Ely girls team.
The girls are led by a new coach, with Jill Ellerbroek moving up from an assistant role last year to take the head position vacated by Eliza Vistica.
Longtime head coach Will Helms is back to coordinate the boys team, which has a slew of returning section qualifiers and several athletes who had big seasons for Ely’s Nordic Wolves.
On the girls’ side, Ellerbroek can build around one of the area’s elite throwers in Visser, who won the Section 7A title as an eighth-grader and finished 11th in the state. She joins her older sister Sarah, who battled injuries a year ago but was a section triple jump qualifier two years ago, among a host of Wolves with section meet experience.
Ely also returns Brophy, who took third in the section in both the 1,600 and 3,200 runs and has state cross country meet experience.
The girls also bring back the bulk of a four-by-200 relay team that was heavy on youth a year ago, boasting Violet Udovich, Lydia Shultz and Audrey Kallberg.
Senior Grace LaTourell is back after making sections in both the 200 and 400 dash while distance section qualifier Anna Dunn also returns. Leo Stalmer is the only returning senior for a still young but deep boys team.
“He was a section guy in both hurdles races,” said Helms. “We expect a lot of him. He’s the captain of the team and training the hardest and we expect big things from him.”
Junior Eli Olson is back after reaching the section finals as a triple jumper in 2023.
“Eli has probably got as much potential as anybody on the team to make it to state,” said Helms. “He’s growing into his body and has done some strength training. He’ll be in the long, the triple and maybe the 400 meters.”
Helms will also look to several other juniors to score
Ely Timberwolves Track - 2024 Schedule
April 11: at Chisholm Early Bird April 22: at Deer River April 29: at International Falls Invite May 4: Doc Savage, at Hibbing May 9: Belluzzo (Boys) at Chisholm, Tingstad Invite (Girls) at Hibbing May 14: Iron Range Conf. at Rock Ridge May 18: Kerzie Invite at Rock Ridge May 23: Subsection Meet at Aurora, 10 a.m.
May 30: Section 7A Meet at Duluth, 10 a.m.
points in meets. They provide plenty of flexibility for relay placement and can also complete individually.
The group includes Dylan Durkin, Wyatt Mattson, Milo McClelland and Tory Hughley.
“They’re all good experienced track guys,” said Helms.
So too is junior Silas Solum, who was part of a section placing relay team last year and also reached the 7A event in the 800 meters.
Several freshmen also figure into the mix, including Bryan Cook, Caleb Larson, Oliver Hohenstein, Mason Kurnava and Brooks Brenny, and two eighth-graders - Wyatt Devine and Blake Houde - are also in the mix.
The track teams are enjoying what figures to be a much easier season to work with - given the weather.
“Last year we spent all of April indoors,” said Helms. “This is a whole different deal. We will have the first meet of the year where last year we didn’t have a meet in April because of snow and rain. This year we can develop guys at a proper pace.”
