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Published November 10, 2011, 02:59 PM

Esko’s Kallyn Knutson finishes All-State, then helps team get to state

Steve Knutson was honest when asked how many miles he put on his family’s van in their all-day, statewide journey Saturday. “I didn’t really keep track,” he said, as he quickly estimated their trek from Esko to Northfield, Minn., then up to Grand Rapids and back home to Esko. “I’m guessing between 550 and 600. It wasn’t too bad.”

By: Tyler Korby, Pine Journal

GRAND RAPIDS – Steve Knutson was honest when asked how many miles he put on his family’s van in their all-day, statewide journey Saturday.

“I didn’t really keep track,” he said, as he quickly estimated their trek from Esko to Northfield, Minn., then up to Grand Rapids and back home to Esko. “I’m guessing between 550 and 600. It wasn’t too bad.”

That’s because Steve and his wife, Kari, traveled across Minnesota to watch their daughter, Kallyn, compete in Saturday afternoon’s state girls cross country championships in Northfield, before speeding back north to get her to the Esko volleyball team’s Section 7AA championship match that evening.

Kallyn, a junior, placed 24th that day en route to earning All-State status, then caught her breath, congratulatedher teammates and sped back north to help the Eskomos to a state volleyball berth in a sweep of Mora that night with 19 digs as a libero.

It wasn’t her first time balancing both acts – Kallyn showed up midway through the section final when she was a freshman reserve in 2009.

“We were concerned that Kallyn wasn’t going to make it,” Esko volleyball teammate Stephanie Bandelin told the Duluth News Tribune. “But she finished well at state, then came up here and did a great job passing and owned the court.”

“I waited for all of my teammates to finish, told them good job and that I’m leaving. I had all of my stuff at the start line, so I just left,” recalled 17-year-old Kallyn. “It’s been a long day, but a good day. I can’t complain.”

The busy lifestyle isn’t foreign to the Knutson family. Kallyn’s older sisters, Kylee and Kaycee, were also on the run playing volleyball and running cross country for Esko, too.

Kallyn followed the same path.

“She’s kind of like the energizer bunny, she just goes, and goes and goes,” said Kari, a former cheerleader who admitted she’d never be able to do both in the same day like Kallyn. “And I never have to wake her up.”

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