As the Cloquet boys and girls track teams get ready for the upcoming season all eyes will be on a number of athletes who participated in the state meet last season.
On the girls side, three athletes - Becca Sorenson, Jes Vork and Montana Vichorek - ran in the state meet.
As if to serve notice that they had not skipped a beat, both Sorenson and Vork set records in a meet held at UWS last week. Sorenson set a track record in the 800-meter run while Vork smoked the field in both the 200- and 400-meter dashes, and she set UWS indoor track records in both those events.
"In both of our meets this year so far our goal has been to find a spot for every athlete to run at least one race," mentioned Cloquet coach Tim Prosen. "We tried to spread everyone out in at least one event they may want to try. Our goal was to spread everyone out to have fun and come out of the meet injury free."
Last season Sorenson finished eighth at the state track meet in the 1500-meter run and she has been one of the top cross country runners in Minnesota for the past two seasons.
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Vichorek is a three-time All-Conference selection in the hurdles and jumping events, Sorenson was named two-time All-Conference last year and Vork was named to the team four times last season.
Rachel Tyman, Rachel Lisson, Stephanie Maki, Liz Blinn, Nishah Dupuis, Rose Litke and Leah Hammond round out the senior girls on the Cloquet squad.
"The girls will be competitive this year and they should be one of the better teams in the conference," stated Prosen. "The boys will also be more competitive as a group. I see both teams as better than last year and our numbers will help add some depth."
Darrin Powell will be back again this season after a year in which he was named All-Conference in the high jump to lead the boys team.
"We are returning most of our athletes from the previous years and we are excited to get going," explained Prosen. "Our numbers are great, with over 100 athletes in grades nine to 12 right now."
Rounding out the seniors on the boys team are Andy Kochneff, Sever Lundquist, Ryan Defoe, Robert Ray, Jeremy Crowe, Kevin Robertson, Matt Martineau, Corey Meisner, Steve Leifeste-Gonzales and Brian Buddish.
Pine Journal sports reporter Kerry Rodd can be contacted at: kdrodd@aol.com .
