The wind was blowing, the course was wet, but the spirits of those running in Saturday's 57th Annual Swain Invitational Cross Country Meet in Duluth was not dampened. The event held at Enger Park Golf Course featured over 2,700 runners from 80 schools who competed in the different classes and age ranges with varsity girls running 4K events and varsity boys running 5K events.
Carlton County's top finisher was Bryan Lindquist of Esko who finished second in the boys Class A race just 5 seconds behind winner Andrew Hoffman of St. Anthony's Village.
Plainview-Elgin-Millville was the Class A team champion for the boys with Holy Family Catholic second. Esko finished highest among area schools with a respectable 11th place finish in the 32-team field.
Esko's Raleigh Goessling helped out in the scoring for the Eskomos with a 10th place finish. Tony Froemling of AlBrook had a strong 20th place finish and Travis Wagers of Moose Lake-Willow River took 48th overall in the 220-person field.
Esko's Kaycee Knutson had a big showing in the Class A girls race with a fourth place finish. Marissa Janning of Watertown-Mayer won the event.
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Holy Family Catholic was crowned Class A girls team champion with Mt. Lake-Butterfield-Odin taking second and Mora third.
Neysa Granholm, also of Esko, had a solid race by finishing 33rd in the field of 195 runners.
The girls Class AA team title was taken by Grand Rapids with Visitation taking second and Moorhead third. Cloquet did not have enough runners finish to vie for a team championship.
Morgan Illikainen of Grand Rapids was the individual winner with a time of 16:16.9 and her teammate Marissa Salo was a strong ninth. Cloquet's Becca Sorenson was among the leaders in the race, but ended up 17th in the 186 runner field.
Minneapolis South took top honors in the boys Class AA race with individual honors going to Robei Kebede of South in a time of 16:40.8.
As a team, Cloquet took 20th in the 27-team field with Austin DeRusha taking top honors among Jacks runners with a 52nd place finish. Overall 186 runners competed in the Class AA boys event.
