When I arrived at Two Harbors High School on Friday afternoon, the campus was busy and bustling. Boys and girls soccer were spread across one field. Football players were setting up on another. Parents drifted in and out of the parking lot. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood.
The Storm cross country team was easy to spot. They gathered by the flagpoles, talking with each other and with their coach, waiting for teammates who were still driving in from Silver Bay and Grand Marais. The Storm program stretches across three schools, and the runners travel long distances to practice together.
April Wahlstrom leads the Cook County kids, Evan Swartz coaches Silver Bay, and Max Kelly heads the Two Harbors group.
Swartz said the Silver Bay portion of the co-op has grown steadily over the past several years.
“It was really just two or three runners seven years ago, and now our Silver Bay portion of the team is up to 16 runners,” he said. “It’s been nice. It’s just a great atmosphere.”
Kelly noted this is his fourth year coaching cross country.
“My first year, when I was here, I would always make an effort to talk to the cross-country runners and see how their season was going,” he recalled. “And then it turned out our track coach had retired, and they needed someone to step in and coach the distance runners.”
Understanding the importance of track and field and wanting to ensure the kids still had the option, Kelly agreed to take on coaching track.
“I had a lot of fun doing that, and I didn’t feel too overwhelmed,” he said. “So, I decided to hop in with the cross-country team in the fall too.”
Swartz came into coaching through his own kids and a need for extra help.
“It was nice to have an extra set of coaching hands on staff with the team,” he said. “It’s fun to be able to participate, practice with our team, and be able to watch them grow.”
The Storm has already competed in four meets this season. Kelly said the start has been stronger than expected.
“We’re off to a really strong start this year. Both the boys and girls teams are looking really strong and honestly stronger than I was expecting this early in the season,” he said. “A lot of runners are running up and beyond their potential.”
Swartz said the improvement has been striking on his end as well.
“It’s impressive what they can do from really advancing themselves from the start of a season to the end,” he said.
Swartz credits the progress and success to the athletes’ dedication over the off-season and their efforts in this first part of the school year.
“You don’t make progress unless you’re putting that effort in,” he said. “People logged a lot of miles, and it really shows.”
Team numbers have stayed steady in Two Harbors, though the co-op fluctuates.
“We’re usually roughly around 20 runners down here in Two Harbors,” Kelly explained. “Sounds like numbers are a little down across the board, but it’s always tough when we’re competing with volleyball and swimming and stuff for athletes. I think we’re in a good spot. We’ve got about 60 across the whole team, which is a really healthy-sized team.”
Swartz said the culture is one of the biggest strengths of the program.
“Kids are really supportive of each other,” he said. “They know what it’s like to have to work hard to try to improve and get uncomfortable. It doesn’t matter what level these runners are at. We have some that are completely new to running… and people are there supporting each other. It’s kind of infectious, the positivity within the group.”
Kelly sees the same thing.
“I believe our team has more fun than any other team,” he said. “I think the fun that we have at practice and at meets is unmatched. We have a really good culture here.”
This weekend, the Storm headed to Fort Snelling and took part in one of the biggest meets of the season. The Roy Griak Invitational is one of the largest and most competitive cross-country meets in the country. Hosted by the University of Minnesota at the Fort Snelling Golf Course, it draws hundreds of high school and college teams from across the nation.
The course is wide and rolling, built to hold enormous fields of runners, and the atmosphere feels closer to a festival than a meet. For AA programs like the Storm, Griak offers a rare chance to line up against powerhouse metro schools.
“It’s a really good test to see how we stack up, especially as we’re a AA team, seeing how we stack up against some of the bigger schools,” Kelly said.
He said the runners were more excited than nervous.
“With a meet that big, it’s almost hard to be nervous,” he explained. “But it’s a low-stress, fun way to see how we stack up. So I think the vibes are high right now.”
After the meet, Swartz said the day couldn’t have gone much better.
“The weather was about perfect, and everyone ran great,” he said. “I’d say 90% of the team got their fastest time they’d ever run. It’s phenomenal when you can see that kind of performance at a big meet. Our placing to be 12th of 36 was impressive also with the size of the schools we were competing with.”
He said some runners surprised even themselves.
“They didn’t think that they would be able to get to this point in their career ever,” he said. “We’re only halfway through the season too. I’m just, really, really proud of all the efforts that our athletes have put in.”
The three schools try to practice together about once a week. After Friday’s practice, the team held a team dinner to get ready for the big day.
“They’re going to have a team dinner at one of the athletes’ houses to sort of carb load and then send them off to the meet in style,” Kelly said.
The season has already brought strong performances. Kelly said the Storm nearly beat Duluth East at their home meet.
“It would have been a huge deal because Duluth East is a really, really strong team,” he said. “We were very close to that.”
They placed well at the Dan Conway meet in Superior. And even when the top runners treated the Grand Rapids meet as a workout, the team still finished near the top.
“Most of our top runners ran it as a workout, so they weren’t going all out. And even then, we still placed like 4th or 5th, which is still pretty good,” said Kelly.
He believes the team will only get better.
“I think a lot of our best running is still yet to come,” he said. “I’m excited to see what we do at conference and sections.”
Swartz said the next meet in Hibbing will offer another good comparison point.
“Conditions on that one look like they’re going to be a little wet again, so can go either way,” he said. “It’s always a good showing there. We face a lot of the teams that are within our section. We can understand where we compete apples to apples against everyone.”
Like all the other fall sports, cross country’s season seems to move very quickly. But for now, the Storm runners keep showing up. They show up from Two Harbors. They show up from Silver Bay. They show up from Grand Marais. They show up for the sport, for each other, and for a culture that keeps growing.
