The 2023 North Shore Storm Cross Country team is nearing the end of their season. The team is composed of athletes from Silver Bay, Two Harbors, and Cook County. Silver Bay rejoined the co-op back in 2019 with just two runners: Ryan and Nate Bilben. Since then, the Silver Bay group has grown to 15 runners. Overall the Storm has a young team, which is good as many runners have been battling injuries for most of the season.
Last Thursday the Storm hosted the Polar League Conference meet at Pincushion Mountain in Grand Marais, MN. Despite a sunny and cool forecast, most of the races had to be run in the rain. The team still had a successful race with both the boys and girls JH teams winning the team title.
On the individual side for the Silver Bay runners, 6th Grader Sam Swartz won the JH Boys race while 7th Grader Sophia Schut won the JH Girls race and set a new JH Girls Conference record (10:19) in the process.
Also earning JH All-Conference honors are 6th Grader Danielle Sohr (3rd) and 8th Grader Atley Beckstrand (8th). Sophomore Nick Swartz earned 7th place and All-Conference honors in the boys Varsity race, breaking the 18 minute mark coming in at 17:57. Nick has had a stellar season coming in as the teams top runner in the majority of races. Freshman Sierra Geatz, Silver Bay’s top female runner, has only run in two races as a hip injury is preventing her from racing a full season.
Her goal is to finish the season strong at the Section 7A Section meet on Thursday, October 26 in Coleraine, MN. Good luck, North Shore Storm, as you head into the Section and State meets. The Silver Bay runners are coached by Kerri Bilben and Evan Swartz.
