On Thursday, October 10th the North Shore Storm Cross Country team hosted the Polar League Conference meet at Pincushion Mtn in Grand Marais. The Storm raced against other Polar League teams, including Cromwell, Carlton/ Wrenshall, McGregor, Southridge, Esko, and Moose Lake/Willow River.
The North Shore Storm is made up of athletes from Silver Bay, Cook County, and Two Harbors. Silver Bay joined the co-op in 2019, with two runners: Ryan and Nate Bilben. Nate was the first Silver Bay runner to advance to the State meet in decades. He now runs for the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The Silver Bay team has since grown to 17 runners and contributes many of the top runners to the Storm. The Storm is coached by head coach April Wahlstrom, assisted by Emma Spoon, Kerri Bilben, and Max Kelley.
The Junior High boys dominated their race, placing five runners in the top 10. All-Conference honors go to every runner who places in the top 10 in their race. The Storm’s own Leif Lindstrom won the JH Boys race with a course record crushing time of 8:39.5 for the 2.6k course. The old record was 9:00.9. Fellow teammates and Silver Bay runners Sam Swartz (9:09.8) and Atley Beckstrand (9:24.6) were close behind in 3rd and 4th place respectively, and earning All-Conference honors.
The JH Boys team won the Conference title with a near perfect score of 16. In Cross Country a perfect team score is 15, which means the top five scoring runners are from the same team.
On the JH Girls’ side, Silver Bay’s own Sophia Schut defended her Conference title, breaking her own Conference record and setting a new all-time course record at 9:54.0 for 2.4k. The JH Girls also won the team title with a score of 21.
The Storm’s Chance Jacobsen won the JV boys race with a time of 19:32.5 for the 5k course with Silver Bay’s Soren Swanson also earning All-Conference honors in 6th place.
In the JV girls race Maddie Linn placed 5th with a time of 25:48.5.
In a very close Varsity boys race, the Storm’s top runner, Nick Swartz from Silver Bay, placed 7th with a time of 17:47.9, which was only 30 seconds behind the winner. The Varsity boys came in 2nd, behind a very tough Southridge team.
The Storm is working toward the Section 7A meet on Thursday, October 24 in Coleraine. Section 7A is one of the toughest Sections in the state. The boys team has a chance to advance as a team, but is racing against outstanding teams from Southridge, GNK, and Ely. The top two teams, plus top 7 runners who are not part of the top two teams, advance to the State meet. Individual runners looking to advance include Silver Bay’s Nick Swartz, Sophia Schut, and Sierra Geatz, along with Two Harbors Eli Smith and Cook County’s Leif Lindstrom. When you see the athletes out running make sure to cheer them on.
