Irish track finishes best season ever

The 2008 track season came to an end on May 28 on a perfect day for a track meet. The 15 athletes from Maple Lake headed up to St. John’s looking to advance to the state meet.

Erin Northenscold had a very successful section meet, but unfortunately it just wasn’t enough. She just missed out on qualifying in both the 100 and 400 meter races, taking third in the 100m and fourth in the 400m.

“Erin took 7th in state last year and this year her time was better than last year at sections, but there happened to be three girls who ran a faster time. She also took third in the 100, missing state by one place,” said Head Coach Ben Youngs.

That wasn’t the only close call the girls had. Kelsi Pawelk also was only one place away from qualifying in the 200m dash. Erin Dohohue placed 5th in 100m hurdles and the girls’ 4x100m ran a great time in beating the school record, but took 4th.

Individual results for the girls:100 hurdles- 5th E. Donohue; 100m- 3rd E. Northenscold; 4×100-4th (E. Northenscold, E. Donohue, M. Wolff, K. Pawelk); 400m- 4th E. Northenscold; 200m- 3rd K. Pawelk; Triple Jump- 7th E. Northenscold.

The boys had some close calls themselves, but just weren’t good enough to get to the next level.

The boys’ 4x200m relay came only .8 seconds away from advancing to the state meet. The team of Patrick Donohue, Andy Hertwig, Corey Salveson, and Paul Genz broke the school record set earlier this year by about one second, but it just wasn’t quite enough.

“Our boys’ 4×200 was probably the highlight of the meet. They crushed the school record with a 1:33.26, which is seriously low. However, Albany had too much for us. We competed well and would have been competitive at state, but those are the breaks,” said Youngs.

Genz had a busy day as he also competed in the 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, and long jump. He took fourth in the 100m and fifth in the 200m, missing state by two and three places, respectively. Corey Salveson also placed in both of his individual events, taking sixth in the 110 meter hurdles and eighth in the 300 meter hurdles.

Individual results for the boys: 110 hurdles- 6th C. Salveson; 100m- 4th P. Genz; 4×200- 2nd (P. Donohue, A. Hertwig, C. Salveson, P. Genz); 4×100- 6th (R. Triplett, C. Mavencamp, B. Puncochar, P. Donohue); 300 hurdles- 8th C. Salveson; 800m- 8th S. Muller.

Coach Youngs had this to say about his seniors: “This meet marked the end of a number of great careers, as the seniors finished up their athletics at Maple Lake High School.

More information appears in this weeks issue of the Messenger.

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