Rush City successful at Swain

The Rush City cross country teams made a decent showing at the Swain cross country meet last Saturday in Duluth.
Despite the gloomy, grey skies, cold weather and threats of rain, the Tigers ran along with hundreds of other runners in the annual meet touted as a preview to regional and state competitions.
Thousands gathered on the Enger Golf Course overlooking Lake Superior and cheered on several Rush City and North Branch runners as they competed for the best times.
In varsity girls competition, Kayla Witte finished in 39th at 17:25, Mary Jo Youngbauer finished in 164th and Britta Johnson came in 170th. Nearly 190 girls ran in the Rush City section varsity run.
No varsity boys competed on Saturday, but the junior varsity race was packed with Tigers.
Of 93 runners, junior Dustin Hecht took the top spot for the Tigers, finishing 10th at 20:08.
Josh Erickson was 36th, Wes Campbell was 39th, Mike Wuorinen finished 61st, Zach Sowman was 62nd, Joe Widman was 86th and Lee Robinson was 92nd.
Other races were divided into age groups with sophomores competing against each other and seventh- and eighth-graders making another large group.
In the girls sophomore race, Christine Frandsen came in 5th of 68 runners at 18:04. Becky Kemen pulled in not far behind, taking the 13th place at 18:55. Kayla Johnson finished 54th.
For the sophomore boys race, Noah Reichert finished 24th of 77 runners at 16:34, Jared Dahlberg was 25th and came in one second later at 16:35. Justin Jacobson was 33rd at 17:00.
Brittany Frandsen was 5th of 112 runners and finished at 11:38 in the seventh- and eighth-grade race. Amber Hoffman was 13th at 12:02. Samantha Gorman was 29th and finished at 12:22.
Kelly Moore was 43rd, Janet Kemen was 49th, Derra Gullickson was 77th, Charlene Hebert was 94th and Meredee Refshaw was 99th.
In the 7th-8th grade boys race, Josh Dahl was 21st of 145 runners, Zach Johnson was 40th, Jon Meis was 62nd and Andrew Steltz was 133rd.
Coach Kevin Smith said he was happy with the places the runners received. He said the Swain course, which winds through the fairways and greens of the hilly golf course is one of the toughest courses all season.
The team took to the Swain course after a win at the Mora Invitational on Oct. 1.
The Tiger girls varsity team took first place with 19 points, blowing away Mora which took 57.
Several teams are invited to compete in the Mora event each year, but Smith said conflicting schedules resulted in several incompletes for other teams.
A total of 27 girls varsity runners participated. All seven Tiger girls runners were in the top 14.
Kayla Witte was 1st at 16:12, Christine Frandsen was 2nd at 16:54, Becky Kemen was 4th at 17:21, Brittany Frandsen was 5th at 17:35, Amber Hofman was 7th at 18:02, Mary Jo Youngbauer was 10th at 18:12 and Britta Johnson was 14th at 19:01.
Hoffman appeared in her first varsity meet, Smith said and she proved that she can compete with the older athletes. Hoffman is in eighth grade.
In the boys varsity competition, Dustin Hecht was 13th at 20:03 and Josh Erickson came in 18th at 21:02.
For the 7th-8th grade race, Samantha Gorman came in 2nd for the girls and Janet Kemen finished 3rd.
For the boys 7th-8th grade race, Josh Dahl was 1st and Zach Johnson was 2nd.
The team was scheduled to run at Amery on Tuesday afternoon. The meet is the last for the season.
Section competition starts Oct. 15, but the time and location have yet to be announced.

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