REGIONAL- The South Ridge Panthers girls cross country team, featuring runners from North Woods School, may just want to make Two Harbors their permanent home after strong performances in varsity meets there in consecutive weeks.
A triangular meet on Sept. 24 saw eighth-grader Addison Burckhardt eclipse the field to win in a time of 21:20, and teammate Evelyn Brodeen, a ninth-grader, wasn’t far behind, finishing third with a time of 21:55. Sophomore Jillian Sajdak placed fifth, running 22:06. Ana Ridge, 12th, 23:32, and Tatum Barto, 13th, 23:37, rounded out the Panthers’ scoring.
North Shore edged the Panthers 29-34 to win the team title, with Carlton/Wrenshall scoring 66 points.
It was the same team order finish on the boys side, with senior Jimmy Zupancich pacing the second-place Panthers by finishing fourth with a time of 18:37. Sam Serna ran 19:37 for seventh, followed by Carter Obey, 19:49, Jonah Burnette, 19:51, and Alex Burckhardt in ninth, tenth, and 11th places, respectively.
On Oct. 1, girls swept the top three places and claimed five of the top seven finishes running against teams from Carlton/Wrenshall and McGregor.
Burckhardt’s winning time of 21:01 was more than a minute faster than runner-up Brodeen, who clocked a solid time of 22:08. Sajdak was close behind in third, 22:24, with Barto placing sixth, 23:11, and Ridge seventh, 23:15.
Zupancich ran slower but placed higher this time, nabbing third with a time of 19:05. Other top finishers for the South Ridge boys were Burnett, seventh, 19:37, Obey, eighth, 19:45, Burckhardt, ninth, 19:46, and Oskar Koivisto, 11th, 20:07.