DULUTH- North Woods runner Evelyn Brodeen, competing with the South Ridge Panthers, turned in the race of her life last week, winning the Section 7A cross-country meet and qualifying for state competition.
Brodeen, who two weeks earlier won the Polar League championship, was primed to contend for the championship, staged at the Lester Park Golf Course in Duluth. Her pre-race strategy for the 5K race was to stay in touch with the lead pack of runners early, forge to the lead late, and use a strong kick at the finish. It worked like a charm.
“We got to mile two and I was in the pack,” Brodeen said. “And then with one mile left I was in front of the pack. With 800 meters left it was me and that Ely girl (eighth-grader Molly Brophy). In the last 400 I was able to stride out and pull ahead.”
Brodeen crossed the finish line barely two seconds ahead of Brophy, winning with a time of 19 minutes, 42.8 seconds. That was 39 seconds faster than her seventh-place finish in last year’s Section 7A meet.
So how did Brodeen go from seventh to first? Lots of hard work in the off-season, she said.
Her close friend and teammate, and last year’s 7A champ, North Woods sophomore Addison Burckhardt, was her summer training partner and an additional source of motivation.
“She was ahead of me a lot last year, then near the end of the year I got closer to her,” Brodeen said. “This summer we trained together a lot, and she helped me set the pace. It was nice to run with her because it makes it easier to train.”
The pair even trained for and ran the Running the Rapids half-marathon in late August in Cohasset, a distance more than four times longer than the 5K races of prep cross country.
All the work certainly paid off, and to a degree that even surprised Brodeen a bit.
“I knew I was going to be a little better, but I didn’t think I would improve as much as I did,” she said.
Panthers Head Coach Jeremy Polson said Brodeen may also have surprised her competitors.
“We put together a more competitive race schedule this year, so from the outside looking in, I don’t think anyone but her inner circle figured she had a chance to win a section title and that is exactly what we wanted,” Polson said. “She is a disciplined runner and uses her patience to work her way up to the front of the pack. Once she breaks away it is very difficult for anyone to outkick her.”
“The race didn’t even go as planned,” Polson continued. “We figured a girl from Mt. Iron would either control the lead pack or run away from everyone and Evelyn would have to try to catch her down the final straightaway.”
Brodeen will have familiar company at this Saturday’s state meet. North Woods sophomore and teammate Alex Burckhardt qualified with a strong second-place showing in the boys’ race, clocking in at 17:13.4. Burckhardt never finished lower than seventh in regular-season competition.
“On paper we had him finishing as high as second and he was able to achieve that,” Polson said. “He went out in second place from the gun and never let off the gas the entire race.”
It will be the second trip for both to the state meet at St. Olaf College in Northfield. Brodeen went to the meet last year as part of the South Ridge team and placed 44th out of 156 competitors. Burckhardt qualified last year as an individual runner and placed 75th out of 157 runners.