AURORA- A number of North Woods track athletes cleared the first hurdle for getting to the state track and field meet last Thursday at the 7A subsectional meet in Aurora by turning in qualifying performances for Thursday’s sectional meet in Duluth.
The top seven places in individual events and top four teams in relays qualified to move on, and North Woods boys and girls, competing with the South Ridge Panthers, were scheduled to take their shot at state at UMD.
Alex Burckhardt led the best collective effort by Grizzlies tracksters by taking first place in the 3200 meters with a time of 10:33.60. The Grizzlies had two more top-seven finishers in the race, with Khalil Lightfeather-Spears keeping pace with Burkhardt early before slipping back to sixth with a time of 11:25.86. Lincoln Antikainen was only a few steps behind in seventh with a time of 11:34.54.
Other North Woods boys with qualifying performances included:
100m – Aidan Hartway, seventh, 12.07.
4x400 relay – Jonah Burnett, Aidan Hartway, Quinn FierkeLepp, Sawyer FierkeLepp, fourth, 3:53.21.
4x800 relay – Jonah Burnett, Alex Burckhardt, Tyler Morse, Quinn FierkeLepp, second, 8:58.55.
High jump – Jonah Burnett, sixth, 5’4”.
Girls qualifiers
Izzy Pascuzzi had a big day for the North Woods girls contingent, with three individual top-sevens. Pascuzzi took fifth place in the 200 with a time of 28.75, finished third in long jump with a distance of 15’1.5”, and took sixth in high jump with a leap of 4’6”.
While numerous Panthers turned in qualifying marks, the only other Grizzlies athlete to qualify for sectionals was Addison Burckhardt, who ran on the second-place 4x800 relay team that clocked a time of 10:58.40.
Competition in Duluth was expected to be fierce, as typically only the top two finishers in an event qualify for the state tournament. However, additional athletes can advance if their performances exceed the high bar of state meet qualifying standards.