.jpg)
If experience on high school sports’ biggest stage matters, four Ely Timberwolves should be well served this week.
Three members of Ely’s girls track team and one golfer, all with previous state meet experience, will head south this week and take another shot at state competition.
Violet Udovich, Lydia Shultz and Kaylin Visser will all compete in the Girls Class A State Track Meet, which begins Tuesday at St. Michael-Albertville, while DeBeltz is making a return trip to the Class A State Golf Meet, a two-day event that starts Tuesday at Becker.
All four Ely athletes have previous state meet experience.
Udovich, who set section records last week in both the 200 and 400 meter sprints, competed at state last year both as an individual and in a relay, while Shultz was on the same relay.
Visser has previous state meet experience in the discus while DeBeltz was part of the Northeast Range/Ely girls team that qualified for state and placed fifth in 2024.
The experience could play in all of their favor this time around.
DeBeltz, who took fourth in the 7A golf meet as an indivdiual last week, is the only senior in the group.
Udovich claimed section titles in both the 200 and 400 as a freshman while Shultz was the Section 7A high jump champion.
Visser took second in the discus last week in Duluth with a personal-best throw of 114 feet.
Preliminaries for the Class A track meet are slated for Tuesday, beginning at 3:30 p.m. while the finals take place Wednesday, again with a 3:30 p.m. start.
The golf meet is slated for the Pebble Creek course in Becker, with a 7:30 a.m. start both Tuesday and Wednesday morning.
