Sports

by Tom Coombe -

Ely’s Jayne Dusich holds numerous track and field records at Bemidji State University.
It took almost 30 years, and one of her former students, for one of those records to fall.
Last weekend, freshman Ryne Prigge of Ely not only won the 1,000-meter run at an indoor event in North Dakota, but she also shattered a school record set by Dusich in 1991.
Prigge, who was coached by Dusich in both cross country and track at Ely, won Saturday’s race in 3:00.57, breaking Dusich’s school-best mark when she was a standout for the Beavers in the early-1990s.
Last year’s Arrowhead Conference Female Athlete of the Year, Prigge was a standout in track, cross country and Nordic skiing at Ely and signed with Bemidji State, an NCAA Division II school, to compete in both track and cross country.
Dusich followed a similar path and earned spot in both the BSU and Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Hall of Fame.

by Tom Coombe -

Carl Skustad posted online this week, “Thanks for all your thoughts and positive vibes. After a few hours at Melgeorge’s last night thinking about today’s race strategy I decided to drop from this years AH135. With as much respect as I have for this race I didn’t want to be a liability on trail. I was safe and have all my fingers and toes in one piece. The time it would taken me to get to the finish would have possibly put me in a bivi tonight. My skis were so slow and I jacked up my knee in a little wipeout action on course. Ski ya later, peace.”

by Tom Coombe -

by Tom Coombe
The Vermilion Ironmen were riding a hot streak, at least until Wednesday.
That’s when league upstart Lake Superior staked its own claim in a growing chase for a regional playoff berth, pulling away from the Ironmen in an 84-64 community college basketball victory at Superior, Wis.
The fledgling IceHawks, in their first season of play in the Minnesota Community Athletic Conference, evened their division record at 4-4 while VCC fell to 3-4 and had a three-game win streak come to an end.
One team was hot and the other was not as the Ironmen shot just 34 percent for the game and were six-for-28 from three-point distance.
Lake Superior shot at a 51 percent clip and was an even more impressive 11-for-20 from beyond the three-point line.
The IceHawks’ Ryan Pantsar hit all five of his three-point attempts and had 19 points for LSC, which outscored Vermilion 39-27 in the second stanza.

by Tom Coombe -
Ely’s Nordic Wolves had the chance Wednesday to race under the same format that will be used for the upcoming section and state meets.
The results showed that opponents of the Ely boys have good reason to be nervous.
As they have all year, the Wolves racked up another team victory with sophomore Jasper Johnston once again at the head of the pack.
Johnston won both the freestyle and classic five-kilometer races at the Duluth East Invitational, taking home the combined pursuit victory with nearly a minute to spare.
As a team, the Ely boys were as dominant as Johnston, grabbing three of the top-five individual places and six spots in the top-11.
Those results gave the Wolves an easy win in the team standings, with Ely topping eight other schools.
Among the girls, Ely was fourth in a 10-team field.

by Tom Coombe -

FULL EXTENSION for Savannah Johnson of Ely’s high school dance team during their performance Tuesday night. Photos by Eric Sherman.

On January 12 the Ely Hoop Club took the boys and girls teams to UMD to watch both teams play. Pictured are: standingR: Jasiah Wigdahl, Trevor Mattson, Nils Deremee. Seated left: Pat Vanderbeek, Tim Moskalyk, Joey Bianco, Eric Omerza, Rylee Bishop, Eddie Prijatel, Brock Latourell, Bryce Fairchild. Seated center: Harry Simons, Will Davies, Erika Mattson, Finn Leisching, Collen Seliskar, Mason Davis, Reba Kissel, Jason Kerntz, Jacob Cochran, Taylor Gibney, Sarah Visser. Seated right: Katrina Seliskar, Brynn Vollom, Madeline Kallberg, Madison Rohr, Lily Tedrick, Elizabeth Omerza, Madeline Perry, Grace Latourell, Ande Visser. Submitted photo

A RED-HOT SHOOTING performance for Ely senior Patrick Vanderbeek, who nailed eight three-point shots and had 44 points in the Wolves’ win over Fond du Lac. Photos by Eric Sherman

by Tom Coombe -