Sports

Steve Milkovich and Mike Krunkkala earned section meet appearances in four events each and led Ely’s high school boys track team to a solid second-place showing at Wednesday’s subsection meet in Hibbing.<BR><BR>Milkovich won the 110 meter hurdles and finished second in three other events, while Krunkkala took first in the 200 dash, fourth in the long jump and was part of two winning relays as the Timberwolves piled up 140 points and finished second in a field of 11 teams.<BR><BR>But perhaps more impressive than the team standing is the slew of athletes the Wolves will send on to the Section 7A meet, set for this Friday at Duluth.<BR><BR>Ely has section qualifiers in 12 different events, and in all the Wolves have 13 athletes who will either participate in the section event or be there as an alternate, much to the pleasure of head coach Darren Visser.<BR><BR>“I thought as a team we did oustanding,” said Visser.

Strong relays have anchored Ely’s high school girls track team all season long and that strength showed at Wednesday’s subsection meet.<BR><BR>Ely won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meter relays and placed second in the 400 relay, earning section meet appearances in all four events and going on to a third-place team finish in the 10-team event at Hibbing.<BR><BR>The Wolves also came home with two individual subsection champions - senior Julie Anderson and ninth-grader Carolyn Freeman.<BR><BR>Anderson was first in the 3,200 run, while Freeman broke away from the pack in the 300 hurdles.<BR><BR>Anderson, Freeman, the relays and several other Wolves all qualified for the Section 7A competition, which is set for Friday at Duluth.<BR><BR>“We had a really good subsection meet,” said Ely Head Coach Todd Hohenstein.

With a conference championship already in tow, Ely’s high school baseball team begins its quest for postseason glory this week.<BR><BR>The Timberwolves take on Duluth Marshall Wednesday (5 p.m.) at Grand Rapids, kicking off the Section 7AA tournament.<BR><BR>Ely heads into the playoffs on the heels of the program’s first Arrowhead Conference title in three years.<BR><BR>Wednesday, the Wolves downed Cook 10-6 to wrap up the league title and a perfect 7-0 mark in conference play.<BR><BR>The following night, Ely downed area rival Nashwauk-Keewatin 9-6, ending the regular season with a three-game winning streak and a 15-4 overall record.<BR><BR>The Wolves, who also defeated International Falls last week, may be peaking at exactly the right time.<BR><BR>Senior Josh Weckman picked up his seventh win on the mound in Monday’s 3-1 decision at International Falls, while junior lefty Tim Scott had one of his best outings o

If last Tuesday’s meet at Deer River is any indication, look out for the Ely Timberwolves’ relay teams when the subsection girls track meet is held this week.<BR><BR>The relays continue to anchor Ely’s success this spring.<BR><BR>The Timberwolves picked up a third-place finish at Deer River, among eight schools in the event, largely on the strength of two first-place relay teams and another that took second.<BR><BR>Senior Julie Anderson also maintained her dominance of the 3,200 meter run, taking the Deer River race with ease.<BR><BR>The performance helped Ely gear up for the subsection competition, which is slated for Wednesday at Hibbing.<BR><BR>Ely heads into the event on the heels of some strong relay showings.<BR><BR>The 3,200 meter quartet of Julie Anderson, Raychal Zupancich, Casey Sovil and Jenna Klein won going away, finishing first in 10:14.5 and topping the next-closest team by over two minutes.<BR

Ely’s high school boys track team couldn’t have had a much better tune-up for subsection competition.<BR><BR>On a beautiful spring afternoon Tuesday at Deer River, the Timberwolves put together a performance that could be aptly described by head coach Darren Visser as a thing of a beauty.<BR><BR>Behind two first-place finishes by sophomore standout Steve Milkovich, two winning relays and individual victories by Adam Shultz and Mike Krunkkala, Ely ran away with the team title at the Deer River Invitational.<BR><BR>The Timberwolves collected 176 points and topped the eight-team field, and perhaps more importantly gathered some momentum heading into the subsection meet, set for this Wednesday at Hibbing.<BR><BR>“I was very pleased,” said Visser. “It was a nice way to head into subsections. Deer River for some reason has always been a place where we’ve done well.

For at least one day, Ely will be the hotbed of some of the top amateur baseball talent in the upper Midwest.<BR><BR>That day would be this Saturday, when the Seattle Mariners hold a one-day tryout camp at Veterans Memorial Field.<BR><BR>Elyite Paul Starkovich is directing the camp and has lined up top prospects from high school and college baseball programs in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota.<BR><BR>Starkovich, who played in the Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles organizations during a seven-year professional career, joined the Mariners this year as a Midwest scout.<BR><BR>He will be joined by other officials from the Mariners scouting department as they assess talent for possible selection in next month’s major league amateur draft.<BR><BR>Starkovich and the Mariners have invited nearly 30 prospects, from leading area high school talent including Josh Mathson of Babbitt-Embarrass-Soudan-Tower to top regional c

Ely sophomore Steve Milkovich has owned the triple jump at area high school boys track meets this spring.<BR><BR>Until Thursday, Milkovich had finished first in the event at each and every Timberwolves meet.<BR><BR>That streak ended when Two Harbors’ Roy Levitt won the event at the O.J. Belluzzo Invitational on a chilly spring event.<BR><BR>Milkovich, who won the triple jump five days earlier in Hibbing at the Doc Savage Invitational, was second to Levitt.<BR><BR>Nonetheless, Milkovich’s performance have been among the highlights for the Timberwolves, who finished an impressive fourth out of 14 teams at Thursday’s meet and wound up ninth in an 18-team field at the May 8 Doc Savage.<BR><BR>Depth helped the Wolves Thursday.

Ely had an individual winner and two first-place relays at a May 6 high school girls track meet at Virginia.<BR><BR>The Timberwolves’ big day included a winning effort by senior Julie Anderson in the 3,200 meter run. She finished first in 12:33.<BR><BR>Anderson also was part of the Wolves’ first-place 3,200 relay, joining Raychal Zupancich, Casey Sovil and Jenna Klein to win in 10:33.<BR><BR>Ely also got a win in the 1,600 relay, as Klein, Kelly Chaudoin, Carolyn Freeman and Ali Schulze teamed up for a run of 4:27.6.<BR><BR>The Wolves added a second in the same relay, as the combination of Schulze, Taryn Cunningham, Tomi McDonald and Lexie Barker gave Ely a one-two finish.<BR><BR>Freeman and Sovil both contributed second-place finishes for the Wolves.<BR><BR>Freeman was the runner-up in the 300 hurdles in a time of 51.5 seconds.

After a rare defensive breakdown, Ely’s high school baseball team, returned to previous form last Monday at Chisholm<BR><BR>Senior Josh Weckman was in command on the mound, while the Timberwolves also had good defense and timely hitting in a 13-2 rout of the Bluestreaks.<BR><BR>Ely, 9-2, bounced back from a pair of less than stellar outings the previous weekend, when they shaded Silver Bay 11-9 and suffered a 10-0 defeat at Hermantown.<BR><BR>“After the Hermantown game, we needed a good outing and we got it,” said Ely Head Coach Frank Ivancich. “We needed to get back on the winning track and gear up for some of our big AA games, and I thought we put everything together.”<BR><BR>The Timberwolves, who cracked the state rankings last week landing at the number 10 spot in AA, faced Virginia and Duluth Marshall over the weekend in pivotal Section 7AA seeding contests.

For the Vermilion Ironmen, a difficult season ended on a positive note.<BR><BR>Sophomore pitcher Joel Reed led the community college baseball team to a 10-4 victory over Northern Division champion in the May 1 season finale, firing a four-hitter and fanning 10 batters.<BR><BR>The win was one of just five this spring for the Ironmen, who finished 5-19 in division play and 5-27 overall.<BR><BR>But if there was a silver lining for VCC, it was their play over the last 10 days of the regular season.<BR><BR>In addition to the win over Itasca, Vermilion swept a doubleheader against Northland and had close losses to Fergus Falls and Mesabi, the second and third-place teams in the division.<BR><BR>“I thought we started to play better at the end,” said Vermilion Head Coach Ray Podominick.