Eighth-grader takes IRC title

Visser first in discus at league meet

by Tom Coombe

With one huge day, Kaylin Visser emerged as one of the area’s top discus throwers.

The Ely eighth-grader shattered her personal-best by better than 17 feet, throwing the discus 103 feet, four inches to place first in the event at Tuesday’s Iron Range Conference championship.

The meet was held in Aurora, site of the upcoming subsection competition, slated for 10 a.m., May 25.

Following on the heels of a victory in the discus by senior Natasha Fulkrod the week before, Visser’s win at the IRC gives the Timberwolves a potent one-two combination heading into the postseason.

Visser had her team’s only first at the conference event, and the Ely girls placed fifth among seven teams in the event.

Before this week, Visser’s top throw was just over 86 feet.

She obliterated that mark with her winning throw, and topped her next-nearest foe by about five feet. Visser also had throws of 92 and 97 feet for the day.

Fulkrod had one of the Wolves’ next-best performances, taking fourth in the shot put with a throw of 27-2.

Distance running also proved to be a strength for the Wolves in the IRC, with eighth-grader Molly Brophy placing second in the 3,200 meters with a personal-best time of 12:30.

Brophy added a second runner-up finish in the 1,600 (5:46.95) and seventh-grader Mattie Lindsay was sixth (6:11.85) in the same event.

Junior Claire Blauch (13:26.31) and ninth-grader Elsa Ellerbroek (14:05.24) also had personal bests en route to respective fourth and fifth-place finishes.

Ely’s Grace LaTourell was part of a tight finish in the 400. The junior was fourth in 1:05.37 but only .02 seconds away from third in an event won by Chisholm seventh-grader Olivia Pascuzzi.

The Wolves came home with two third-place relays as  Lily Tedrick, Audrey Thomas, Madeline Perry and LaTourell combined to take third in the four-by-400 (4:35.89), while it was Blauch, Perry, Anna Dunn and Phoebe Helms on a third-place four-by-800 (11:07.45) quartet.

In the four-by-200, Ely’s Lydia Shultz, Thomas, Audrey Kallberg and Violet Udovich were fourth in 1:56.19.

Ely also had a fifth-place relay of Shultz, Udovich, Anna Larson and Kallberg (57.8).

The Wolves also scored with two sixth-place sprint finishes  - LaTourell in the 200 (28.85) and Larson in the 100 (14.47).

Other top-12 finishers were:

• 200 - 12. Larson, 30.58;

• 800 - 7. Helms, 2:49.39; 11.  Kiarstin Eaton, 3:00.19;

• 1,600 - 12. Ava Skustad, 6:50.74;

• 100 hurdles - 12. McClelland, 20.93;

• Shot put - 12. Addison Forsman, 23-8;

• Discus - 8. Sarah Visser, 72-3;

• High jump - 8 (tie)- Shultz, 4-4; Thomas, 4-4; Kallberg;

• Long jump - 9. Dunn, 13-1; 10. Forsman; 13-0;

• Triple jump - Dunn, 26-11.75