Milkovich, Krunkkala spark Timberwolves
It’s no surprise that several Ely Timberwolves qualified for the Section 7A high school boys track meet.But the Wolves seemed to exceed expectations - and pulled off more than a few pleasant surprises - at the May 27 subsection competition at Hibbing.Steve Milkovich, making his first appearance of the season in his signature event, showed off his old form in winning the triple jump and qualified for sections in three events.Mike Krunkkala advanced in three events as well, placing second in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes and joining Milkovich as part of Ely’s first-place 800 relay squad.They helped lead the Wolves to a fourth-place finish among eight teams.Both Milkovich and Krunkkala went into the subsection competition looking to advance, but the meet marked the first time that Milkovich - who has been hampered throughout the school year by an ankle injury, was able to take part in the triple jump.He made up for lost time, winning the event in 41 feet, two inches, just two inches away from his section finish a year ago.“We were glad to see that his foot held up well,” said Ely Head Coach Darren Visser. “He’s right in there and has a chance to go farther... There were really no major surprises, but we were really quite happy with how many guys we did move on.”In all, nine Wolves advanced to the section meet, which was held Friday in Duluth, after the Echo deadline.“Over half of our varsity team is moving on,” said Visser. “We were extremely happy on that end of it. We were expecting guys to move on, but some guys did better than expected.”One of them was senior Luke Spangler, who picked up a second-place finish in the 400 dash (54.91 seconds) and also qualified in the discus (fourth place, 108-5).Junior Brooks Pfeifer advanced after a third-place finish of 43.92 seconds in the 300 hurdles.Adam Shultz, a senior, took third in the 800 run (2:10.10) while Jesse Hancock (1,600 run, 5:06.70) and Travis Cunningham (3,200 run, 10:39.80) earned section appearances based on fourth-place finishes.Cunningham, Hancock, John Eininger and David Mills formed a third-place 3,200 relay quartet (9:22.80).But the Wolves’ biggest performances were turned in by Milkovich and Krunkkala.They made up half of the winning 800 relay, joining Spangler and Pfeifer to win in 1:38.43.Krunkkala ran an 11.63-second 100 dash and was runner-up in the 200 with a time of 23.6 seconds. Two Harbors’ Anthony Christensen won both events.Milkovich added a second-place long jump (19-0) to go with his win in the triple jump.Ely racked up 101 points, behind Eveleth-Gilbert (177), Two Harbors (135) and Virginia (117) but ahead of Cotton (39), Silver Bay-Cook County (31), Mesabi East (22) and Cook-Orr (9).The Wolves went on to compete against the section’s best in Duluth, with berths in next weekend’s state competition at Blaine on the line.The winning relay, the top two finishers in each individual event and those who qualify by state standard advance.
