Relay shaves vital seconds

by Tom Coombe -
As the competition stiffens and the season comes to a head, every second counts in track and field.
That’s why a seven-second reduction bodes well for an Ely girls relay team.
The Timberwolves’ four-by-800 foursome of Emma Terwilliger, Caroline Homer, Ryne Prigge and Erin Bianco had their best time yet - a finish of 10:08.39 - en route to victory at the May 11 Hibbing Invitational.
The relay had one of just two Ely first-place finishes at a tune-up for the upcoming subsection meet, also at Hibbing, on May 24.
Ely was seventh among 10 teams, but the relay showed why it’s a force to contend for a state berth, trimming seven seconds off its previous best in an abbreviated, weather-interrupted season.
Bianco, who during the winter won the individual state Nordic skiing championship, had an anchor leg of 2:27 to help power the Wolves.
Homer ran away to victory in the 1,600 meters, cutting two seconds from her last meet and winning in 5:53.3.
Senior Maggie Isbell had not one but two runner-up showings for the Wolves.
The hurdling specialist was second in the 300 (51.34) and added a runner-up finish in the long jump (16-0.5).
Isbell also joined Homer, Prigge and Bianco on a second-place four-by-400 relay (4:17.15).
In the four-by -100 relay, the Wolves’ Brooke Pasmick, Evelyn Bercher, Sarah Isbell and Brielle Kallberg combined to take fifth (58.02).
In seventh was the four-by-200 combination of Emma Terwilliger, Kallberg, Sarah Isbell and Bercher.
Kallberg scored with a fourth-place finish in the long jump (15-5.5), and the freshman also was ninth in the high jump (4-8).
Kalyssa Eilrich placed fifth in the 3,200 (14:19), while scoring sixth-place points for Ely were Anna Nelson (800, 3:03.65) and Taryn Osthoff (1,600, 6:27.3).