Zupancich, relay advance to state
After a stellar regular season, it wasn’t a big surprise that Ely sophomore Jenn Zupancich qualified for the state high school girls track meet.The Timberwolves’ speedster had dominated in the 200 meter dash, and at one point this year she had the top time of any girl in Minnesota Class A.But when the state meet got underway Friday at Blaine, Zupancich wasn’t entered in the 200 dash. Instead, she qualified in the 400 dash after competing in the event just four times this season.Zupancich, along with Ely’s 3,200 meter relay quartet of Casey Sovil, Carolyn Freeman, Jenna Klein and Ali Schulze, moved on to the state event after big performances at the Section 7A competition, held last Friday at Duluth.Zupancich just barely missed a state berth in the 200 after taking third in the event, held on the campus of the University of Minnesota-Duluth at Griggs Field, but she made up for it with a second-place run of 1:00.6 in the 400.A late-season experiment paid off with a trip to state for Zupancich.“After seeing how the 200 was going we wanted to try something new with the 400,” said Zupancich. “We just kind of threw it together at the last minute for a couple of meets. I’d only ran it two other times before subsections. After the 200, I felt like I had a lot more left and I run on the (1,600) relay and my splits were pretty good.”Zupancich took third in the 200 in 26.97 seconds, placing behind winner Kelsey Leonard of Hermantown (26.22) and Chisholm’s Nikki Arola (26.44) and missing the state bid by a half-second.“That was a solid time for her,” said Ely Head Coach Todd Hohenstein.But in the 400, Zupancich battled winner Stacey Peterson of Eveleth-Gilbert nose-for-nose, and placed a half-second behind for the runner-up finish.Later, Ely’s 3,200 relay assured that Zupancich would have some company at the state meet.Sovil, Freeman, Klein and Schulze combined for a time of 9:50.33.That was nine seconds off the pace set by the winning team from Esko, but good enough to qualify by time standard.State berths generally go to just the winning relay in each section, but Ely also advanced by taking advantage of the time provision.“The top relay advances automatically, but just like last year, we qualified by time,” said Hohenstein.Zupancich was scheduled to run in the 400 preliminaries on Friday afternoon, while the relay squad is set for a Saturday morning start.The state meet is held at Blaine’s National Sports Center.Ely almost advanced another relay to state.The 1,600 foursome of Zupancich, Freeman, Sovil and Schulze placed second - behind a relay from Hermantown - in 4:10.30. They were a second away from first place.“One of our goals was to get that relay to state,” said Hohenstein. “We did run the best time of the season so we did meet that goal. We fell just a little bit short of making it to state.”Overall, Ely placed sixth among 21 teams in the 7A competition.Freeman matched her best time of the year in the 300 hurdles, en route to a fourth-place finish in 49.1 seconds.In the 800 run, Ely had a pair of top-10 finishers. Sovil ran a 2:29.8 to take fifth, while sophomore Barb Klun took ninth with a season-best time of 2:35.Klein set a personal record with a fifth-place run of 5:33.27 in the 1,600.Schulze placed sixth in the 400 (103.4).“It really was a good showing by all the girls,” said Hohenstein. “We had a very good section meet.”• Tower-Soudan senior Whitney Johnson placed in two events at the 7A meet. She was fourth in the long jump (15-7) and fifth in the triple jump (33-6).• International Falls racked up 88.5 points to take the team title. Esko (82.5) was second and Two Harbors (75) was third.
