By: The Sports Guy
Proctor Journal

With the Section 7A championship just around the corner, the Proctor boys and girls cross-country teams are reaching peak condition for racing. At the Proctor Lions Invitational, held at the Proctor Golf Course Tues. Oct.16, the Rails won their first team title of the season in the boy’s varsity race. Proctor scored 34 points to outdistance Esko (73) and five other teams in the Class A 5,000 meter race on a foggy, rain-spattered day that failed to discourage an estimated 100+ spectators.

“That was nice,” said Rails head coach Lowell Harnell. “It’s good to run so well in front of the home crowd. Too bad we couldn’t have run like this last week (at the LSC). But the guys are healthy and running tough which is how we have to be going into the section meet.”

At the LSC, co-favored Proctor finished 3rd after losing key runner Eric Schwerdt to illness. Feeling better at the Lions meet, Schwerdt finished as second runner for the Rails in 6th (19:08). Justin Anderson (18:06) led Proctor with a runner-up finish to AlBrook’s Tony Fremling (17:45). Not far behind Schwerdt came hard-charging Charlie Habermann (7th, 19:19) and Ben Welch (8th, 19:25). James Ostrander (13th, 20:03) and Tommy Rossiter (18th, 20:27) rounded out the Proctor scoring.

Esko won the Class A girls race, led by Kaycee Knutson’s 16:29 over the 4,000 meter course. The Eskomos scored a near-perfect 17 points with Duluth Marshall 2nd with 64. Proctor finished 4th with 90, led by Katie Fleckenstein (10th, 18:46), Alaina Levings (16th, 19:43), and Amanda Smith (20th, 20:02). Brittney Smith (34th, 25:11), Ali Greene (36th, 25:52), and Kathryn Roper (38th, 31:06) filled out the Rails varsity team.

When we were young

Throughout the years, many, many athletes have contested races on the Proctor golf course, famous for its challenging hill. A quick look at the spectators found many past athletes returning to watch the races, some with children of their own now running for various area teams. One of these was Don Joyal, a mid-80’s PHS graduate who was the Region 7 individual champion while leading the Rails to their first-ever Region 7 team title—a championship they repeated the next season. Other members of that team includedPHS teachers/coaches Glen Gilderman and Lowell Harnell. Due to work schedule conflicts, Joyal has been unable to see all but one of the meets of his daughter Taylor, a 6th-grader at AlBrook. But Joyal was quick to admit he had to see the Lions meet. Taylor rewarded her father by leading AlBrook to the team win in the 7-9th-grade race, placing 11th in 8:56 for the 1800 meters. Placing 7th in 8:38 was Proctor 6th-grader Bridget Tesser, daughter of Jeff Tesser, one of the top Proctor runners of the early ‘80’s and sister to Travis, sophomore who placed 5th in the Lions junior varsity race. At AlBrook, Taylor Joyal joins varsity individual champion Tony, Nate, Maija, and Lilia, the four children of PHS CC alum Don Fremling.

Section preview

The Section 7A championship will be held today (Thurs.) at the Cloquet Country Club at noon. State meet berths will be awarded to the top two teams and top ten individuals in the boys and girls races.

“I think Pequot Lakes is the team favorite,” says Harnell. “We ran against them at Grand Rapids earlier this season and they won both team and individual titles. I think our boy’s team has a good chance to qualify for state. There will be us, Eveleth-Gilbert, Esko, and a few others fighting it out for that second spot.”

With no athlete older than the sophomore level, Harnell has necessarily modest goals for the Proctor girl’s team, including Fleckenstein, who qualified for state last season with a 10th-place section finish.

“Last year, Katie ran the race of her life to qualify,” admits Harnell. “This year it will be tougher as there are many other girls running well this season. But like the other girls on our team, Katie is focusing on running well herself and being positive, instead of thinking about anyone else. I just want both the boys and girls to run to their ability, to give an effort they can be happy with and proud of later. The chips will fall where they will.”