What a day it was for local cross country runners at the section championships Thursday at the Cloquet Country Club.

A grand total of three Carlton County teams - The Cloquet and Esko boys, Carlton/Wrenshall girls - plus the neighboring South Ridge girls team qualified for state by placing first or second at their respective meets.

On top of that, another eight runners in the Pine Knot News coverage area qualified individually.

Cromwell-Wright running star junior Noah Foster took first place in the boys Section 7A meet, beating the second place finisher by more than 36 seconds. While Foster's top finish was no surprise, girls winner freshman Addison Burckhardt beat her PR by more than 20 seconds to defeat second place Molly Brophy of Ely by almost 3 seconds.

Other 7A top 10 finishers included Esko's Grace Hrabik in fifth, Panthers Eveyln Brodee in seventh, Raptors' Brielle Simula in eighth and Cromwell-Wright's Emaleigh Olesiak in ninth. For the boys, Esko's Nate Rengo finished fifth while teammate Michael Cornell took seventh, the Raptors' Jack Riley took sixth, Joseph Mikrot and Shawn Bailey finished eighth and ninth for the Rebels and Alex Burckhardt took tenth.

In the 7AA races, Cloquet's Miles Fischer and Jake Mertz finished third and fourth, with Sam Buytaert less than 10 seconds behind in eighth place. Elise Cawcutt was the top finisher for the Cloquet girls in ninth place.

The state meet is set for Saturday, Nov. 6 at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. The top two teams in each section and the next six individuals (not on those two teams) qualify for the state meet.

For more names, see the list below:

STATE QUALIFIERS

Section 7AA

Teams

The entire Cloquet boys varsity team for placing second as a team, including: Miles Fischer (third), Jake Mertz (fourth), Sam Buytaert (eighth), Cale Prosen, Calvin Snesrud, Ben Sanders and Alex Zegan.

Individually

Cloquet girls: Elise Cawcutt (ninth)

Section 7A

Teams

The entire Esko boys team for placing second as a team, including: Nathaniel Rengo (fifth place), Michael Cornell (seventh place), Jack McWilliams, Benjamin Meysembourg, Alec Halverson, Zach Erkilla and Chad Hart.

The entire Carlton/Wrenshall girls team for placing first as a team, including Brielle Simula (eighth place), Sarah Cid, Ruth Sandstrom, Abby Cid, Emma Cid, Isabel Riley and Morgan Laveau.

The entire South Ridge girls team for placing second as a team, including: Addison Burckhardt (first place), Evelyn Brodee (seventh place), Tatum Barto, Brook Smith, Arriana Ridge, Madison Ellefson and Jillian Sajdak.

Individually

Esko girls: Grace Hrabik (fifth)

Jana Peterson

Northwoods freshman Addison Burckhardt, running with South Ridge, beat her PR by more than 20 seconds to defeat second place Molly Brophy of Ely by almost 3 seconds place in the Section 7A race Thursday.

Cromwell-Wright

Boys: Noah Foster (first place)

Girls: Emaleigh Olesiak (ninth)

Carlton/Wrenshall boys: Jack Riley (sixth)

Moose Lake

Boys: Joseph Mikrot (eighth), Shawn Bailey (ninth)

South Ridge

Boys: Alex Burckhardt (10th)

Get the full story in next week's Pine Knot News.