On the morning of Thursday, October 5th, the 7th Edition of the Bi-annual 3rd Grade Pirate Cup took place under sunny but blustery conditions at the Grantsburg High School track. The fastest third-grade girls and boys set off in a race for two laps around the quarter-mile synthetic oval.
First up were the male competitors. Runners included Olen Chell, Daniel Hoefs, Gideon Kaiser, Wyan Polzine, Ivan Zellmer, Gabe Tyberg, Josiah Peterson and Luis Ayohua-Hernandez. At the start, Chell and Polzine set a rapid pace on the first lap, as Peterson also picked off several runners to move up towards the front of the pack. Peterson would then advance into second place, with Polzine still holding third and Kaiser also showing good speed. By the end of the race, Chell had opened up a big lead to finish in first place, with Peterson holding off Hoefs for second. Hoefs showed terrific determination to finish in the top three after tripping at the start of the race. Chell set a personal record with his winning run and finished within striking distance of Bennett Vilstrup’s school record, a mark the boys set their eyes on for the spring race.
The girls were next, and the runners taking to the lanes were Zoe Marhenke, Marley Palmquist, Josie Meyer, Izzy Peterson, Dakota Sutherland, Katelyn Olson, Stella Thill, and Mari Luedtke. A pack of three girls separated themselves early in the race, with Palmquist setting a quick tempo out front. Current school-record folder Marhenke would catch Palmquist on the back chute, as the two would wage a side-by-side battle for a brief period of time. On the second lap, Marhenke pulled in front, and going into turns three and four, she stretched her lead to win the race comfortably. Marhenke was five seconds away from breaking the school record, a mark she had set a few weeks earlier during fitness testing. Palmquist came home second, with Sutherland taking third at the stripe.
Friendly competition and good sportsmanship were on display for the bleachers full of fellow GES students and parents who had a strong showing of support. The eighth edition of the 3rd Grade Pirate Cup is slated to take place in May 2024.