Beavers put best foot forward

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

April 25, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

Despite the lack of several of its best athletes, the Beavers track team performed at its peak Saturday -- staging its best team effort this season and breaking three school relay records in the process.

"As a team, the results show we're getting much better," Beavers head coach Craig Hougen said. "This might be some of the best track (performed) on this track by a Beaver team ever -- especially (breaking) that many records in one day."

The first relay record broken -- the men's 4 x 800 meter -- was run by Aaron Feia, Jesse Miller, Kenny Miller and Mike May in 7:50.22.

The second record was set in the 4 x 100 relay run by Drew Peterson, Jason Schultz, Jeff Fjosne and Jason Leden in 42.81.

The last record came in the 4 x 400 relay, set by Fjosne, Miller, Leden and Schultz in 3:19.8.

"Those records had been set years ago," Hougen said. "To get them in the relays, that is exciting."

In addition to his roles in the 4 x 400 and 4 x 100 relays, Leden claimed the title in the 200 meter sprint and placed second in the 100 meters to lead the Beavers men's team.

Feia, who ran in the 4 x 800 relay, also won the 800 meter run.

On the women's side, Amber Bohman led the team with two first place finishes in the 100 meters and 200 meters -- both peformances that are leading the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.

Also claiming titles were Molly Reque in the 400 meters and Cathy Adrian in the 800 meters.

Second place finishers for the Beavers included: Dan Frette in the 400 meter hurdles, Schultz in the 400 meters, Quinn Hastie in the javelin and May in the 800 meters.

Hougen said the Beaver Relays was a good meet to gauge how ready his team is to compete in the NSIC conference meet two weeks away.

The athletes that didn't participate in Saturday's meet will compete in the conference multi-event meet to be held at Minnesota-Morris today and Monday. They include Andy Eggerth and John Pietila in the decathlon, and April Clairmont, Twyla Ohlrogge and Darcy Faul in the heptathlon.