Ironwood's Hudacek, Joki win again at Simpson indoor invite

SUPERIOR, Wis. - Ironwood's Jared Joki won the 800-meter run by an even narrower margin than the day before as Joki and Rachel Hudacek were the Red Devils' winners at the 37th annual Dennis Simpson Invitational.

Joki edged Superior's Robert McClarey by .11 second, winning the 800 run in 2:06.87. Joki won the same event by .25 second at Northland Pines' indoor invitational Thursday.

McClarey led much of the race until Joki was able to make it neck-and-neck down the final straightaway. Both leaned to the finish with Joki finishing first.

Joki said it's easier to find quality competition in the shorter distance races and that has certainly been the case for him in the 800 this year.

"I thought I had at least a decent chance to catch him," Joki said. "In regionals for U.P.'s last year, I think I won that race in the 800 by a tenth of a second, so I'm used to close finishes in the 800. That's a really short race for me. Once I started catching him, I knew I had a chance to lean (across the line ahead of him)."

Joki increased his win total to three in just the second meet of the season. He also won the 1,600 run Friday, much more comfortably than the 800. McClarey was just a hair under seven seconds behind him.

In fact, Joki has gone 3 for 3, while facing some of the toughest competition he will see all season, including Superior Friday and Northland Pines and Marquette Thursday.

Hudacek won for a second straight day in the high jump at 4-10. Both Hudacek and runner-up Raelin Sorensen of Unity cleared at 4-10 and then both missed in all three attempts at 4-11. They had a jump-off for first-place with the bar lowered to 4-10. Hudacek went first and cleared it on her first attempt. That really put the pressure on Sorensen, who missed her first try.

Superior won both the boys and girls meets. Ironwood took fifth in the boys and seventh in the girls.

Ironwood is off until a meet at Lakeland in Minocqua, Wis., on April 21.

Results

Girls

Team: 1. Superior 147, 2. Unity 114, 3. Hayward 87, 4. Northwestern 58.5; 5. Ashland 51, 6. Esko 48.5; 7. Ironwood 31; 8. Drummond 14.

200 dash: 1. Lauren Magnuson, Superior, 27.55; 6. Taylor Makinen, Ironwood, 30.72.

800 run: 1. Kendra Bramsen, Unity, 2:39.06; 7. Sarah Johnson, Ironwood, 2:51.67.

800 relay: 1. Superior 1:56.69; 5. Ironwood 2:06.93.

1,600 relay: 1. Unity 4:38.80; 7. Ironwood 5:21.23.

High jump: 1. Rachel Hudacek, Ironwood, 4-10, 2. Raelin Sorensen, Unity, 4-10; 3. Vanessa Nasi, Ironwood, 4-9; 6. Cambria Rollins, Ironwood, 4-6.

Boys

Team: 1. Superior 180.33; 2. Unity 100.66; 3. Northwestern 92.66; 4. Ashland 83; 5. Ironwood 38.66; 6. Esko 31; 7. Drummond 30; 8. Hayward 22.66.

800 run: 1. Jared Joki, Ironwood, 2:06.87, 2. Robert McClarey, Superior, 2:06.98.

1,600 run: 1. Jared Joki, Ironwood, 4:39.25; 2. Robert McClarey, Superior, 4:46.20.

55 hurdles: 1. Jon Litersky, Ashland, 8.92; 5. Riley Jarocki, Ironwood, 9.47.

800 relay: 1. Superior 1:36.05; 6. Ironwood 1:48.21.

3,200 relay: 1. Ashland 9:08.38; 9. Ironwood 10:55.72.

High jump: 1. Dylan Slanina, Unity, 6-0; 8. Noah Terzano, Ironwood, 5-3.

Pole vault: 1. Jarett Davison, Unity, 12-0; 2. Isaac Aukee, Ironwood, 11-6; 5. Rico Braucher, Ironwood, 9-0.