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Elisha Barno wins his fifth Grandma's Marathon. Photo by John Gilbert.

Both the men’s and women’s segments of Saturday’s 47th Grandma’s Marathon appeared headed for photo-finish drama, but Elisha Barno altered the script for his record fifth men’s victory, and Lauren Hagans — running in her first marathon ever — caught two-time defending champion Dakotah Lindwurm and stole the championship by over a minute.  

One day after being inducted into the Grandma’s Marathon Hall of Fame, Barno ran his personal best marathon time of 2 hours, 9 minutes, 14 seconds to extend the streak of Kenyan victories to 13 straight on the 26.2-mile course along Scenic Hwy. 61 from Two Harbors to Duluth’s Canal Park. He won by 45 seconds over his countryman and training partner, Dominic Ondoro, after the two broke away from the pack of leaders near Lemon Drop Hill on London Road, at about the 22-mile mark.  

Ondoro, who set Grandma’s record at 2:09:06 in winning the 2014 event, and narrowly missed his own record while winning his second Grandma’s a year ago, trains with Barno in Eldoret, Kenya, and said before the race that he thought Barno would be his main competition. Asked who wins if they end up even at the finish while training, Ondoro smiled and wouldn’t say. Barno, 38, who had won an unprecedented four consecutive Grandma’s races from 2015-2018, proved obviously he is still at his personal peak by joining Ondoro for the two-man breakaway, and then turning that into an expanding lead through downtown and to the finish.  

If Barno turned his memory of the abrupt rise of Lemon Drop Hill into his winning strategy, it was exactly the opposite for Lauren Hagans, who calls herself a distance runner, but whose longest race until last weekend was a half-marathon. She had never heard of Lemon Drop Hill and had to ask where it was on the course. When she recalled it, she said if it is a point of intimidation on the course, she was glad she was unaware of it because it didn’t affect her.  

“I stayed fairly close to Dakotah’s lead,” Hagans said. “I saw her all the way and she was running with a group of men. I planned to be patient and stay behind her, but I was clicking off some 5:30 miles and gaining on her, and I realized I should keep running at my pace. I don’t think Dakotah was aware of how close I was until I passed her.  

“After I passed her, I could feel her presence, but with about five miles to go, I realized I was clear.”   Hagans obviously set a personal best, since it was her first marathon, and her 2:25:55 left her ahead of Lindwurm’s 2:26:56 by a minute and one second, while Gabriella Rooker was third, almost 11 full minutes behind Lindwurm, the Eagan runner who became famous for smiling almost the whole distance when she won the previous two years. She was still smiling after finishing second Saturday, and pointed out it’s hard to be unhappy .with second place.  

Joel Reichow won the men’s Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon by 10 seconds at !:02:30, and Maggie Montoya won the women’s in 1:09:26, breaking the legendary Kara Goucher’s event and U.S. Olympic qualifying record. The high-speed wheelchair competition was won for the fifth time by Aaron Pike in 1:27:34 for his second straight and fifth overall championship, and Jenna Fesemyer won the women’s in 1:47:20.      

Esko to be no mo?    

There have been a lot of impressive high school baseball teams who have defied the shortened season to succeed in Northeastern Minnesota, but I can’t say I’ve seen a better and more exciting team to watch than this year’s Esko Eskomos — who climaxed their first state baseball championship with a 9-0 blowout victory over Perham. Different players made the big plays all three games, with Minnesota baseball player of the year Cale Haugen beating St. Agnes 1-0 in the quarterfinals, Finn Furcht pitching Esko past Cannon Falls 7-2 in the semifinals, and then junior Dylan Marciulionis firing a 2-hitter to win the title.   The great thing about the Eskomos is that they seem to flush the current trend of analytics away and use instincts to play some good-ol’ country hardball. They pitch, they field, and they hit a ton. If they see a pitch they like, it usually leaves the bat at sizzling speed and more often than not becomes an extra-base hit.  

The only disturbing part of their season is that somebody hung up on political correctness has convinced the school board that they should change their nickname away from Eskomos to…who knows what? There are concerns that the term might be found offensive to some indigenous souls. But the beauty of Eskomos is that it’s a natural play on words off the name of the town and the school — Esko, so the Eskomos. It has nothing to do with slighting or even considering eskimos, and I would think any wayward Innuit soul dog-sledding across Northern Minnesota might be charmed to see that a school named Esko is nicknamed the Eskomos.  

So here’s my idea: Esko gets to whatever powers that be govern the old-time black-and-white comedy movies, and they take a Three-Stooges poster — you remember, Larry Curly and Moe? — and they use a likeness of Moe on their uniform shirts, and make their nickname the “Moes.” Then they could be the Esko Moes.    

Another Cathedral loss    

Barely a month after the tragic death of former Duluth Cathedral and UMD hockey star Pokey Trachsel, we have more horrible news to report about the Duluth Cathedral Hilltoppers — the best high school hockey team ever in Minnesota.   Kevin Hoene, a high-skilled center on those Cathedral teams that knocked off everybody they faced and won five consecutive state Catholic and Independent hockey tournaments, died at age 73 after several serious ailments left him in hospice care at Diamond Willow in Duluth.  

The Hoene family was about as prominent as the Trachsel family in sports in the late 1960s in Duluth. And Del Genereau coached the Hilltoppers to some magnificent seasons. There were three Trachsel brothers — Bill, Larry and Steve (Pokey) — and two Hoenes, with Phil, who was one year older, centering the first line with Larry Trachsel and Dan Sivertson on the wings, while  Kevin Hoene centered the second line, with Tommy Paul on one wing and later Tom Cartier on the other. While Phil Hoene went on to play at UMD and then with the Los Angeles Kings, Kevin Hoene starred as first-line center the year after Phil graduated, and Kevin went on to play at Notre Dame, before later returning to coach at St. Mary’s and St. Scholastica.  

Pokey Trachsel and his wife, Cathie, were traveling from their winter home in Arizona when they were killed in a tragic dust-storm highway accident on a California road when a semi truck hit them from behind and knocked them into another semi ahead. A celebration of life is planned for next month for them.  

Kevin Hoene had battled heart problems, cancer and neuropathy and was confined to bed at Diamond Willow, where he died peacefully last week. A service is tentatively scheduled for next Thursday, June 29, at Holy Rosary.