Emo man wins 5th Willy Walleye run

John Oren

Saturday’s fifth running of the Willie Walleye five kilometer race was, in a word, huge.
While the number of racers isn’t about to compete with marathons at Boston, Duluth or, for that matter, Fargo, the 102 people who actually ran Saturday set a record for the race.
The times also set records. Race coordinator Sariina Kalli handled the race for the fourth year, and she said that the best times set records, at least for the last four years.
Andrew Friesen of Emo, Ontario, didn’t quite set a record last year, when he won it by better than a minute and a half.
He did set a record this year, when he ran the course in 17 minutes, 58 seconds. That beat his 2005 winning time by 35 seconds and, according to Kalli, beat the course record by 29 seconds.
Chris Heinrich of Baudette finished second last year. He was second again this year, and he was 1:14 under his 2005 time.
Tom Heinrich finished sixth last year. He ran the race in 21:45 this year, a dozen seconds faster than his 2005 time. But that time this time around was good for only eighth.
Heidi Evans of Roseau clocked a 19:50. That was 1:04 better than Sheila Johnson’s top women’s time in 2005.
And so it went.
The biggest news of the day, though, was the number of entries. A total of 110 people registered for the run. 102 actually started it, and all of them finished. While Friesen led the parade of runners and walkers with his record 17:58 time, the last person to cross the finish line came in at 57:48.
The annual run/walk was again a family affair. It drew three generations of Heinrichs, ranging from 18-year-old Chris up to 70-year-old Martin, who finished 75th, and involved Martin and Helen in the mature generation, Tom and Joan in the middle generation and Chris, who graduated from Lake of the Woods High School in 2005. Madie, a junior in high school, would have made the sixth Henirich in the race. She was otherwise occupied, though, competing in the Section 8-A track meet at Walker on Saturday. She finished second in the 3,200 meter run and goes on to the state track meet this week.
You also had five members of the Friesen clan from Emo, though four of them were from the same generation. Father Wes, 45, was 62nd overall, but he was overshadowed by his kids. Going up the ladder, there was Dirk, 13, 44th place; Heidi, 17, 26th place; Ian, 11, who matched his age with an 11th place finish; and, of course, Andrew, only 15, who won it all for the second time in as many years.
Thanks mostly to a huge contingent from Fort Frances, this one was truly an international run. There were 42 Canadian runners and 60 from various points in the United States.
There were, in fact, more runners from Fort Frances (28) than from Baudette, 27. There were eight from Roosevelt, six each from Williams and Warroad and four from Roseau.
On the Canadian side of the roster, there were six from Emo, a number that included five from the Friesen clan, and four from Devlin.
Kalli added a new category this year, and it was added somewhat after the fact. She set up an age 12 and under division because of the huge number of runners — 38 — age 19 and under. The 12-and-under division included seven boys plus nine girls. Morgan Carlson of Roosevelt was the youngest runner at age 7, and she was the youngest at age 6 in 2005. She finished 79th overall this year. Thirteen-year-old Travis Bois of Fort Frances finished 16th overall, and 13-year-old Krista Edmond of Fort Frances was 21st.
Another run is planned during the Baudette centennial festivities, on Saturday, July 1.