A Steamy State Track and Field Meet

On a couple very steamy June days, twenty-one total athletes from the four Journal covered track and field programs took part in the 2017 state meet.  Six athletes or teams made the medal stand.  The GMLOKS girls 4×200 relay squad (senior Katelyn Luthe, junior Emily Hovden, freshman Riley Queensland, sophomore Lauren Buchholtz) headed the cast.  A medal stand maker last year (ninth), with two new members (Luthe, Queensland), they put a nice cap on a season that saw them notch eight first place finishes in their first eight races competed.  In their ninth, they qualified third (1:45.40) to make the 4×200 finals.  There, things panned out the same.  GMLOKS (1:46.545) took third to Pequot Lakes (1:44.23) and Belle Plaine (1:45.50), milliseconds ahead of fourth place Holy Family Catholic (1:46.550).  The girls prelim time was their fastest of the season.  Their four fastest times came over the final three meets.  They are the Grand Meadow, Kingsland, and Southland girls 4×200 record holders.  The GMLOKS 4×100 (Luthe, Hovden, Kassidy Kirtz, Isabelle Olson) also competed.  They didn’t qualify for the finals even with a season second-best time of 50.52.  They are the Grand Meadow and Southland 4×100 school record holders.  RPH’s Ashley Agrimson, who finished fifth in the Long Jump as a sophomore, ended her stand-out track/field career back on the medal stand.  The 5’11” senior’s third jump went 17’3 ¾”.   It gave her a fourth place finish behind Section 1A champ Mara Quam of K-W (18’1”), Jenna Kes of Jordan (18’0 ¾”) and Robbie Grace of the Blake School (17’10 ½”).  Agrimson has notched a multitude of first’s (sprint-relays, Long Jump, High Jump, and Triple Jump) amidst her long career.  She had at least three Long Jump first’s each year freshman thru senior.  Her senior season included three Jump first place trifectas (L-Jump, H-Jump, and T-Jump).  She is the RPH girls L-Jump record holder (17’8” in 2015) and one-quarter of the RPH girls 4×100 record holder (2016), a two-time TRC Long Jump champ.  State first-timer, dual hurdle qualifier Drew Lewison of GMLOKS, was at his best in the 300-hurdles.  The junior went sub 40-seconds in the prelims (39.86) and finals (39.95), his best times of the season.  He finished fifth in the prelims and fifth in the finals.  Lewison also competed in the 110-hurdles, but didn’t qualify.  He came in having posted a 15.84 time at Sections, but went 16.33 in the prelims.  Drew is Southland’s 110 and 300 hurdles record holder.  Adding another chapter to their running dynasty were the LFC distance girls.  The 4×400 (junior Ashley Miner, junior Bailey Ruen, freshman Emma Breitsprecher, senior Leah Ruen) and 4×800 (8th grader Kaylee Arndt, Bailey R., senior Kiera Olson, Leah R) each competed for the second straight year on the state stage.  The 4×400 set a school record in the prelims (4:03.39).  They put up their second best time (4:03.61) in the finals to take sixth.  The 4×800 (9:54.74) put up their third fastest time of the year (9:54.74) and finished seventh.  Had they ran their (near school-record) time from sections (9:40.70), they would’ve won a state title over first place Minnehaha Academy (9:41.27).  Each team finished sixth last season.  For seniors Kiera Olson and Leah Ruen, it was their high school running swansongs.  Each logged a lot of miles between cross country, track individual distance events, and track distance relays.  Olson graduates having qualified for state seven times in about as many ways running as there is possible; cross country individually, cross country team twice, track and field individually, track and field true team, track and field relay twice.  Ruen qualified five times; cross country team twice, track and field true team, track and field relays twice.  The final county state medal stand maker was the Chatfield boys 4×200 (junior Austin Swancutt, senior Kevin Bradt, sophomore Gage Tuohy, freshman Ben Muller).  They ran their second fastest time of the year in prelims (1:32.51) to make the finals.  There they ran 1:33.30 to finish eighth.  The same group also competed in the 4×100, running its second fastest time of the year in the prelims.  It wasn’t good enough to qualify for the finals.  Both squads semi-officially (44.49, 1:32.06) hold Chatfield’s records (set in the Section finals).  Rounding out the state competitors were GMLOKS’ Peter Torkelson and Amelia Staat, LFC’s Caleb Kath and Emma Breitsprecher.  Torkelson entered as a 1,600-meter contender.  He finished third last season (4:25.77) and posted a season-best time (4:21.21) at this year’s Section Meet.  He, however, fell off the pace in his last high school run (4:36.41) and finished eleventh.   The two time Cross Country and track 1,600-meter state entrant graduates as Southland’s 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter record holder.  Staat posted her second best 800-meter time of the season (2:21.36), but didn’t qualify for the finals.  The sophomore finished first or second in eight of ten 800s this year.  Kath couldn’t summon up the magic of his state-qualifying season-long Section jump (21’7 ¼”).  The senior’s best effort at state was 20’6 ¼”.  He finished 12th, not bad for a kid who didn’t go out for track until this year.  Corleone Powell (22’2 ¾”) won the event.  RPH’s Noah Carlson won it last year (23’ ¼”).  Finally, LFC’s Emma Breitsprecher competed in the 300-hurdles.   Coming off a season-best time in the Section 1A finals (46.49), the freshman just missed making the finals by qualifying tenth overall (47.33).  Breitsprecher, the county’s only individual and relay entrant, notched six 300-hurdle firsts on the year, two seconds, and a third prior to state.