Photo by Lee Epps
Junior Chris Pieper of Caledonia/Spring Grove qualified for the Class A State Track & Field Meet as the section runner-up in high jump. Junior Reid Bjerke had advanced to section in three events, medaling twice and earning team points in all three. He earned the fourth-place medal in the 200-meter dash and the fifth-place medal at 100-meters. Junior Logan Banse claimed the sixth-place medal in shot put. The Warrior boys finished 14th among 25 teams that earned team points at the two-day event (June 8 and 10) at Dodge Center, hosted by Triton High School.
The only Cal/SG girls who qualified for section, the 4×100-meter relay, did not compete. The top two in each event advance to section along with any others who achieve a state standard time, height or distance. In each event, the first eight places earn team points with medals awarded to the first six places.
Pieper and Kaiden Peters of Plainview-Elgin-Millville were the only two high jumpers, among 14 qualifiers, to clear 6-feet, 1-inch, but Peters won the tiebreaker with fewer misses. Pieper had also qualified for section in long jump but was eliminated in the prelims.
Bjerke had a personal-record time of 22.79 seconds at 200 meters and ran his second-best time at 100 meters (11.45 seconds) after his best-ever 11.33 two days earlier in the prelims. He was 13-hundredths of a second away from qualifying for state with the state standard time (22.66). Banse added over six feet to his previous best shot put (at sub-section) with a personal-record 44-feet, one-fourth-inch performance at section.
Banse and Bjerke, along with sophomores Hunter Holland and Eric Mauss, ran the 4×100-meter relay with their two best times of the season – 45.56 seconds in the prelims and 45.48 in the finals while placing seventh – earning team points but not medals. The 4x200M relay boys – Jason Schock, Lewis Doyle, Fischer Wait and Mitchell Reynolds – did not advance out of the prelims with a time of 1-minute, 42.45-seconds.
The State meet is June 17-19 at St. Michael-Albertville High School in St. Michael. The Class A boys high jump is slated for 10 a.m. on Friday, June 18.