State Spotlight Shines on Class AA Boys' 800m

If you can only watch one event at the 2008 Minnesota State High School League State Track and Field Championships this weekend, we recommend the Class AA Boys' 800m final scheduled for 11:53 a.m. on Saturday.

Sure, the State Meet sports 72 individual and relay events and features high school stars like Jordan Helgren, Sade Pollard, Rob Finnerty, Jordan Carlson, and Donny Wasinger, but the Class AA Boys' 800m offers both a scintillating mix of individual talent as well as the intriguing likelihood of playing a pivotal role in determining the Class AA Boys' team champion.

Provided the favorites qualify from Friday morning's prelims -- the second of which deliciously pits last year's champion and runner-up against one-another -- the 800m final could be both super-fast and ultra-competitive. The top four place-winners from State last year return this year. The state's all-time lists -- if not the all-time records -- are likely to need rewriting by 11:55 a.m. on Saturday.

Defending champion Zach Mellon, a junior from Buffalo, enters the race with a 1:51.91 season best set last week in the Section 2AA prelims. Last year Mellon ran 1:52.66 in the 800m final to win. Later in the summer he ran 1:51.83 to notch the #8 Minnesota boys' 800m mark ever as well as the #2 sophomore time in history.

Mellon needed all his speed last year -- and may need it again Saturday -- to edge Irondale's Andy Richardson. Richardson ripped a 1:51.60 in his 2007 prelim and raced Mellon to the finals' finish line with a 1:53.13. Richardson is the #5 Minnesota prep half-miler all-time and last year was the fastest junior ever.

2006 Class AA champ Isaac Veldkamp, an Eden Prairie senior, also returns after finishing 3rd in 2007 with 1:53.62. Returning 2007 4th-placer Obai Hussein of Rosemount, a 48+ 400m runner, returns as well, sporting a 1:53.89 season best. Robel Kebede, a junior of Minneapolis South, didn't make the 800m in 2007, but his 1:53.83 section mark should put him in the mix this year.

But, just as the State Meet itself is both an individual and a team championship, the 800m is impacted by and will likely have implications for the team title. Of the favorites, only Veldkamp and Kebede will race fresh. Mellon will toe his stagger line having anchored Buffalo's 4 x 800m squad earlier in that morning; Richardson, well-known as a fast starter and a tough cookie, will have raced in the 1600m against the likes of Finnerty, whom he defeated at the Hamline Elite-Meet 1600m, and Carlson; Hussein will be catching his breath from the 400m finals taking place less than an hour before the 800m.

How the state's bumper crop of half-milers sorts itself out on Saturday could go a long way in deciding the 2008 Class AA boys team champion. Irondale looks like the Class AA team favorite, powered as it is by sprint star Chichi Ojika and Richardson and supported by hurdler Uche Ogbonnaya and pole vaulter Peter Erickson. Ojika and Ogbonnaya also power a 4 x 100m squad for the Knights.

Rosemount, however, with Hussein, Carlson, 200m man Austin Eliason, discus thrower Elijah Buecksler, and 4 x 200m and 4 x 400m relay squads and Buffalo with Mellon, high hurdle honor roll leader Keenan Stangl and strong 4 x 400m and 4 x 800m relays have very realistic chances of driving home with the team trophy themselves.

So, as the Class AA boys' half-milers round the final turn on Saturday, a lot could be on the line ... the 2008 Class AA individual title for sure, the 2008 team title perhaps, and, who knows, maybe Trent Riter's 1:49.76 State Meet record or even Jason Owen's Minnesota all-time best of 1:49.13.

Photo by Gene Niemi -- left to right, front, Isaac Veldkamp, Zach Mellon, and Andy Richardson.


Join DtB this Weekend ... If you can't make it to some or all of the 72 events the compose the MSHSL State Championships on Friday and Saturday, join Down the Backstretch for the meet instead. We'll provide live-text coverage of both Class AA sessions -- beginning at 8:45 a.m. tomorrow and continuing starting at the same time Saturday -- and provide complete wrap-ups of the Class A action as soon as those sessions close on Friday and Saturday evenings. We're excited to bring the meet to you!

Note: DtB will not be providing video coverage of the meet this year.