Lakeville North: A Record and a Story

Casual Minnesota track and field fans can be forgiven if they were scratching their heads over the news last week that Lakeville North had broken the state's all-time boys’ high school record for the 4 x 100m relay at the Nike Outdoor National meet in Greensboro, North Carolina.

After all, didn’t Andover win the Class AA 4 x 100 at State?

Hadn't Lakeville North failed to qualify for State in the event?

Weren't the Panthers absent from the State 4 x 100 last year too?

Well, yes, yes, and yes.

But somehow, here the Panther team of Trevor Jellum, Jonny Anyaogu, Nate Sayler, and Nick Nelson was, running a 41.67 that eclipsed Eastview’s esteemed 2003 mark of 41.82 -- until then the only sub-42 team in Minnesota prep history.

Now, it is true, that slightly more astute observers of things-high-school-sprinting would have noticed that Lakveville North qualified three boys to State in the 100m dash, two of whom -- Anyaogu and Nelson – advanced to finals.

The Panther 4 x 100 also won the True Team 4 x 100m title over eventual Class AA champs Andover, edging the Huskies by .01 in 43.08. But for a disqualification at the Section 1AA meet – where Lakeville North won but was called for aiding on the final exchange – Lakeville North might have entered the MSHSL meet as the favorites.

In the end, many of the elements that made Lakeville North’s 41.67 a surprise for fans, were the same factors that drove Panther co-head coach Todd Endersbe and his squad to make the trip to Greensboro in the first place, although Endersbe says the the disappointments aren't the only reason the team went south to run fast.

“I think we would have gone in pursuit the of the state record in any case,” the former St.Thomas hurdle star told DtB, noting that the bad weather at the State Meet’s second day would have made a fast time there impossible, even if they had been in the meet.

The bid for the record had its complications, though. Two graduation parties scheduled for NON weekend needed to be rescheduled. In addition, the team’s usual leadoff runner, Shedrick Agyei, was unable to make the Greensboro trip due a prior commitment in Philadelphia that weekend.

Endersbe held a run-off for a spot on the squad between Kaleb Williams and Trevor Jellum, where Jellum, a hurdler and jumper by trade, earned the right to replace Agyei. The new role gave Jellum his own second chance on the season – the fastest qualifier to finals in the Section 1AA 110 hurdles, Jellum had false-started in the finals.

“It didn't seem like a gamble,” Endersbe said of the substitution “but we needed a fast replacement for Shed, a State meet qualifier in the 100m dash with an impressive 11.07 in Section. I knew Trevor had wheels, but I didn’t know how fast he was."

The Panthers’ arrived in Greensboro as the #24 seed in the 25-team boys 4 x 100. Endersbe admitted the squad was initially awed by the talent gathered at the meet, but he said they settled in after seeing reasonable times advance runners to the 100m finals.

“It gave them the mindset that, 'Maybe we belong,'” Endersbe said. “They then believed they could run with the best in the nation."

The squad proved they belonged when, from lane 1, they whisked the baton around the Greensboro track in 41.91 – the #2 mark in Minnesota high school history and a scant .09 off the Eastview record.

“I was just shaking,” Endersbe remembered after the prelim victory. “I couldn’t talk."

After the prelim, a North Carolina meet official asked of the Panthers’ if they’d run their suddenly modest-looking 43.08 seed time in a Minnesota snowstorm?

In what turned out to be a two-section final, the Panthers drew a better lane – lane 3 – and ran with the additional confidence gained from their stunning prelim.

They clocked the record-setting 41.67 to finish 4th overall and earn high school all-American honors as a team. You can watch the race HERE.

Endersbe admits to reacting emotionally to the final as well, but says the team was nonplussed.

“They looked at me and said, ‘Well, what did you expect us to do’?"

Actually, Endersbe confided that he’d had high expectation for the squad for more than a year.

“I made a prediction that I haven’t told anyone about until now," he revealed. "I thought the team could run 41.5.”

From that prediction, through all the ups and downs of their season, and culminating with their 41.67 at Nike Outdoor Nationals, Lakeville North is now a relay team -- and a story -- for the ages.

Photo by Paul Saxton, courtesy of Lakeville North. From left: Nelson, Saylor, Anyaogu, and Jellum.