Starved for competition and merely being able to perform outside, many of the state's best high school athletes broke out from the athletic version of cabin fever in front of a packed house as Klas Field in St. Paul Friday night at the Hamline Elite Meet. Eight meet records were set and outstanding races, plus the winners throwing a T-shirt into the stands after each victory, had the packed grandstands loudly cheering for the action and yelling for the event winners to send a shirt their way.
The boys and girls 3200 lived up to expectations with two very different types of racing. The boys' race was a tactical battle that became, essentially a race for half the distance. The girls' event was part time trial, part race that became a three person battle after the first few laps. The similarities being that in each race the first 200 meters was run at a nearly identical pace and the winners made near identical last lap sprints to emerge victorious.
The boys race went out at 35 seconds for the first 200 and continued at near 70 second pace for each lap of the rest of the first mile. Two of the pre-race favorites, Stillwater's Eric Colvin and Wayde Hall, along with Richfield's Obsa Ali took turns at the front of the group with the tightly packed field having no trouble holding the early pace. After they passed the mile in around 4:41, Stillwater coach Scott Christensen, who had arrived at Klas Field after working with the majority of his team at the Varsity Invitational meet at St. Thomas, yelled to Colvin and Hall: "The race starts now," and it did.
Wayzata's Connor Olson soon took over the lead and began a long drive to the finish. By the last lap only Chaska's Joey Duerr was on Olson's heels with Colvin and Ali within striking distance but realistically out of the race for first. With 300 meters to go, Duerr made his move. Florescent yellow spiked shoes flashing, Duerr burst past Olson down the backstretch and never looked back.
He ran nearly 60 seconds for the last lap and approximately 4:27 for the last mile to grab the unexpected win. After the race, the sweat still glistening on his face, Duerr said that his strategy for the race was to hang onto the leaders in the talent-packed field and simply run as best he could. How any of the athletes could perform was an unknown variable as the many meet cancellations meant that everyone came to the meet with mostly time trials as competition and often little practice time on the track.
Asked when he thought he could win, Duerr said: "With 300 meters to go I was still feeling good, so I decided to give it a go...The the crowd noise was tremendous. I felt great." His last mile of the two-mile race was as fast or faster than he'd run an open mile, said Duerr, who wasn't thinking about time, but rather just staying competitive and seeing what happened. "When you get in a field with so many good runners, you just let them tow you along."
The girls 3200 followed a different model. After a 36 second opening 200 and a 76 second first quarter, the pace started to lag with a 78 second second lap. State AA cross country champion, Maria Hauger did not want a tactical race. "I was going for a fast time," said Hauger. She wanted to better her PR of 10:27.68. "I got a PR, so I'm satisfied," Hauger added. The fast time is important because the end of the season invitational meets around the country select entrants based on their times, not the titles they've won.
In pursuit of the time, Hauger towed State Class A cross country champion Clare Flanagan and Eagan's Danielle Anderson to fast times as well. Flanagan, who chose pink flourescent shoes to go with her red, white and blue Blake team uniform, was uncertain going into the race about her fitness. "I was really nervous earlier today because I haven't run any races, and Maria was running, and I knew it would be fast," she said. Once the race began, however, the nerves were gone and the competitor emerged. She followed Hauger, hoping to get a fast time and, like Duerr in the boys' race, decided to make her move down the backstretch of the final lap.
Flanagan quickly put several meters on both Hauger and Anderson and though they both fought down the homestretch and pulled back some of the lead Flanagan grabbed with her earlier burst, neither could make up the gap. Flanagan got the win in a meet record 10:23, followed by Hauger in 10:24.32 and 10:24.69, all three personal bests. As she was leaving the stadium, Flanagan saw Hauger standing with her father and mother. She congratulated Hauger on her race and the two compared notes on their upcoming schedules, Flanagan wondering if and when the two might race again.
Hauger noted that she had a race on Saturday in a rescheduled meet where she's going to run a 1600, plus another meet next week. The pair figured the only possible meeting would probably be after the State Meet. As they broke up, Flanagan, a junior, gave Hauger, a senior, a hug and told her how much she enjoyed their races: "You are an inspiration to me," Flanagan said.
St. Francis' Maggie Ewen has the same status in the field events. Winning her third consecutive double at the Elite Meet, she set meet records in the shot and discus despite this week being the first time she has thrown outdoors in practice or competition. Ewen, who will be going to Arizona State next year, joked with her parents that she won't have that weather problem next year. Between throws in the discus, Ewen, who won the event with a toss of 166'4", within six inches of her PR, stood with and conducted an ongoing, jovial chat with runner-up Kassi Vollmer of Prior Lake(133') and fourth place finisher Jordyn Thornton of Lakeville South(130'7"). After the event finished the trio posed for pictures together, arms around each others' shoulders.
During the competition, her conversations with the others interrupted, Ewen would take off her hooded sweat shirt, step into the ring and slowly twirl her body around, launching the disc skyward in an elegant arc as if it was attempting to reach up and touch the sky before it fell back to earth. Many of the other throwers had little arc on their throws, which looked like they were propelled as if shot out of a cannon on a straight line for as long as the implement could stay airborne. In this early season, her father said, Ewen works on her technique, slowly getting all the pieces of her athletic ballet around the ring more technically correct and quicker.
Ewen, also plays volleyball, and was drawn into both sports by her sister, she said. Oh, my sister's playing volleyball, I can do that, she said with a smile. My sister's doing track. I can do that. Yes, she can. So can Minnetonka junior Mia Barron who surprised herself by winning three events at the Elite meet--the long(17'8.5") and triple jump(37'4.75"), and 100 hurdles(15.26). Lakeville South's Shaina Burns doubled in the unlikely combo of the shot put(third, 42'10.5") and the 300 hurdles(first in 45.87), and who was teased by the meet announcer who noted that her T-shirt toss into the crowd after her hurdle win "didn't look like a shot putter's" throw.
Cretin-Derham Hall's Megan Linder also had a busy and successful evening. The defending State champ in the 400 won that event(57.19) and was second in the 100(12.41). Blaine's Taylor Morgan set a meet record in winning the 100, running 12.22 in both the prelims and the finals. Stillwater ninth grader Eli Krahn used a blazing final lap to win the 1600 in 4:18.59, nearly four seconds faster than teammate Sean Bork(4:22.30). Bemidji's Jenna Truedson(5:04.19) held off last year's elite meet 800 winner Samantha Nielsen(5:04.94) of Roseville in the girls 1600 as both ran PRs.
Minnetonka's girls teams swept the 4 by 400 and 4 by 800 relays. Kasson Mantoville's Taylor Wiebke set a meet record in the girls high jump(5'8"). There was a photo finish in the boys' 200 with Roseville's Elvis Barkley edging Forest lake's Rich Carr as both were timed timed in 22.11. East Ridge's Nate Roese broke his own meet record in the 400 with a 48.46 win over Champlin Park's Emmanuel Egbujor, whose 48.5 time was also under Roese's old mark. Irondale's Ben Ojika(14.50) set a meet record in the 110 hurdles despite having to recover from a stumble during the race. Wayzata's boys teams swept the 4 by 100, 4 by 200, and 4 by 400 meter relays, setting a meet record of 1:29.61 in the 4 by 200.
Full results are HERE. Star Tribune story is HERE.
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