Edison and Minnehaha Academy Win Class A Titles

Jon Tollefson(5) on his way to the first of two hurdle wins, the 110 high Hurdles.
Photo by Jim Ferstle

The race for the Class A boy's and girl's team titles wasn't decided until the final race of the meet, the "mile relay(4 by 400 meters).  Going into the boy's race, defending champs Foley had the lead in the boy's team scoring, followed by Minnehaha Academy and Waseca.  Both Minnehaha Academy and Waseca had teams in the relay.  Foley didn't.  In the girl's race Belle Plaine/Holy Family Academy(BP/HFA) trailed Minneapolis Edison, which also had no team in the relay.

Minnehaha Academy had to place sixth or better to pass Foley and had to maintain their three point lead over Waseca to take the boy's title.  BP/HFA had to win the mile relay to overtake Edison. As the girl's mile relay unfolded the Lewis sisters, Jia and Jada, who had scored all of the team's 40 points by placing first and third, respectively, in the 100 and 200, watched the action from the infield with coaches and teammates.

BP/HFA finished sixth in the relay allowing Edison to claim the title. The Edison group celebrated.  After the 100, as the sisters answered questions from reporters, Jada said that the pair wanted "to put Edison on the map.  We're not really known for sports."  Jia, with her long black hair fluffed up in back, said her teammates had told her to wear her hair that way.  "You should wear your hair like a lion," she said they told her.  As she rocketed down the home straight in her sprint victories, she ran like one too.

Having finished third in the relay in 2013, the Minnehaha boy's team was focused more on trying to improve on that finish than avoiding finishing less than sixth.  Their coaches had not set as a goal attempting to win the team title.  Instead they told the runners to focus on their races.  Sprinter Jonathan Webb won the 400, was fourth in the 200, and ran a leg on the mile relay.  Hurdler Samuel Lundquist was second in the 300 Hurdles, third in the 110 High Hurdles, and a member of the mile relay.  Distance runner Ephraim Bird finished sixth in the 3200 on Friday.

Rochester Lourdes and Minnehaha Academy battled each other through all four legs of the mile relay and the outcome remained undecided until the final meters.  Lourdes won in 3:21.41 with Minnehaha Academy second in 3:22.0.  Waseca's Shane Streich completed his Saturday triple by bringing home the Waseca team in third in 3:25.81.

"I'm really proud of the way they came together," said Minnehaha Academy assistant coach Kris Sauer.  As he talked to a reporter, the relay team members snuck up behind him and doused him with several bottles of water, their version of the now common liquid celebration bath.  Because the quest for the team title wasn't something that was mentioned prior to it happening, the runners had to improvise.

Photos from the meet at MSHSL Facebook page are HERE. Kraig Lundstrom's photo album is HERE.
Full results are HERE.

Strib summaries are  HERE and HERE.

Pioneer Press summaries are HERE and HERE

Rochester Post Bulletin stories on high jump champ Taylor Wiebke are HERE and HERE. On Chatfield's Class A weight throw double champion Jayme LaPlante and other Rochester are notable performances HERE.

St. Cloud Times story on Class A triple gold medal winning sprinter Tyler Beehler is HERE and 300 AA hurdles champ Erin Huls is HERE.