Foley's Tyler Beehler Wins Three More Golds; Streich Aims for New Balance Nationals

Tyler Beehler celebrates another victory.
Photo by Gene Niemi

Foley's Tyler Beehler has a love hate relationship with track and field.  The senior is headed for Iowa Wesleyan where he wants to play football.  This weekend he won three more gold medals in the MSHSL Class A track championships, taking his total haul of golds to five(six if you include last year's team championship medal) and total medals to nine(ten with the team gold from 2013).  This from a guy who used to say he hated track, said St. Cloud Times reporter Tom Elliott, who has covered Beehler's career.

Beehler set an All time Class A State meet record in the 200 in the prelims of 21.45, beating the mark set in 2009 by Gopher sprinter Cameron Boy of 21.62.  Beehler's time was the fastest male 200 at this year's State meet, besting AA champ Akeem Sirleaf's prelim time of 21.57.  Beehler won the 100 in 11.02 with a prelim time of 10.96, which was bettered by Hopkins' AA 100 champ Shaheed Hickman's 10.70 prelim time and Armstrong's Evan McClellon's 10.86.

Beehler on the anchor leg of the 4 by 100 relay. Photo by Gene Niemi

A compact 5'10", Beehler doesn't fit the stereotypical football body, but he's played nearly every offensive position but lineman, including kicker.  Elliott figures that he'll be a kick returner for Wesleyan, possibly a wide receiver, both positions that can exploit his speed. Beehler used to play baseball too until it was suggested that running track would be a better fit for preparing him for football.

Shane Streich(1) and Keeghan Hurley battle down the stretch of the
Class A 1600. Photo by Gene Niemi

Shane Streich/Class A 1600

Waseca junior Shane Streich also came away with three medals in Class A at this year's MSHSL championships.  More importantly for Streich he also ran a qualifying time for the New Balance Outdoor Nationals next weekend in North Carolina in the prelims.  His 1:51.92 was the fastest time for both classes this weekend.  It prompted two-time Class AA champ from Bloomington Jefferson Matthew  Rosen to say he wished he could have raced Streich and they could have pushed each other to faster times. Rosen ran 1:52.32 to win the AA final.

Matthew Rosen(6), Josh Tracy(2), Lucas Trapp(5), and Allen Michael
Burback(Stillwater) in the Class AA 800. Photo by Gene Niemi

"It was the first time I was able to run the 800 fresh this year," said Streich of his prelim time, and it didn't seem to negatively affect his performances on Saturday.  Streich first won a dual with 3200 champ, Keeghan Hurley in the 1600 in times comparable to the Class AA 1600 final. Third place finisher Nick Golebioski of St. Cloud Cathedral kept the pace "honest" early, going through the quarter in 63 and the half in 2:09. "I didn't want another 'tactical' race like the Class A 3200(where the pace was pedestrian going through the quarter in 80 and the mile in just over 5 Minutes)," said Golebioski.  "My legs weren't good.  I just didn't have any spring. I wanted it to be a fast pace."  Hurley was happy with the fast pace and Streich was content to "sit on them and let them pull me along.  I knew I was the fastest finisher, so I was content just to wait."

With a quarter to go Hurley went to the front and tried to break Streich down the backstretch.  Streich passed Hurley going into the homestretch and tried to pull away, but Hurley hung on and tried to get by Streich.  "I just gutted it out," said Streich.  "I went with about 75 to go and got past, but I knew he wasn't going to give up."

1600 Class A awards (from left to right) Keeghan Hurley, Shane Streich,
Nick Golebioski. Photo by Gene Niemi

"I love this kind of race," said Hurley.   "I love to test myself in races to see what I'm capable of. I didn't get the result I wanted, but I took him all the way to the line."  Both runners broke the former Class A 1600 meet record of 2:15.20, running 4:13.80 and 4:13.96.  Eli Krahn won the AA race in 2:13.54 with Obsa Ali second in 2:13.59.