MSHSL Track Championships: Morning Session

Emily Castinias(6) takes off with less than a half mile to go  in the girls 3200
Megan Hasz(2), Emily Hasz(1), and Shaelyn Sorenson(3) give chase.
Photo by Jim Ferstle

As temperatures rose to the mid 80s in bright, nearly cloudless skies the morning session of Class AA competition at Hamline University's Klas Field in St. Paul had personal bests and meet records fall.  Stillwater's sophomore Eli Krahn(9:00.08) ran the 3200 meters like a veteran to move up one place from last year.  Krahn led briefly early in the race, then closed it out with a 58 second final lap to defeat runner up Zach Benning(9:02.21) of Hastings and defending champ Obsa Ali(9:02.97) of Richfield.

Rosemount's Payton Otterdahl threw a personal best in the shot put(61'.50") ,  beating the field by nearly four feet.  Mankato East's Calvin Deike won the pole vault clearing 14'6", while Terrance Bowers of Hopkins won the triple jump with a hop, step, and jump of 48'2" to help his team to the first day lead.  Hopkins has 17 points, two points in front of Hastings.

The All Time State Meet record for the girl's 100 meter hurdles fell in the prelims as Blaine's Alexandra Williams broke Richfield's Jessica January's 2012 mark of 14.32 with a time of  14.22  in heat 1. Rosemount's Rachel Show won the second heat in 14.42, but almost tumbled clearing the final hurdle.  She stutter stepped to clear the second to last hurdle, then had to improvise again after clearing the last barrier and barely held her balance and momentum to get past the finish line.

In the day's other girl's finals, Minnetonka's Mia Barron added to her record collection with a AA State Meet record in the long jump of 19'1.5".  Kasson-Mantorville's Taylor Wiebke narrowly failed to add to her earlier this year, Minnesota all-time record in the high jump, winning her event with a leap of 5'9".

Prior Lake's Kasie Vollmer won the discus with a toss of 152'10" In the only track final of the day, Chanhassan's Emily Castanias set a personal best in the 3200 of 10:28.58 to defeat Tartan' Shaelyn Sorenson(10:30.45) and Alexandria's Hasz twins, Bethany(10:31.32) and Megan(10:32.75).  The Hasz duo helped Alexandria to the first day lead in the team race at 21,5 points, five more than Prior Lake.

After losing to the Hasz twins at the Hamline Elite Meet in April, Castanias got faster and changed her tactics.  Instead of front running as she had in April, Castanias waited for the right time to move.  Feeling good with two laps to left she heard her coach yell: "Go!"  Go she did, passing the twins and maintaining her lead to the end.

Krahn's tactics were similar.  He said that the pre-race strategy was to make sure the pace wasn't too slow for the first mile, then track the leaders and make his move with a lap to go.  It didn't take a lot to winnow the field as the first mile was around 4:39, about ten seconds slower than the pack of nine went through the first mile in 2013.  Instead of nine, this year's lead pack was five with Joey  Duerr and Joe Klecker in the mix with the top three.

Krahn(2) takes off trailed by Duerr(5), Benning(6), Ali, and Klecker. Photo
by Jim Ferstle

Down the home straight going into the last lap, Krahn retook the lead and gradually upped the tempo, fending off a challenge by Duerr on the backstretch where Krahn began to open a gap on the field.  Benning was the second fastest on the last lap, running sixty seconds and overtaking everyone but Krahn on the home stretch.   Well placed going into the final lap, Ali seemed to be in position to defend his title.  "I just didn't have it this year," he said.

Otterdahl did, however, noting that while he has thrown as far as 63' in practice in the shot, his improvement of nearly a foot in his in-competition throws was satisfying.  A runner-up in the shot in 2013, Otterdahl also placed third in the discus last year.  Otterdahl is in a good position to sweep the weight throw titles as he has the longest throw in the discus for 2014 of 177'7".

Barron is also the favorite to sweep the jump titles by winning Saturday's girl's triple jump,  where she has a best outdoor mark of 39'11.25", more than two feet further than her competition.

 AA and A results are HERE.