Kendra Kelly and Shaliciah Jones Take the Top Spots in the Class AA 100 and 200

Photos by Gene Niemi

Shaliciah Jones(7)(12.07) and Kendra Kelly(5)(12.30) finish 1-2 in the
Girl's Class AA 100

Kelly(5)(24.60) and Jones(4) 24.74) finish 1-2 in the 200

Annandale Frosh Nyalaam Jok Ties Class A Record in the High Jump

                                    Photo by Gene Niemi

Annandale Frosh Nyalaam 
Jok  tied the Class A record in the high jump clearing 5' 9".
She was also 2nd in the long jump leaping 17' 4.25"

Ava Hill is Undefeated in the MSHSL Class A 800

                                  Photo by Gene Niemi

Mesabi Easts' Soph Ava Hill  Wins the Class A 800
She also anchored the team's  to  runner-up finishes  in the 4 by 200 and 400 Relays
The 800 win was her second title in that event. Hill is also an accomplished athlete in basketball.

The Ping Sisters Dominate the Class A Distance Races

                                                 Photos by Gene Niemi

Grace Ping Wins the Class A 1600.  The Ping's near sweep of the first two places in the 3200
and 1600 produced enough points to put Winona Cotter in second in
the team scoring for Girls' Class A.  

                                    Lauren Ping on the outside.  Grace Ping (1) on the inside
                                                  with two laps to go in the 3200

Lauren kept her lead to win while Grace was passed  by Defending champion in the 3200, Tierney Wolfgram, who finish second. Lauren was asked after the race if the sisters had meant to
run side by side and set the pace, "No,"she said,   the sisters each  ran as fast as they could.
          Grace said that her season was interrupted by injuries. An injury hampered her at the State Cross County championships. A hip injury caused her to alter her stride that resulted in more injuries.  She got in enough training to be able to win the 1600.  Grace's past accomplishments resulted in a group of high school boys approached her at the  Hamline Elite Meet and asked if she'd pose with the boys for a photograph.  "Sure," Grace said.

T'Nia Riley doubles in the Class A sprints, breaks Heather Van Norman's 1987 record in the 200

                                 Photo by Gene Niemi

T'Nia Riley on her way to the Class A Girl's 200 record(24.44)
Riley also won the 100(11.96)

The Class AA high jump Girls are so happy they could eat their medals.

                                   Photo by Gene Niemi                 

The Class AA high jump Girls are so happy they could eat their medals.
From L to R: Mounds View's Julia Fixen(5'7"), 3rd; Blaine's Madison Schmidt(5'8"); and
Madison  Johnson(5'8") 2nd.  Schmidt won on fewer misses.
Fixen also won the pole vault clearing 13' 9.25". As the weather deteriorated she took a couple
of attempts at 14' 9" She said that she was confident she could clear that height, but the rain
that came during a "time out" due to lightening made taking the last attempt she had too
dangerous despite attempts to get rid of the water on the vault runway.   Fixen hopes that the weather is better this weekend so she can make another
attempt at that height.

Maxwell Otterdahl Wins Shot Put Despite injury

                                Photo by Gene Niemi

               Maxwell Otterdahl had to overcome a leg injury in his quest to follow the family
               tradition of success in the throws.  In order to do that he changed his technique because
            using the spin, rather than the glide put less pressure on his damaged muscle. The change
         worked in the shot put as Otterdahl won that event(58' 7.25"), but he wasn't able to fully overcome that issue in the discus in a  wet circle and sometime slippery disc to finish 7th(151' 6")

Opening Day of the MSHSL State Track and Field Championships

There was something for everybody on the first day of the two day MSHSL State Track and Field Championships at Hamline University on Friday,

The action on the track began with the girls' 3200 meters  where defending MSHSL Cross Country Girls'champion Emily Covert ran  a new All-Time best for the distance.  She did it alone.  Her track races during the season have been more like  time trials than  races. The other runners couldn't match Covert's pace as she attempted to not only set personal bests The Minneapolis Washburn junior hopes that a sub 10 minute 3200 is part of her future.

Emily Covert finishes the 3200.  In the first half of the race Covert was
all smiles as she came down the finish straight. "The first four laps are for smiling,"
she said.  the last four are for fighting off giving in to the urge to minimize the discomfort of the
effort it takes to get to the finish line.
Photo by Gene Niemi

On Friday she cfinished in  10:06.19 to set another MSHSL championship record. In November 2017 Covert won the Class AA cross country title and broke the AA MSHSL girls' record.  Covert and her teammate Grace Dickel, who finished third in the 3200 have Washburn in first in the Girls'team competition after four events have been tallied on Day one.

In the boys' Class AA 3200 Wayzata's Khalid Hussein duplucated Covert's XC and track wins, winning XC title in November 2017 and the track title here.  Hussein says he will run the 1600 on Saturday.

Khalid Hussein, Photo by Gene Niemi

Maxwell Otterdahl wins the shot put title while his older brothers
compete in Eugene at the NCAA championships.  Max wrestles in addition to
the shot and discus.  Says the wrestling helps him learn how to use
his body to throw further.  Max also changed his technique from the glide to the spin(rotational).
Photo by Gene Niemi

MORE PHOTOS AND STORIES FROM DAY ONE AND DAY TWO COMING LATER.

NCAA DI Women's National Team Rankings

NCAA DI Women's National Team Rankings
HERE

MIAC Indoor Track Championships: St. Thomas Men Win 34th Consecutive Team Title, Women their 19th

MIAC Indoor Track Championships Men's Results HERE; Women HERE
Photos HERE
Men's Recap HERE Women HERE

Gopher Women Win Big 10 Title

Indoor Track: Gopher Women Win Big 10 Title
Big 10 Results HERE
Photos HERE
Women's Recap HERE
Men finish 9th
Men's Recap HERE

MSU Men Win NSIC Indoor Track Championship; U Mary Triumph in the Women's

MSU Men Win their 7th straight Indoor Track Title. Results HERE. Women's Results HERE
Day 1 Photos HERE; Day 2 HERE
Women's Recap HERE. Lexi Zeis Wins Mile, 3K , and 5K.
Men's HERE

Indoor Big 10 Track Championships Day 1

Big 10 Day 1 Results HERE
Women's summary HERE
Men's summary HERE
Photos HERE

NSIC Indoor Track Championships Day 1

NSIC Indoor Track Championships Day 1 HERE: Results, photos, recaps

MIAC Indoor Track Championships

MIAC Indoor Championships Day 1 & 2: preview, photos, results HERE

U-Mary Runner-up, UMD 15th in Women's Team Race at NCAA DII XC Championships

U-Mary women's team celebrate 2nd place finish

NCAA DII women's results HERE
U-Mary women's summaries HERE and  HERE
The runners' view of an NCAA trophy HERE

UMD Women 15th in the team race. Summary HERE.  Men's results HERE. UMD Men's summary HERE.

Carleton 5th in NCAA DIII Women's Team Race; St. Olaf 21st, St. Thomas 22nd.

  Women's Results HERE. Carleton women's summary HERE; St. Olaf HERE; St. Thomas-no summary available
Men's Results HERE Carleton 10th, Summary HERE

USATF Minnesota Cross Country Open & Masters Championships Results

USATF Minnesota Cross Country Open & Masters Championships Results HERE

A Double Double Highlighted the Team competition at the 2017 MSHSL Cross Country Championships

On a cool, overcast day on the  St. Olaf cross country course Wayzata swept the girl's and boy's Class AA titles and Perham also did the double in Class A .For Perham it was the reverse of last year's State Meet  team battles that  they lost in tight competition. This year they edged Winona Cotter by one point to take home the girl's trophy.  The win in the boy's race was by 30 points over runner-up St. James Area high school.

Wayzata was more dominant, beating Edina by 21 points in the girl's AA race.  In the boy's it was anoter dominant performance with Wayzata's  scoring 37 points to runner-up Stillwater Area's 72 and Edina's 107. Wayzata senior Khalid Hussein won the AA 5k title, pulling away from Acer Iverson of Roseville.

"I ran a 4:12 mile in track," said Hussein, which boosted his confidence in the back and forth battle with Iverson, who tried to break Hussein by charging up the hill on the "forest" segment of the course in the second half of the race.  Iverson, a junior from Roseville, said he thought he could hold onto the lead and the gap he opened with his surge, but Hussein was too strong and quick over the last half mile of the race.

In the girl's AA race, Washburn's Emily Covert used the same strategy as Iverson.  However, she was able to hold the gap she got on last year's champion Anna Fenske of Farmington. The battle between the two resulted in a new All Time record for the 5K of 17:30.1 for Covert.  That record almost fell as Tierney Wolfgram successfully utilized a different strategy to run away from the Ping sisters, Lauren, who was second and Grace, who finished third in the Class A race.

Instead of waiting to make a move in the latter half of the race, the tactics  the other champions utilized, Wolfgram ran even splits, she said, going out hard and holding that pace the last half of the race. She gave credit to the Pings, who she got to know when she was invited to participate in the Project Gold running camp two years ago in Utah, and again in last summer's Project Gold camp at St. Mary's in Winona.

Tierney Wolfgram
Photo by Gene Niemi

She and the Pings got to be good friends along with  the rest of the girls in the camp, she said.   "I'm not the most confident person," Wolfgram said of her pre-race nervousness, but she learned how to transform that anxiety into energy.  Energy enough to set a new Class A record for 5K and only 1.5 seconds away from duplicating Covert's All Time mark.

It was the fast times run by Grace Ping  that had attracted Wolfgram into the sport.  When she saw Grace Ping, then a 7th grader, out run and dominate the race to win the 2015 Griak high school Maroon race title, Wolfgram said that then :"I didn't think a 7th grader could run that fast" A 7th grader herself then, Wolfgram's attitude and expectations were transformed.  Training with and getting to know Grace and the other "campers" helped her to set her goals higher.

On Saturday Grace had a strip of green  kinesio tape on her right quads.  She didn't want to talk about the leg or the fact that she hadn't trained during the past week.  She said that she was OK, and was hoping to run in the NXN qualifying meet later this month,  Saturday's race was more for the team than herself, as  Cotter  had a shot at the team title, which they lost to Perham by a point.

Grace Ping. Photo by Gene Niemi

Lauren Ping
Photo by Gene Niemi

Big 10 XC Champs Results

Big 10 XC Champs Results: Men HERE. Women HERE
Purdue's Jaret Carpenter 7th in men's race, Emma Benner 14th in women's race.