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Tuesday, July 1, 2008
State Track Meet
St. Paul, MN
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By: Bryan Horwath
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Photo(s) By: Tom Carothers
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The 2008 boys and girls state track and field meet was hosted by Hamline University in St. Paul and took place from June 6-7. The athletes battled a stiff wind on Friday and were greeted by warm and muggy conditions for the meet’s final day on Saturday.
Boys Class A: No luck needed - Irish secure first state title
Although it won just one event during final-day events on Saturday, the Rosemount boys track and field team had more than enough points to pull away from Irondale and win its first-ever state championship.
Obai Hussein of Rosemount finished first in the 400-meter dash after securing a time of 48.62 seconds to edge Leon Cheneyon of Robbinsdale Cooper (48.81).
Chichi Ojika of Irondale had a blistering time of 21.95 seconds to win the 200-meter dash while Uche Ogbonnaya, Ojika’s Irondale teammate, took the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 38.51 seconds in the finals.
The Knights tallied 60 points to finish in second place at the meet.
Woodbury came away with 45 points to finish third and highlighted its meet with a victory in the 4x400-meter relay. Matt Domski, Rashad West, Cooper Wahlo, Jr., and Ernest Dorsett III combined for a time of 3:18.77 to win the event. Woodbury’s foursome finished 1.38 seconds from the all-time mark set by Stillwater at the 1997 state meet.
Burnsville’s Rob Finnerty was looking for the state record in the 1,600-meter run, but had to settle for first place instead. The senior raced the mile in 4:10.43 to top his competition in the race, but fell short of the all-time Minnesota record of 4:05.10, which was set by Garry Bjorklund back in 1969.
Finnerty – who also won the 3,200-meter run this year – finished second to former Stillwater star Ben Blankenship in the 1,600 last year at state.
Apple Valley’s Nick Metzger, twins Nick and Mike Hutton and Spencer Vadner converged to set a new state record in the 4x800-meter relay with a time of 7:45.31. The old record of 7:47.33 was set by Willmar last year.
Owatonna’s Casey Dehn took home a pair of golds in the shot put (62’5 ½”) and the discus (173’9”).
Girls Class AA: Peterson can’t overtake Eastview
Kylie Peterson is leaving behind quite a legacy at Apple Valley. In her final high school track meet, the future University of Minnesota athlete recorded three first place finishes in the 100- meter, 200-meter and the 4x100-meter relay.
Peterson ran the 100-meter in a time of 11.79 seconds to top her 2007 championship time of 12.11 seconds in the event and won the 200-meter with a time of 23.70 seconds. Freshman Chanel Miller and seniors Megan Charles and Kristen Dare were Peterson’s teammates in the 4x100. The four combined for a time of 48.08 seconds to nip Mounds View’s Kayla Sawtell (who also won the 100-meter hurdles), Shannon Sorensen, Leah Hansen and Bergen Butala (48.19).
Eastview took the team championship by securing 74 points. Mounds View finished the meet in second place with 60 points and Apple Valley – largely due to Peterson’s efforts – was third with 50 points.
Alexis Brown, of Eastview, won the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.17 and represented the only first place finisher among the Lightning’s 15 state qualifiers.
Two freshmen battled it out during an exciting 1,600-meter run. Mara Olson of St. Louis Park came from behind to overtake Stillwater’s Caitlin Hewes with a winning time of 5:02.41, just 0.13 seconds faster than Hewes.
Eden Prairie won the 4x800-meter relay when Laura Lawton, Rachel Edwards, Megan Platner and Laura Platner came together for a time of 9:16.50 and Hopkins took the 4x400-meter relay as Jill Greenfield, Callie Knaeble, Meghan Sweeney and Bridget Sweeney ran a time of 3:54.81.
St. Paul Harding star Sade Pollard, slowed by a nagging hamstring injury, did not qualify for the finals of any events. Pollard had won the 400-meter at the state meet the previous three years and also won the 200-meter in 2007.
In the field events, Wayzata senior Jordan Helgren set a new state record with an effort of 39’3” in the triple jump. Helgren’s jump didn’t come in the finals – which she won – but still counted to top her own record of 38’10-¼” set last year.
In Class A action, Providence Academy improved on its ninth-place finish in 2007 to earn 55 points and top the field in the Class A championships.
DeLaSalle’s Leslie Thomas won her second straight state 100-meter hurdles race after finishing in a time of 15.21 seconds.
Class A: Providence Academy girls win title; St. Croix boys settle for third
The girls track & field team from Providence Academy finished with 55 points, only seven points ahead of second-place Lake Park-Audubon and 15 higher then third-place Perham.
The 4x200-meter relay team of Samantha Zopfi, Leighton Lerum, Rebekah Dyrud and Ellie Jensen finished first with a time of 1:4363 for Providence. The same core group, with Katie Hout replacing Rebekah Dyrud, finished first in the 4x100-meter relay.
Jensen and Lerum finished third in the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes, respectively, while Zopfi took second in the 100-meter dash.
On the boys side, Fairmont finished with 52 team points to edge Glencoe-Silver Lake (33) and St. Croix Lutheran (32) in the Class A meet.
DeLaSalle finished tied with Triton and Perham for fourth place with 31 points. Colin Carpenter, Patrick Bryant, Joe Hamel and Ned Brady teamed up to take the gold for DeLaSalle in the 4x800-meter relay after completing the race in 8:01.90.
Brady added to his big weekend with a win in the 800-meter run after running a time of 1:54.53.
St. Croix Lutheran also boasted a strong relay team in the meet as Ben Gavin, Michael Roeller, Tyler Koester and Matt Dvorak won the 4x100-meter relay with a time of 43.39 seconds in the finals.
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