Sparked by dual record-setting performances from sophomore distance ace Morgan Gehl, the Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda High School girls’ track and field squad enjoyed a terrific all-around day at the 64th annual running of the high-caliber Sentinel Relays at Bob Bonk Track in Fairmont last Friday, May 4.
Gehl was one of six Coyote girls who produced double-figure scoring in the prestigious two-class meet, which has been a first weekend in May tradition since 1956. Both HL-O / Fulda head coaches Brad Holinka (boys) and Gary Hildebrandt (girls) have been selected in the past as Honorary Referees for the Sentinel Relays.
Over the years there have been many exceptional performances and the meet records are exceptional.
After Friday, there are two new Class A girls’ records — each established by Morgan Gehl, including one which bettered (by two seconds) her aunt Julie Kramer’s 31-year-old 1,600-meter run record of 5:11.0, which had held as the Sentinel Relays Class A girls’ all-time best since 1988.
Gehl easily won this year’s event with a new record time of 5:09.0, far ahead of the rest of the runners. The second-place Class A time Friday was 5:57, while the winning time in Class AA (bigger schools) was 5:26.02.
Later, Gehl ran side-by-side with an elite Class AA runner (seventh-grader Isabelle Schmitz from Hutchinson) and the two girls pushed themselves to another record-setting performance by Gehl. Morgan outsprinted Schmitz and crossed the finish line first overall with a new Class A record time of 11:04.70 (just ahead of Schmitz, 11:04.89) which smashed the old best mark of 11:25.0 run by Mountain Lake’s Tammy Olson in 1982 — 37 years ago.
Olson was an outstanding runner for the Lakers, who placed high in several state-meets in both track and cross country.
“I thought I had a chance to break both records,” Gehl told a reporter for the Fairmont Sentinel, the town’s daily newspaper which sponsors the event. She certainly did, in impressive fashion.
“Morgan ran a pair of impressive races and broke a couple of excellent, long-standing records,” declared HL-O / Fulda head girls’ track and field coach Gary Hildebrandt. “She was really pushed in the two-mile, which helped bring her time down even more. Those are two great times, which are now new Sentinel Relays records — great job, Morgan!”
Schumacher, Untiedt, Fest, Fisher, White each perform at high levels
Gehl was not the only Coyote who shined at Mahoney Field Friday. Five other girls contributed double-figure scoring in a splendid team effort, which notched a total of 126.5 points — good for second place among the seven competing squads.
Martin County West won the team title with 145.5 points, while HL-O / Fulda (126.5) finished a solid second. Fairmont’s Junior Varsity was third with 102.5 points, followed by St. Clair (101), North Union (54), Fairmont’s B-Team (49.5) and Mountain Lake Area / Comfrey (37).
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