Morgan Gehl, Aaron Johnson and Scot Edwards each capped terrific spring seasons as high school track and field competitors by competing favorably at the state meet at Hamline University in Saint Paul last Friday and Saturday, June 7-8.
It was hot, with bright sunshine, both days — no rain or wind.
An improving sophomore, Gehl showed again that she is one of the very best girls’ distance runners in all of Minnesota, as she finished third twice (3,200-meter run, 10:58.15 and 1,600-meter run, 5:02.64) and brought home two more medals. She has already claimed five track medals and three cross country medals in state-meet competition and has two years remaining.
Johnson, a junior, earned a trip to Hamline by finishing a strong second — and bettering the state-meet qualifying standard — in the 110-meter high hurdles at Luverne on May 30. He ran well at Hamline in Friday’s prelims and advanced to the finals with the ninth-best time (15.84). He improved his placing in Saturday’s finals, claiming the seventh-place medal with a time of 16.05. At the section meet, he ran his all-time best of 15.47 — which is faster than the qualifying standard of 15.55 — quite an accomplishment for Johnson, advancing him to state-meet competition.
Edwards, also a junior, was the Section 3A runner-up in the shot put with his distance of 47 feet, six inches. He was not quite able to reach that at the state meet as his best effort measured 46-9.75 and was the 14th farthest.
Participating in the atmosphere of the state meet is quite an experience and I am sure that Morgan, Aaron and Scot will each be striving to advance to that level again in the spring of 2020.
Among other area athletes who placed in the top five in an individual event at Hamline were Southwest Minnesota Christian / Edgerton sophomore Kaitlyn Schuur (third, girls’ pole vault, 11-0), Windom sophomore Delany Smith (third girls’ shot put, 42-6 and fifth, girls’ discus, 120-8), Pipestone junior Devin Tinklenberg (fourth, boys’ 400-meter dash, 50.60) and SWC / E freshman Micah Schaap (fifth, boys’ triple jump, 43-6.5)
Six area relay teams — Luverne’s girls (first, 4×800, 9:22.92), Pipestone’s boys (second, 4×200, 1:29.73 and third, 4×100, 43.74), Ellsworth’s boys (third, 4×200, 1:31.12 and fifth, 4×100, 44.24) and Luverne’s girls (fifth, 4×200, 1:46.84) — all ran to top-five finishes in Saturday’s finals.
Luverne repeated as girls’ 4×800-meter relay champions and joined Heron Lake-Okabena-Lakefield (1991 and 1992) and Adrian (not sure on the exact years) as multiple champions in that event. Both Fulda and Storden-Jeffers had lots of success in girls’ 4×800-meter relay back in the 1980s.
Congratulations to Edgerton / Southwest Christian on winning another Class A state championship in girls’ fast-pitch softball. The Flying Dutchmen have been to the state tournament, held in North Mankato’s Caswell Park, six consecutive times and have advanced to four straight title games, claiming state championships in both 2016 and 2019.
Next week, we will know how the MCC girls and HL-O / Fulda boys did in team competition at the state golf tournament. Joining them this week at the Pebble Creek Course, near Becker, are qualifying individuals Jack Pierson and Cole Ahlers, both of MCC, along with Brock Henning, Madelyn Odell, Josie Altman and Gracia Elias, all from Adrian.
Abby Hamman, Cierra Tutt, Vanessa Dahlgren, Amber Boock, Paige Behrends and Kylie Frisk make up MCC’s sectional-championship girls’ team, while Payton Marquardt, Joe Fischer, Cory Renneke, Ethan Koep, Isaiah Schmid and Tyler Madison are the six members of the Coyotes’ team, which won the sectional title at Worthington on June 3.
Hamman, a junior, has had past success at the state meet, finishing seventh last year and ninth two years ago in Class A girls’ competition.
Fulda’s
Ken Larson’s 38-year-old high jump record of
6’10” is tied
Saturday
The oldest Class A state meet record, held by Fulda’s Ken Larson since 1981, was tied Saturday when Mound Park Academy senior Yahya Madar cleared the high jump bar at six feet, 10 inches (6-10) tying Larson’s winning height from 38 years ago.
Larson had made headlines the previous spring when he cleared an even 7 feet at a meet in Fulda as a junior in 1980. He later finished second at the state meet that spring, but won the event the next year and has held the record ever since.
I wrote a feature about Larson’s accomplishments as a high jumper last July and learned a lot about the boyhood years of the Dundee native and his approach to Raider track and field under the guidance of coaches John Bunkers, Hank Lenards and Vern Olson.
Lenards, who wrote a pamphlet on high jumping technique, was Larson’s coach for his record-setting event.
