By Les Knutson , Sports Reporter
From a fifth-place by Fulda’s Bertrand Laugen in the javelin throw back in 1929 to a fifth-place performance by Rich Dierks, also from Fulda, 40 years later in 1969, the local area has had several boys place in the one-class Minnesota High School State Track and Field Meet, which existed until 1972.
There was nobody from our area who earned a place in the first six years of the meet, from 1923-1928, but Laugen gave Murray County a state-meet placer in ’29 with his fifth-place finish in the javelin, an event which was held for the last time in 1937.
Nine years after Laugen’s performance at Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Slayton’s Jerry Kolander sprinted to a fourth-place finish in the 100-yard dash at the 1938 state track and field meet.
Kolander qualified for state by finishing first in the 100 (10.7 in the finals after running a 10.5 in the prelims) at the Region 2 Meet, held in Pipestone. He placed third in the regional 220, after running a time of 24.1 in the prelims, barely missing advancing to the state meet in both dashes.
To read the rest of this article – pick up a copy of this weeks Fulda Free Press or subscribe to our e-edition at http://eedition.fuldafreepress.net/sub/account_login.asp
