Nine HL-O/Fulda track girls to advance to Section 3A high school meet Gehl, Schaffer each qualify in three events

by Les Knutson

Sports Reporter

A total of nine girls, representing the pairing of Heron Lake-Okabena and Fulda, earned advancement to this week’s Section 3A high school track and field meet by their performances at last week’s East Sub-Section Meet at Redwood Falls on Thursday, May 24.

The Coyotes will have competitors in eight of the events at Montevideo on Thursday (May 31), striving for advancement to this year’s State Meet, which will again be held at Hamline University in St. Paul on June 8-9.

Leading the HL-O / Fulda girls’ contingent at Montevideo will be freshman Morgan Gehl and senior Cheyenne Schaffer, a pair of season-long high-scoring contributors, who each qualified to compete in three events at the Section Meet.

Gehl, who finished an impressive fifth at last year’s State Meet in the 3,200-meter run, easily won both the 1,600 and 3,200 at Redwood Falls and will seek to advance in both events as a favorite this week at Montevideo.

Gehl’s winning times Thursday were 5:16.95 in the 1,600 and 11:36.90 in the 3,200.

Her time in the 1,600 was the fastest among all 16 qualifiers from the three Sub-Section Meets (East, Southwest and Northwest), while her time in the 3,200 ranks second to Luverne’s Tenley Nelson winning time of 11:33.71 run in the Southwest Sub-Section Meet at Luverne. The winning time in the Northwest Sub-Section Meet at Montevideo was 12:10.31.

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