After nights of violent protests, it was refreshing on Monday afternoon to hear Terrence Floyd encouraging peaceful protesting in his response to the tragic death of his older brother, George, in a brutal arrest by police in Minneapolis last week.
It’s been an eye-opening week which has given Minnesota a negative perspective. Hopefully, Terrence’s leadership will be followed this week.
Today (Wednesday) is the Third of June. That date was made somewhat famous in Bobby Gentry’s 1967 hit record “Ode to Billie Joe” — impossible to believe that was 53 years ago.
Nine years before that — on June 3, 1958 — Windom was making an impressive showing at the state track and field meet held at Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Minnesota. The Eagles finished third in the final team standings of the one-class meet with 16 points (5-4-3-2-1 for just five places back then). Ace hurdler George Strunk won both the 120-yard highs (14.8) and the 180-yard lows (20.0). He also ran the leadoff leg — followed by Jerry Cooper, Randy Nielsen and Roger Otto — on Windom’s winning 880-yard relay (1:32.2). The Eagles finished the meet by getting one more point from a fifth by the mile relay team of Jerry Knutson, Bob Dwight, Nielsen and Otto.
St. Louis Park, coached by future U of M track and field coach Roy Griak, won the 1958 state title with 22 points, followed by Minneapolis Central with 19. Windom was just ahead of Minneapolis Southwest (14), Marshall (13) and St. Paul Central (11).
Brewster’s Ned Voss gave the Bulldogs two points with an impressive fourth-place finish in the 100-yard dash. Voss finished second (behind Cooper) in the District 7 meet and qualified for the state meet by placing second, ahead of Cooper (fourth) and Mankato’s Tom Mueller (third), at the Region 2 Meet in Worthington.
Voss finished behind Tom Syverson of Blue Earth’s winning time of 10.7 at the regional, but at the state meet, he beat Syverson, who placed fifth in the finals, won by Dick Axilrod (10.5) of University High. Lamberton’s Gary Schaar was second and LeRoy Martin of Mpls Central took third.
Marshall’s 13 fifth-place points came from dual record-setting performances by Bob Peterson in shot (57-4 ½) and discus (169-11 ½), along with a third by sprinter John Ahlin in the 220.
Adrian’s girls had six consecutive high-placing state-meet performances in the two-mile (4×800) relay, as follows: 2007 (second, 9:32.13), 2008 (third, 9:34.90), 2009 (third, 9:44.41), 2010 (fourth, 9:37.90), 2011 (third, 9:30.27) and 2012 (second, 9:39.97) — an absolutely amazing consistency of performance.
The Dragons (Nicole Slater, Morgan Lynn, Austyn Thier and Erica Thier) also finished second in the 4×400 in 2009, running a stellar time of 4:08.19. Leslie Stover, Erica, Austyn and Morgan ran on Adrian’s third-place 4×800 that year.
I will have more about those dominant years by the Adrian distance runners in upcoming track and field features, which includes individual state-meet placing performances by Morgan Lynn, Austyn Thier, Hailee Heitkamp, Jordin Kopplow and Nicole Slater.
Around that same time span, Murray County Central’s Colleen Everson and Fulda’s Amy Paulzine were making repeat trips to state-meet competition.
Everson was a three-time medalist, including a sensational second in the 400-meter dash (56.95 in 2008), while Paulzine won a state title in the discus (138-10) in 2011. Raider foreign-exchange student Slyvia Zanini (from Italy) gave Fulda back-to-back state discus champions, winning in 2012 with a distance of 141-11.
They are playing amateur baseball in South Dakota and high school baseball and softball is happening in Iowa. There is still no word about things being allowed to start in Minnesota?
I know that the Heron Lake Lakers, Adrian A’s and Hadley Buttermakers are all “itching” to get started. Let’s hope that it happens soon!
