by Les Knutson
Sports Reporter
Editor’s Note: This is the 11th feature in a series of articles about past performances at state track and field meets by area high school athletes. This week’s story highlights the state-meet accomplishments of local girls and boys from 2000-2004.
After several banner-year performances from area athletes during the 1990s, things tapered down a bit during the early 2000s at state high school track and field meets, but there were several stellar accomplishments, including state championships by Heron Lake-Okabena hurdler Ellen Graef and Fulda shot putter Jenna Wendorff.
Graef, who had run on back-to-back state-championship 4×200-meter relays for the Southwest Star Concept Quasars in 1998 and 1999 and placed ninth in the 300-meter low hurdles as a sophomore in ’98, capped her amazingly-successful high athletic career (she also excelled in volleyball and basketball) with a “flawless” first-place finish the 300 lows at Blaine in 2000, clocked at 44.60 seconds, well ahead of the second-place time of 46.39.
Wendorff, also a stellar three-sport athlete with much success in both volleyball and basketball, was a four-time state-meet placer in the weight events. She placed third in the shot put as a sophomore in 2000 with a distance of 39-11. Jenna had a fifth-place discus throw of 122-3 as a junior in 2001 and capped off her career with a pair of state-meet medals as a senior in 2002, winning the shot put (43-5) and placing sixth in the discus (114-9).
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