Running strong and smooth from start to finish, Fulda sophomore Morgan Gehl — representing the Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda Coyotes girls’ track and field squad — has impressively qualified for the Minnesota State High School Track and Field Meet.
Gehl will again compete twice this weekend (Friday, June 7 and Saturday, June 8) as she claimed twin victories at the high-caliber Section 3A Meet at Luverne last Thursday, May 30.
Morgan’s first gold-medal performance at Luverne came in record-setting fashion as she was chased closely during all four laps of the 1,600-meter run by Canby / Minneota freshman Grace Drietz before pulling away with her strong finishing kick and completing the mile-long race with a time of 5:05.36.
Gehl’s time was .73 of a second faster than the 18-year-old Section 3A Meet record of 5:06.09 run by Tracy-Milroy-Balaton’s Julie Gifford in 2001. It was one of four new meet records set Thursday with warm and calm weather conditions prevailing.
Drietz was timed at 5:08.28, while Redwood Valley eighth-grader Savannah Schultz finished a distant third with her time of 5:33.59.
Gehl’s 5:05.36 was her third fastest of her career and second-best this season. She clocked her personal record of 5:02.18 at this year’s Red Rock Conference Meet (at Slayton, May 16), which bettered her previous best of 5:04.23 — which earned her fourth place at last year’s state meet at Hamline University in Saint Paul.
