State Track Meet Begins Friday

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

State Boys’ and Girls’ Track and Field Meet
Champions returning to defend 23 individual titles, nine relay titles

Twenty-three individual champions and representatives from nine relay teams that won gold medals last year have qualified to defend those titles this Friday and Saturday, June 5 and 6, when high school athletes gather at Hamline University in St. Paul for the 2015 State Track and Field Meet.
Preliminaries in track events for both classes will be conducted on Friday, as well as a few finals. All of the 3,200-meter events will be run as finals only on Friday, as will be some field events. Friday’s schedule begins at 9:00 a.m. with the Class AA competition. The Class A events are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m., but possibly may start later depending on the pace of the Class AA meet. The same schedule will be followed on Saturday.

Class A Girls Highlights
Champions return in four individual events and two relays.
Jia Lewis, a Minneapolis Edison ninth-grader, will defend her 100-meter dash title. Sophomore Morgan Shindelar of Plainview-Elgin-Millville owns the fastest qualifying time of 12.60.
In the 400-meter dash, Belle Plaine junior Jenna Gatz will race for a second consecutive title. Gatz also has the best qualifying time of 57.51.
Senior Kayla Huhnerkoch of Redwood Valley of Redwood Falls is looking for her second consecutive crown in the 1600-meter run. Marissa Carlson, a senior at Bagley/Fosston, owns the fastest qualifying time of 5:08.24.
Senior Josie Lilja of BOLD/BLH returns for a second shot at the pole vault title. Six competitors qualified with the best height of 10-2.
Pequot Lakes returns in search of its third consecutive title in the 4×100 relay. Chatfield comes in with the best qualifying time of 49.88.
The Osakis Silverstreaks return in search of their second consecutive title in the 4×200. They will face tough competition from Blue Earth Area which qualified with the fastest qualifying time of 1:45.63.

Class A Boys Highlights
Eight individuals and representatives of two relay teams are returning to defend titles.
Senior Shane Streich of Waseca, who has the best qualifying time of 4:15.56, is looking for his third consecutive title in the 1600-meter run. Streich is also defending his title in the 800-meter run with the fastest qualifying time 1:55.24.
Senior Jon Tollefson of St. Croix Lutheran of West St. Paul is searching for his third title in both the 110- and 300-meter hurdles. Tollefson also has the fastest qualifying time in each event: 14.28 in the 110 and 38.42 in the 300.
Ninth-grader Blake Collier of St. James Area is in the hunt for his third consecutive title in the shot put-wheelchair and his second in the discus-wheelchair. He qualified with the best put of 13-06.00 in the shot put. Ben Bode, an eighth-grader from St. Peter, has the best qualifying distance of 20-8 in the discus-wheelchair.
Minnehaha Academy senior Jonathan Webb is looking for his second consecutive championship in the 400-meter dash. He will face tough competition from senior John Schuster of United South Central who owns the fastest qualifying time of 48.91.
Senior Jaustin Culbert of Chisholm, who has the highest qualifying jump of 6-07.25, is looking for his second consecutive title in the high jump.
Foley and Rochester Lourdes return to defend their 4×100 and 4×400 relay titles, respectively. Teams from Plainview-Elgin-Millville own the fastest time in each race; the Bulldogs come in at 43.63 in the 4×100 and 3:26.18 in the 4×400.

The Class AA girls’ field is well represented with previous title holders. Defending champions in eight individual events return and representatives from two medal-winning relay teams will be competing.
Senior Marissa Bartels of Delano returns to defend her title in three wheelchair events: the 100-meter, shot put, and discus. She also owns the best times and distances in each event. She has a qualifying time of 22.06 in the 100, and distances of 19-06.25 and 49-01 in the shot put and discus, respectively.
Junior Brieasha Hunter of Cretin-Derham Hall of St. Paul returns in search of her second consecutive title in both the 100- and 400-meter dash. Chanhassen junior Jedah Caldwell owns the fastest qualifying time of 11.86 in the 100 and Bloomington Kennedy sophomore Honour Finley has the best qualifying time of 55.13 in the 400.
Sophomore Tess Misgen of Shakopee is in the hunt for her second crown in the 1600-meter run. Junior Bethany Hasz of Alexandria owns the best qualifying time of 4:51.53.
The title in the 300-meter hurdles may belong to senior Erin Huls of Rocori of Cold Spring, but she does not have the best qualifying time this year. That honor belongs to Thief River Falls junior Meleah Biermaier, who qualified with a time of 43.28.
Rochester Century junior Andrianna Jacobs qualified to defend her pole title, and shares the best qualifying height of 12-6 with Northfield senior Alexis Kiefer.
The Mounds View Mustangs are looking for their second consecutive title in the 4×200-meter relay. A team from Champlin Park enters this year’s meet with the best qualifying time of 1:42.10.
The three-time defending champion Minnetonka Skippers return a relay team to the 4×800-meter relay. The Skippers also own the fastest qualifying of 9:21.44.

Class AA Boys Highlights
Three relays and three individuals qualified to defend their 2014 titles.
Senior Akeem Sirleaf of North of North St. Paul returns, looking for his third consecutive crown in the 200-meter dash. He also has the best qualifying time of 21.56.
Mounds View senior Matt Baker and Hastings junior Clayton Johnson return in the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles, respectively, but neither has the fastest qualifying time. St. Paul Como Park junior Trevon Clay has the best time of 14.29 in the 110 and Eden Prairie senior David Eldridge has the fastest time of 37.98 in the 300.
Wayzata is looking for a third consecutive title in the 4×200-meter relay and a fourth consecutive championship in the 4×400-meter relay. Eagan owns the fastest qualifying time of 1:27.43 in the 4×200 and Eden Prairie has the best time of 3:21.00 in the 4×400.
The 4×100-meter relay team from Hopkins is looking to defend its 2014 title. Eagan owns this year’s best qualifying time of 41.76.