Nordby a double qualifier in the 400 and 4x400 relay

Wildcat sophomore Hannah Nordby set a Chisago Lakes High School record of 58.80 seconds in the preliminaries of the 400 meter relay last Wednesday, May 29 at Duluth. In the Saturday, June 1 finals, also held at Duluth, Nordby ran a bit slower, 59.25 seconds. But she won the race and is headed for the MSHSL State Track and Field Meet this Friday and Saturday at Hamline University in St. Paul.

Also qualifying for the state meet is the 4 x 400 relay team of senior Beka Meyer, sophomore Sarah Greene, Sophomore Lauryn Delzer and Nordby. The Wildcats won the event in 4:05.98, nearly three seconds ahead of second place Duluth East. Nordby will run in the 400 meter dash preliminaries at 11:26 a.m. tomorrow and the 4 x 400 relay team will run at 12:55 p.m. If they qualify for the finals, Nordby will run at 11:16 a.m. this Saturday and the relay team will run at 12:26 p.m. this Saturday.

Senior Abby Forsman and sophomore Katie Christy will accompany the 4 x 400 team as alternates. Greene set a new school record in the finals of the 800 meters with a time of 2:21.45. She just missed qualifying for the state tournament, finishing third – just .65 seconds out of second place. Several more Wildcat athletes placed in the top eight in the finals for their respective events. For the girls, senior Jenna Zais was seventh in the 100 meter dash; senior Hannah Trandahl, eighth, 100 meter dash; Forsman, sixth in the 1600 meters and seventh in the 800. For the boys, senior Andy Magnuson was fourth in the 1600 meter run and eighth in the 3200 meter run; senior Eric Brown, eighth, 100 meter dash; junior Carson Velaski, eighth, 1600 meter run.

Sophomore Frank Brezany was the only Wildcat athlete, boy or girl, to place in a field event at the meet, finishing seventh in the pole vault. Other Wildcats who nearly placed include Brown, who finished tenth in the 200 meter dash, and Delzer, who came in ninth in the 400 meter dash. And even though Velaski didn’t qualify for the finals of the 800 meter run, he set a personal record in the preliminaries of the race with a time of 2:05.37. The boys 4 x 400 relay team, consisting of senior Kyle Wilkerson, sophomore Quinton Lee, Magnuson and Velaski, finished sixth in their event with their fastest time of the year, 3:37.30.