Johnson's seventh place highlights Vikes' state results

Hamline University has always been the proving ground for elite Minnesota track and field athletes. Whether it’s the Hamline Elite Meet early in the season, or the season-ending state tournament, the best of the best prove their mettle at the small Minneapolis college on Klas Field.

Mikayla Johnson held her own with the state’s best in her debut in the state pole vault event. The freshman was seeded fourth going into the meet and finished on the podium, earning a seventh place finish with a jump of 11’. That was two inches shy of her section seed height. There is good and bad from Johnson’s results. Four of the six competitors in front of her are seniors and will be gone next year when she is only a sophomore. The bad news is that the state title was won by Andrianna Jacobs of Rochester Century, who is also only a freshman. Jacobs cleared a state record 13’.

Double qualifier Rhianna Rinke had a tough meet. The eighth grader finished 15 seconds off of her seed time and in 17th place in the 3,200 meter run on Friday. On Saturday, she finished in 14th place with a time of 5:11 in the 1,600 meter run. That time shaved two seconds off of her seed time. In the 4x200 relay, the foursome of SherahLynn Linkert, Kadie Mattson, Cassie Kunshier and Maddie Kunshier trimmed two seconds off their seed time, but still finished in eighth place in their opening heat. Their hand offs were mostly strong, but they were just on another level of competition at the state meet. Their time put them in 14th out of 16 teams.

Linkert also competed in the 300 meter hurdles. She finished in 18th place in the prelims with a time of 46.11 seconds, mostly in line with her seed time. Gina Amundson was quickly done in the high jump. She was seeded at five feet, but didn’t clear that and finished tied for 19th with Averi Turner of Minneapolis Southwest. Johnson’s three points earned from the seventh place finish in pole vault gave North Branch three points for the state tournament, leaving them tied for 53rd place in the team scores.

On the boys side, only Arik Steele qualified for the tourney and the sophomore was a hint slow in his prelim run. He was seeded at 15.22 seconds, but ran the second heat in 15.73 seconds to finish out of the finals. A 15.22 would’ve been enough to qualify Steele for the top nine and another crack at it on Saturday.