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CHISAGO LAKES

In her second trip to the state tournament, Wildcat eighth grader Annika Hall finished 5th in the 3200-meter run, with a personal record time of 10:53.66.  Hall also finished seventh in the 1600-meter run, with a personal record time of 5:17.89.  Junior Trent Guth tied for fourth in the pole vault, with a personal record height of 14’0”.  The state tournament was held June 6-8 at St. Michael-Albertville High School.

Two runners separated themselves from the pack about a third of the way through the girls’ 3200-meter run.  Hall was in a pack of seven or eight runners chasing the leaders.  Throughout the course of the race, three runners, including Hall, took off from the rest of their original chase pack.  The three runners stayed neck and neck until the end.  Hall crossed the finished line just over a half second after the third-place finisher, and 0.3 seconds out of fourth place.  Hall finished sixth at state in last year’s 3200 as a seventh grader.  Her time this year was 20 seconds faster than last year.  Hall’s seventh place finish in the 1600 meter runs was 13 seconds faster than her time at last year’s state tournament, and just two seconds out of fourth place.

Guth, making his first appearance in the state tournament, cleared 14 feet on his second attempt in the pole vault.

Including individual events and relays, nine Wildcat girls participated in eight events at this year’s state tournament.  For the boys, six athletes participated in a total of five events.

NORTH BRANCH

North Branch’s girls track and field team showed they belonged among the elite at the Class AA track and field state meet at St. Michael-Albertville last weekend.

They narrowly missed out on a relay state championship in the 4x200 meter race, and they earned multiple medals throughout the two day event that crowns the best athletes in Class AA.

The aforementioned 4x200 meter relay team of Derrian Dick, Sophia Thorsen, Sophia Benedict and Dakota Esget had a great showing. The quartet finished the race in 1:41.42 to come in second place in the meet to Monticello’s foursome, who broke the Class AA record with their time of 1:39.43. North Branch’s foursome, which is comprised of all underclassmen, was only one-tenth of a second off of the previous state record in the event. Dick, Benedict and Esget are all juniors while Thorsen is a freshman.

Esget, Dick and Thorsen also teamed up with junior Ella Kuhlman to grab a sixth place finish in the 4x400 meter relay with a time of 4:02.19.

Dick’s younger sister Ella continued to show North Branch’s prowess in the pole vault event, as the sophomore finished in third place in the event by clearing 11’6”, just six inches behind the top finisher.

Esget also medaled in that event, securing a seventh place finish with a jump of 10’6”.

Thorsen finished in seventh place in the 200 meter dash for North Branch. She finished the spring in 25.31 seconds to claim the medal finish.

The Vikings scored 25.5 points, which was enough to put them in 15th place in Class AA.

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