Edina's Haerter is elite endurance athlete

An endurance athlete seldom takes a day off from training, and Edina senior to be Jace Haerter is happy to hear anyone describe him that ways.

He competes year-round in three sports - cross country, Nordic skiing and track - and it’s easy to see how that keeps him in tip-top shape.

Haerter doesn’t just compete, he competes well. He has already made two state meet trips in each of his sports. When he was finished with his events at the State Class AAA Track Meet June 8, he talked about his love for fitness training.

“What I learned here this week is that on a windy day, you have to eliminate gaps,” he said. Haerter tried to follow runners ahead of him whenever he could to cut down on wind resistance.

What will he take away from the 2024 state meet?

“How much fun it is to race against a bunch of fast guys,” he said.

Haerter’s state competition began with the 3200-meter run June 6 at St. Michael-Albertville High. That race is always held early in the morning before the sun begins beating down on the track.

State cross country champion Robert Machura of Roseville won the 3200 with a time of 9:06.85 - by far his best time of the year. Haerter finished 13th and was unable to match his best time this season, which was 9:12.13. The race was generally slow for everyone with a brisk wind throughout. Macura didn’t seem to mind much as he beat everyone else by almost seven seconds.

In the 1600-meter run two days later, Haerter went against some familiar foes, including Wayzata junior Will Weber. He finished ahead of Weber for a second straight time in the 1600, but finished behind two other Lake Conference runners - Sean Fries of Minnetonka and Tyler Kissell of Wayzata.

Machura won the race with good competition from Chaska runner Nolan Sutter. Machura ran 4:08.89, a good time for conditions that day. Sutter finished in 4:11.60. Haerter’s time of 4:18.51 left him in 11th place and didn’t quite match his season best of 4:16.74.

During the offseason, Haerter plans to train for both cross country and Nordic skiing. He has summer training trips to California and Colorado on his agenda.

“I’ll head to Colorado in late June and California in mid July,” he said.

When summer ends, he will be back in Edina leading a Hornet cross country team that also includes one of his training partners, Zach Danielson, and state meet golf champion Torger Ohe.