Titans of the Track - GNK track and field at their best going into final month

Track and field athletes from Greenway-Nashwauk-Keewatin participated in the Iron Range Conference Championship on Tuesday, and showed they are only getting stronger as they enter “Championship Month.”

The GNK girls took second place in the event with an impressive 159 overall, and the boys took third, scoring 107.5 in the event held at Rock Ridge High School in Virginia on Tuesday.

Greenway-Nashwauk-Keewatin track and field, along with their cross-country team, are a proud program, who always field competitive running teams, often sending athletes to state and then college teams prepared for the next step.

Right now, GNK track and field is heading into the month that matters most, and they appear to be getting faster and stronger, as evidenced by the broken vinyl records they may need more of.

Three GNK track and field athletes recently broke program records as they continue to peak Kaylee Kangas broke her own top mark of 50.06 seconds in the 300m Hurdles, Sydney Goss set the record in the Discus Throw with a long-range toss of 109 feet, and on Tuesday at GNK’s True Team meet, Gage Roberts broke his own record for the GNK boys 300m Hurdle with a time of 42.38, a hair faster than the 42.73 he just set at the True Team the week before.

Titans assistant coach J.J. Hall, who coaches Kangas and Roberts in the speed events, said you have to be more than just fast to be good, especially record-breaking good.

“You need speed, but you also need focus. There are obstacles and it’s a mentality. You have to have competence,” Hall said, describing the difficulty of sprinting over a row of hurdles in a varsity race.

Last year Gage Roberts was a state track and field athlete, setting another GNK record for 110m Hurdles at the time, running it in 43 seconds flat. And while Roberts is fast, he is also a technique runner and first-year captain, and has only gotten more confident into the end of his high school career.

It’s a mentality that Roberts has going into “Championship Month,” as GNK and their talented group head into sub-sections, sections, and the state tournament. They are fast enough - and that brings confidence; enough that Roberts has his sights set on breaking his record once more before seasons’ end.

“I think I can do it in 41-40 seconds,” he said about the 110m Hurdles.

Roberts told Hall after the state tournament that “I”m going again,” and Roberts is currently performing like he means it.

“They’re determined,” says Hall. “I tell them: You have a chance, it’s up to you.”

Fellow active GNK record-holders Kaylee Kangas and Sydney Goss were participating in a separate track and field meet, and were unavailable for comment at the time of this interview.