Lakeville North girls win eight events
Lakeville North’s track and field teams ran it back at their annual Mega Meet, winning the boys and girls team championships for the second consecutive year.
The Panther girls won their team championship decisively, finishing 92 points ahead of second-place Belle Plaine in the invitational April 27 at the Lakeville North High School stadium. North’s boys held off a push from three other competitors, scoring 111.33 points and finishing ahead of Bloomington Jefferson (99.5), Chaska (97) and Belle Plaine (96).
Twelve girls teams and 12 boys squads competed. Also placing in the girls meet were Apple Valley (sixth), Trinity/Unity (ninth) and Burnsville (12th). On the boys side, Apple Valley was sixth, Burnsville seventh and Trinity/Unity 11th.
Lakeville North senior Trinity Wilson won shot put competitions two days in a row. On April 26 she took first at the Hamline Elite Meet with a personal-record 41 feet, 7.5 inches. The next day she threw 38-10.25 to win the event at the Mega Meet. Wilson also won the girls discus at the North invitational with a throw of 113-3.
North’s girls won eight events total at the Mega Meet, including three relays. Also having a strong individual performance was ninth-grader Kiah Blalark, who won the 100-meter dash in 12.95 seconds and the 200 in 26.97. Blalark teamed with Olivia Grecco, Avya Tobias and Lauren Reynolds to win the 4x100 relay in 50.85.
The Panthers’ Claire Koznick, Elyse Stachewicz, Kate Weisser and Eva Canfield were first in the 4x800 relay in 10:11.36. North junior Lindsay Meyer and eighth-grader Madilynn Bell each cleared 5-0 in the high jump, a personal record for both. Meyer took first via the tiebreaker of fewer missed jumps.
Discus was the North girls’ highest-scoring event, with Wilson, junior Kolby Hamer and sophomore Maggie Ball finishing first through third.
Lakeville North’s boys had five event victories, three in relays. Winning individual events were senior Chase Altergott, who ran a personal-record 1:59.84 in the 800, and junior Darby Griffin, who ran 4:37.28 in the 1,600.
Sam Ripplinger, Charlie DiRico, Miles Henson and Ayden Forsgren won the 4x100 relay in 43.98. In the 4x400, Caleb Ouyang, Eli Olson, Tyler Christianson and Griffin came in first in 3:32.02. Olson, Charles Sery, Asher Brown and Landon Nerison took the 4x800 relay in 8:26.89.
Middle-distance and distance events were big for the North boys. Their highest-scoring event was the 1,600, where they picked up 22 team points as Griffin, Tyler Kimmel and Carter Perry were first, second and fifth. Altergott, Olson and Nerison finished first, second and seventh in the 800 for 20 points.
The Panthers scored 35 of a possible 40 points in relays with the three victories plus a fourth place in the 4x200.
Hamline Elite Meet
Several athletes from Lakeville North and Lakeville South earned invitations to the Hamline Elite Meet on April 26.
The Elite Meet is known for bringing together the top athletes from the early portion of the high school track and field season. Invitations are performance-based and athletes from all three enrollment classes compete against each other.
The Elite Meet is also becoming known for weather that puts athletes to the test. It was chilly, and a stiff breeze from the east caused meet officials to reverse direction for the 100-meter dash so athletes would run with the wind at their back. Rain also arrived mid-meet.
That didn’t throw off Lakeville North senior Trinity Wilson, who threw a personal-record 41 feet, 7.5 inches to win the girls shot put in her Elite Meet debut.
North’s Tyler Christianson finished second in the boys 300-meter hurdles in 39.02 seconds, a personal record and the third-fastest time in Minnesota so far this season. Corbin Herron of St. Peter won in 38.79, the fastest reported time in the state.
Also competing for North in the Elite Meet were Darby Griffin, 11th in the boys 800 in 2:00.33; Chase Altergott, 13th in the boys 1,600 in 4:25.85; and Kiah Blalark, 14th in the girls 100 preliminaries in 12.71.
Avery Sandmann, Taylor Glinski, Alexa Drew and Eva Welsch of Lakeville South finished fourth in the girls 4x100 relay in a season-best 49.47 seconds. Also taking fourth was the Cougar boys 4x800 relay of Aiden Jakubic, Nikola Petrov, Quinn McManus and Owen Johnson, who finished in 8:06.54.
Welsch, a sophomore, was fifth in the girls 100 hurdles in 15.31. Drew, a senior, finished 11th in the 100 preliminaries in 12.60. South’s 4x800 relay of Claire Vukovics, Taylor Tetner, Audrey Schmidtke and Josie Hudson was 11th in 9:47.11.
Lakeville South True Team Invitational
Blaine won the team championship and Lakeville South finished fourth at the Lakeville South True Team Invitational, a six-team boys meet held April 25.
Blaine was more than 130 points ahead of second-place Rochester Mayo. Lakeville South was just six points behind third-place Owatonna.
South had one first-place finisher – junior Aiden Jakubic, who won the 1,600 meters in 4 minutes, 33.89 seconds. South senior Owen Johnson was second in the event, four-tenths of a second behind Jakubic.
Also taking second for Lakeville South was senior Cody Powell in the long jump, where his best attempt was 20 feet, 2.25 inches.
Under True Team scoring rules, every athlete that completes an event scores points for his team. The same format will be used Tuesday, May 7, when Lakeville South hosts the Class 3A, Section 1 boys and girls True Team meets.
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