The Mound Westonka track and field team ended its historic 2024 season at the AA State Track and Field Meet, held June 7 and 8 at St. Michael-Albertville High School. The White Hawks had eight All-State Athletes (finishing in the Top 9 in the state meet) and two state champions.
The White Hawks boys team finished in seventh place at state, tying the second-best finish by a Westonka track and field team in school history (fourth place 2023, seventh place 1975).
Senior Jack Markstrom raced to a 47.28 time in the 400-meter dash. Not only did he win the race by over 1.5 seconds, but his time also set an all-time state meet record in Minnesota track and field. No one has ever run a faster 400-meter dash in any division in Minnesota state meet history.
Markstrom teamed up with Owen McCue, Brenden Sexton and Charlie Dick to win a state championship in the 4x200 meter relay. Their time of 1:27.71 also set a new school record. Markstrom ended his incredible state meet with a second-place in the 200-meter dash. Though that was his last high school race, Markstrom will continue his athletic career at the University of Kansas this fall.
Markstrom, McCue, Sexton and Dick made school history at the state meet, as they became the first state champions for Mound Westonka boys track and field. In 1972, in the first-ever girls state track and field meet, Mound Westonka student-athlete Jane Oas won two events (100-yard dash and 220-yard dash), and in 1993 Mandy Kirtz won the 100 meter hurdles.
Four other White Hawks athletes earned All-State honors this year. Sophomore Lexie Rehman set a school record in the high jump with a jump of 5’3” to finish in a tie for fifth in the event. Junior John Seemann had a lifetime best discus throw (153’ 4”) to go from being seeded 14th in the meet to finishing in eighth place in the state. The 4x100 relay team of Dick, McCue, Henry Slater and JT Kimbrough set a school record in the finals and finished in eighth place. This is the most athletes Westonka has ever had earn All-State in track and field.
Brenden Sexton also competed in the 300 meter hurdles at the meet, just missing a place in the finals. Sexton improved by several seconds in that race this season.
Avery Olson had a great season for the White Hawks. After battling an off-season injury, Olson raced to a spot in the state meet 100-meter dash and ran her second-best time of the season in the state prelims. Olson teamed up with Rehman, Morgan Johnson and Eva Maria Castellon Williams to earn a trip to the state meet in the 4x100 meter relay. While they just missed qualifying for finals, all four girls are back to compete for the White Hawks next season. The 4x400 meter relay of Brett Bartkowicz, Jack Hall, Mason Lilledahl and Sexton raced in the prelims. That group missed qualifying for finals but had a great race.
This season the MWHS track and field team smashed eight school records. Samantha Christensen reset a school record she owned in the triple jump, leaping to a distance of 35’4.75”. Rehman set the record in the high jump at the state meet. Jack Hall jumped 41’10” in the triple jump to break a 37-year-old record (41’7” set by D. Pond in 1987). The 4x100 team of McCue, Dick, Slater and Kimbrough set a record with a 43.03, breaking the 2001 record of 44.17.
Markstrom rewrote the record board during his career. He set a school record in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.84 (previous record 10.93 by D. Smerillo 2017), 400-meter dash with a time of 47.28 (previous record 49.1 by J. Weber 1977), and in the 800-meter run in a time of 1:55.13 (previous record 1:55.9 by T. Wright 2005). Markstrom and teammates Sexton, Dick and McCue set the 4x200 record with a time of 1:27.71, breaking the record time he and his teammates ran in 2023. Markstrom is also part of the 4x400 and 4x800 school record teams.
Though the White Hawks will miss all their graduating seniors - including Cassie Nemecek, Morgan Nester, Jack Hulzebos, Jack Hall, Brett Bartkowicz, Owen McCue, Charlie Dick and Jack Markstrom - they are looking forward to cheering for Markstrom as he competes at Kansas, Bartkowicz as he races for University of Minnesota Morris and McCue as he sprints for the St. John’s University.
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