St. Peter senior Corbin Herron entered the MSHSL Class AA Finals Saturday morning with the opportunity to close out his high school athletics career in three finals events including the 110m hurdles where he won a state title as a sophomore before finishing as the runner up last year. He began the day reclaiming the state title in the 110m hurdles with a record smashing time of 14.67, and as the third leg of the 4x200m relay team, he helped the squad to finish as state runners up, but that’s where disaster struck for the senior, as he felt a critical failure in his hamstring rounding the corner.
“Right on the curve, i felt a tear in the hamstring, so it was honestly a surprise that I even finished that race,” Herron recalled after the meet.
With no chance to realistically compete for the title in the 300m hurdles final, nobody could have blamed him for simply calling it a day, but instead he had a trainer wrap his upper leg and gave the run a fair shake. It was immediately clear that the two-time state champion would be fortunate to make it around the track but he powered through to the finish with all those in attendance rising to applaud the show of willpower and commitment from Herron.
“I kind of saw it as a victory lap, you know,” he said. “It would have been just one point for the team and maybe it could have made a difference for the team score, but I thought it would be a great way to end it.”
That single point the boys team got for Herron completing the race did have some impact as it provided the Saints a total of 39 points to give the team a finish of sixth place, one point ahead of Mound Westonka.
The boys received 10 points from their second-place finish in the 4x200m race that feature Herron, Derek Guth, Isia Morales and Romeo Alcantara Alvarez, posting a time of 1:28.39. Luke Banks scored 10 points in the discus where he finished as the state runner up with a throw of 170 feet and four inches while adding three points by claiming seventh in the shot put with a toss of 52’3.25”.
Derek Guth earned a second podium finish in the 200m dash where he finished seventh with a time of 22.47 and he also finished 15th in the 100m dash with a time of 11.12. Brock Guth competed in the pole vault competition and finished the day with a top clear of 12’6” to earn 13th in the state and Morales finished his second event of the weekend 22nd with a long jump of 18’8.25”.
On the girls side of the competition, the quartet of Keira Friedrich, Lydia Fell, Addison Landsom and Ella Dirks all made the trip to state for a chance to make their mark on the biggest stage.
“I’m just really happy and very proud of all the other people from my team that made it,” said Dirks after the meet concluded Saturday. “I’m glad I got to have had this experience.”
Friday night saw Fell, an eighth grader, compete in the high jump where she claimed 17th in the state with a top clear of 5’1”.
The first event to begin Saturday for the girls saw Addison Landsom clear a height of 9 feet even in the pole vault to earn 24th overall.
The running events then began for the girls with Friedrich doing battle in the 1600m run and with a PR time of 5:02.01, she finished fourth in the state to earn six points for the girls and a place on the podium.
Dirks and Friedrich then returned to the track not long after the 1600m run to compete in the 800m finals where Dirks got off to a hot start, leading the field throughout the first lap while Friedrich found herself in traffic as the first lap came to a close.
As the second lap came around the final bend though, Dirks had fallen back a few spots while Friedrich moved up a couple and the pairing finished fourth and fifth respectively with times of 2:17.33 and 2:18.49, earning a total of 11 team points.
“It makes us both so much better,” Friedrich said of having Dirks on the team with her. “We always go back and forth in practice and meets, it’s amazing having each other.”
With a total of 17 points, the girls team finished the day 19th in the state.
The message was clear though for members of future teams, many of this year’s competitors included, the work that is needed to represent the Saints at State.
“Training is pretty big, like running in the winter and through the summer makes a big difference,” said Friedrich. “A lot can happen in a year. and anyone can improve a lot, so you never know.”
“It’s definitely worth making it here,” added Dirks. “For me, I would say just a bunch of hard work and perseverance and to just keep going.”
“It takes work, just those those unseen hours of being in the gym and it’s not all about having this natural ability,” concluded Herron. “You have got to learn a lot of that in order to compete at this level.”
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