Time for the annual report from track and field. I had certain events in mind as I sped from the softball game back to the high school [see previous post] for a tri-meet with Sartell and Willmar. I had checked with running coach Mark Nelsen to get starting times and realized I could stay for the entire softball game and still catch Jamie Piepenburg (above) in the 800 and Megan Hasz in the 3,200 – and throw in some of our hockey girls, Shanee’ Herd and Melissa Drown, in their events, and possibly Jamie in the 4 x 400 relay. I knew I would miss Bethany Hasz in the 1,600.
[First things first – find out where the photographers are hanging out!]
[Coach Nelsen with clipboard.]
[Jamie warming up, which is pretty much non-stop during the entire meet.]
This was Jamie’s last home meet before heading off to the U on a track scholarship. She holds the school record for both the 1,600 and the 3,200 (she has won state in both), and generally just runs the 800 for speed work. But she hoped to get the school record in the 800 as well. She gave it a good shot – setting a personal best – 2:17:39, but missing the school record by about a second. It was not a good day for record attempts as you can hear on the following video of her race, it was a tad too breezy!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEPQ0cRa8XY
Regarding the “tease” from the previous post. I ran into one of my “stringers” at the meet. She reported I had missed a school record run in the 100! Not only that, it was also the fastest time in the state this year – 11:79! By an 8th-grader! Her first time running the race at a high school meet! That was my reference to a historic race. But by dilly-dallying around for a couple of days, I let the Echo Press scoop me on the Wensia Johnson story:
[Echo photo.]
[Wensia on the field. My “stringer” thought I might be able to see her run in the 200, but alas, she wasn’t entered.]
[Card sprinter Madi Urman continued her very good year by winning the 200.]
[A between event musical interlude produced spontaneous group dancing among the contestants in the high jump area. And it also includes “The Peeper” just walking! 😉 ]
[My last event was the girls 3,200. I decided I couldn’t hang in there for the girls 4 x 400, the final race of the meet, without a large injection of caffeine. But I got to see Megan Hasz, above. Megan won her event handily – as did her twin sister, Bethany, in the 1,600 earlier. And like the aforementioned Ms. Johnson, they are also only 8th-graders! 😮 ]
[I had hoped to video the last two laps of Megan’s race. But I lost “track” of where we were in the race while visiting with a fellow Super Fan. The video only captures her down the stretch on the last lap. 😦 ]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKjf_jtAyWI
[Nap time!]
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