State Track Meet: Minnetonka Girls Top Class AA, Wayzata Boys Set Relay Record

(Field Editor James Warden wrote this article.)

Two Lake Minnetonka-area team triumphed at the Minnesota State High School League Track Meet June 7–8, 2013: Minnetonka High School girls team won the Class AA competition, and the Wayzata boys 4x200 meter relay team set a state record. 

Minnetonka
Strong performance in the relays and field events propelled Minnetonka to a Class AA state track and Field championship Friday and Saturday at Hamline University.

Minnetonka’s 94.5 points were 15.5 points above runner-up Lakeville South. Sophomore Meghan Janssen, senior Anne Haakenstad, freshman Lucille Hoelscher and junior Elizabeth Endy finished the 4x800 meter relay in 9:06.71, nearly nine seconds faster than second place Wayzata.

In the 4x400 meter relay, sophomore Karina Smiley, Hoelscher, Haakenstad and Endy finished with a time of 3:54.04, edging out second place Farmington by about a 1 ½ seconds.

The girls also finished second in the 4x200 meter relay (junior Alexandra Orlowsky, Smiley, Janssen and junior Carolina Bowe), while Endy finished second in the 400 meter dash.

The Skippers did well in the field events, too. Junior Mia Barron won the long jump with a leap of 18-feet-3-inches. Meanwhile, Barron and junior Piper Jensen fought an extremely tight contest in the triple jump. Jensen took first with a jump of 38-feet-¾-of-an-inch, just ¾ of an inch better than Barron’s 38-foot jump.

In the boys’ competition, Minnetonka finished fifth in the 4x200 Meter Relay. Senior Bennett Celichowski, sophomore Paul Afflitto, Quinn Shepherd and senior Justin Bader finished with a time of 1:29.10.

Minnetonka boys also finished 10th in the 4x800 meter relay. Senior Jack Snyder, junior Riley Nelson, senior Casey Halbmaier and junior Scott Kvidera ran a time of 8:06.78.

Wayzata
The Wayzata boys’ 4x200 meter relay team set a state record at the Class AA state track and Field championships.

Junior Michael Smith, senior Jeff Borchardt, junior James Smith and senior Chris Pierson ran a time of 1:26.92—beating the previous record of 1:27.23 set in 2012 by a bit more than three-tenths of a second.

The win helped Wayzata finish third overall. The Trojans’ 57 points was just 2.5 points from the runner-up and just six points behind champion Stillwater.

Wayzata also won the 4x400 meter relay. The 3:17.06 time that Pierson, James Smith, junior Obinnaya Wamuo and Michael Smith ran was more than a second better than the Trojans’ championship time from 2012.

Wayzata’s 4x100 meter relay team put in a strong second-place finish. Junior Keante’ Johnson, junior Steele Berg, senior Chris Pierson and senior Jeff Borchardt ran a time of 42.47 that was just five-hundredths of a second behind Forest Lake.

Michael Smith also placed second in the 400-meter dash with a time of 47.89, while James Smith finished fifth in the same race.

In the girls’ competition, Wayzata’s 4x800 meter relay team finished second. Eighth grader Annika Lerdall, junior Alayna Sonnesyn, senior Summer Johnson and junior McKenna Evans ran a time of 9:15.20.

Overall, the Wayzata girls tied for 12th with 24 points.