In the 14 individual events where state bids will be at stake in Friday’s Section 7A meet at the University of Minnesota Duluth, the International Falls girls track and field team will be competing in 13 of them.
The Bronco girls, who won last week’s North Sub-Section meet at Hibbing, will also be in the running to qualify for state in all four relay events.
Both girls who qualified for state last year for the Falls will be seeking a return trip to the Class A state meet to be held June 8-9 at Hamline University, where the top-two individuals and top-two relay teams in each event at the Section meet will automatically qualify.
Sophomore Breanna Shofner is seeking her second consecutive Section title in the 200-meter dash, where she has the third-fastest seeded time at 27.39 seconds. Two Harbors sophomore Krista Keranen has the top seed at 27.32, followed by Cook County senior Molly Zafft at 27.37.
Shofner also is going after a return trip to state in the 100 dash, in which she ended up seventh at state and runner-up at the Section meet a year ago. Her Section seeding time in that event is also third behind Zafft (13.21) and Two Harbors senior Lacey Myrdal (13.25).
Freshman Savanah Olson, who placed runner-up at last year’s Section meet in the shot put to qualify for state, will be competing in both the shot put — where her seeding mark of 36 feet, 8 1/2 inches is the second longest, 1 1/2 inches behind top-seeded Chastan Jade of Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin — and discus, where her 96-8 seeding throw is the seventh longest.
Sophomore Hailey Fentem has qualified for the Section meet in three events.
Fentem’s seeding time in the 100 hurdles (17.32) is second fastest to Proctor senior Micayla Westendorf (16.61). In the high jump, Fentem’s seed mark of 4-10 is only lower than Deer River/Northland’s Sophia Rajala at 5-0. Fentem also qualified for the long jump at 15-0.
Other Bronco girls who will be competing in multiple individual events include seventh-grader Lexi Erickson, who has a top-three seeding time in the 3200 run (12:08.05) and the seventh-fastest seeding time in the 1600 (5:36.62).
Sophomore Lexi Owen will be competing in both the 100 hurdles (17.91) and 300 hurdles (50.48) after placing third at last week’s Sub-Section meet in both events.
Sophomore Jaci Scholler finished third behind Shofner in the 100 dash (14.07) and also qualified for the Section meet in the triple jump (30-7).
Freshman Maddie Filipiak has qualified in both the triple jump (31-0) and 300 hurdles (52.7).
Sophomore Amy Auran returns to the Section after winning the Sub-Section meet in the pole vault (8-6). The highest seed in that event is Esko sophomore Ericka Shady at 9-6.
Eighth-grader Jessie Foreman also is a repeat Section qualifier and will be one of three Falls competitors in the 100 hurdles (18.2).
Other individual qualifiers for the Bronco girls include eighth-graders Madeline Dahle in the 200 dash (29.85) and Abby Kostiuk in the 400 (1:07.39).
Falls’ girls relay teams are seeded third in the 4X100 (53.21), fourth in the 4X200 (1:54.12), sixth in the 4X400 (4:29.52) and eighth in the 4X800 (10:48.99).
Eight Bronco boys, two relays
In the boys competition, the Falls has qualified three of its pole vaulters for the Section meet — senior Kyle Askey (11-0), junior Cade MacKay (11-0) and sophomore Jakob Ettestad (10-6). The top seed mark is 12-6.
Two Bronco boys will be competing individually in two events.
Senior Tyler House and junior Jason Pumper both qualified for the triple jump with their respective seed marks of 38-9 and 38-7. House is also a Section qualifier in the 100 dash (12.48), while Pumper qualified in the high jump (5-6).
The three other individual qualifiers for the Falls boys include sophomore Paul Skoglund in the 110 hurdles (18.38), junior Marco Griffith in the 400 dash (55.43) and junior Nick Janttie in the shot put (42-1/2).
The Bronco boys have also qualified their relay teams in the 4X100 (46.93) and 4X400 (3.47.34).
In addition to the top two in each event advancing to state, an individual competitor or relay team may also qualify with a performance in the Section finals that equals or surpasses the established state standard time or distance.
In Class A for the boys 100 dash, for instance, a Section finals time of 11.32 seconds or faster, without being excessively affected by the wind as defined by Minnesota State High School League rules, would qualify for state regardless of the order of finish.
