Facing Minnesota’s best competition in Class A under the hot sunlight Friday afternoon at Hamline University, none of the state qualifiers on International Falls’ girls track and field team advanced to Saturday’s finals.
“It was extremely hot,” said Bronco girls head coach Jen Erickson. “The girls weren’t used to it.”
While the Falls competitors were “really nervous” competing at the Class A State Track and Field Championships, Erickson said their times ended up where they had been seeded.
Broncos sophomore sprinter Breanna Shofner, who also qualified for state last year in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes, wasn’t able to make the finals in either event in 2012 after having placed seventh in the 100 and narrowly missing the finals in the 200 a year earlier.
“The competition was a lot harder (this year),” Shofner said.
Her preliminary time in the 100 of 12.75 seconds was fifth-fastest in her heat, which was won in 12.43 by Annandale senior Brooke Aeikens, who also won Saturday’s finals in 12.52.
The two fastest times in each of two heats, plus the next five best times to fill out nine lanes, qualified for the finals.
Shofner’s 100 time was 9-hundredths of a second behind the final qualifier, Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd senior Sara Melon, who entered the state meet with the top-seeded time of 12.56.
In the 200, Shofner placed seventh in her heat in 26.51, 8-tenths of a second behind heat winner and the fastest preliminary time of Pelican Rapids junior Sommer Haugrud, who also won the finals in 25.73.
Of the nine who qualified for the 200 finals, only two had times slower than 26 seconds, with LaSueur-Henderson freshman McKayla Stowell being the ninth and final qualifier at 26.13.
Shofner joined sophomores Jaci Scholler and Lexi Owen and seventh-grader Valandre Butler as one of the 17 teams in the preliminaries of the 4X100 relay.
“We were kind of underdogs,” said Scholler, who ran the opening leg on the relay team that qualified for state by finishing second to Esko at the Section 7A meet.
The Broncos, who had a seed time of 51.6, ended up in seventh in their heat at 51.57, 38-hundredths of a second behind the ninth and final qualifier for the state finals, Concordia Academy-Roseville, which ran in the outside lane next to the Falls.
Esko ran next to the Falls on the inside and missed qualifying for the state finals by 5-hundredths of a second.
Byron, which won the heat in 50.22, also won the finals in 49.76.
Broncos sophomore Hailey Fentem qualified for the state meet in the 100 hurdles in her first year competing in track and field.
Fentem, who competed in the same heat against the finals winner, Staples-Motley sophomore Jaelin Beachy, finished eighth in the heat in 16.63, 1.61 seconds behind Beachy.
“There was a lot of real good competition (at state),” Fentem said.
All nine who advanced to the finals had heat times below 16 seconds. The Section 7A champion, Proctor senior Micayla Westendorf, earned the ninth and last spot in the Class A state finals in 15.95.
Falls freshman Savanah Olson, who competed at last year’s state meet as an eighth-grader in the shot put, qualified for the 2012 meet in another event, the discus.
Given the configuration and bigger size of the discus area at Hamline University, compared to what she was used to competing in this season, Olson said, “It was a different meet.”
“It was a real hard circle,” she said.
Olson, who was the only freshman in the girls state Class A discus competition facing sophomores and above, ended up in 16th place with a throw of 92 feet, 2 inches, more than 17 feet shorter than her best throw at the Section 7A meet, where she placed runner-up.
Seniors held nine of the top-10 spots in the discus led by Fulda’s Sylvia Zanini, who had the top throw of 141-1.
As a result of none of the Broncos earning a medal at this year’s state meet, the Falls didn’t score any team points. The Blake School won the team title with 39 points, followed by Watertown-Mayer placing runner-up at 38.
Being that all of the Broncos’ state qualifiers this year were in their sophomore year or lower and could potentially return to state at least another two times, Erickson said the experience of being in the 2012 meet will benefit them, so that they could be a “little more comfortable” competing at Hamline University in the future.
