The two Bronco girls who qualified for the Class A State Track and Field Championships last year will be returning this weekend, along with another individual and a relay team.
International Falls sophomore sprinter Breanna Shofner has once again qualified for the state meet in two individual events after winning both the 100-meter dash (12.89 seconds) and 200 dash (26.42) at last Friday’s Section 7A meet at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
“It’s a lot different (than last year), because there’s a lot more people going down this year,” Shofner said.
Shofner is also part of the Bronco girls 4X100 relay that has qualified for state this year after placing runner-up in the Section meet in 51.6 behind Esko, which had a time of 50.91 that also exceeded the state standard to be able to qualify regardless of the order of finish.
The Falls had also finished runner-up to Esko’s 4X100 relay team at last year’s Section meet, but didn’t qualify for state because only the top relay team advanced, based on finish. This year, however, the Minnesota State High School League changed the rule so that the top-two relay teams automatically qualify.
“I’m just glad that they decided (to change the rule) this year, so that we had a chance to go to state this year,” Shofner said.
At last year’s state meet, Shofner placed seventh in the 100 and narrowly missed qualifying for the finals in the 200. She said her goal in 2012 is to make the finals in both events.
Some of this year’s state competition is familiar to Shofner. For instance, she has competed in a number of meets this year against Warroad junior Deidre Hahn, who also qualified for state in the 100 and 200.
Hahn has the second-fastest seed time in the 100 (12.62). Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd senior Sara Melon has the top seed at 12.56.
Pelican Rapids junior Sommer Haugrud, who has also qualified in the 100 and 200, has the second-fastest seed time in the 200 (25.81) and will be running in the same 200 heat as Shofner for the second year in a row.
“I just hope, because I know how I stack up to them, that I’ll just end up, maybe, beating them,” Shofner said.
Friday’s preliminaries for the Class A girls 100 dash are scheduled to begin at around 3:50 p.m. with the 200 preliminaries set to start shortly before 6 p.m. The top-two finishers in each heat, plus the next five best times to fill out nine lanes, advance to Saturday’s finals.
Shofner has run the anchor leg of Falls’ 4X100 relay team, which also consists of sophomores Jaci Scholler and Lexi Owen, seventh-grader Valandre Butler and two alternates, eighth-grader Madeline Dahle and sophomore Blair Johnson.
“Our handoffs are really improving, which I think on Friday really helped our time,” said Butler, who runs the 4X100 relay’s second leg and receives the opening handoff from Scholler before passing the baton to Owen.
With the Class A girls 4X100 relay this year including the top-two teams from each of the state’s eight Sections, plus any team that met or beat the standard time of 51.01, 17 teams in the race have been split into two heats, which are scheduled to begin shortly after 4:30 p.m. Friday.
Chatfield has the fastest seed time at 49.98. The top-two teams in each heat, plus the next five best times to fill out nine lanes, advance to Saturday’s finals.
Falls freshman Savanah Olson has also qualified for the state meet for the second year in a row, but this year she will be competing at Hamline University in a different event.
Olson, a state qualifier as an eighth-grader in the shot put, just missed qualifying again in that event by placing third at Friday’s Section 7A meet, where she also came in second in the discus (109-5) to qualify.
She said she is excited about qualifying for the state meet for the second year in a row and competing there in a different event.
“I’ve gotten a lot of personal bests in discus,” Olson said. “It was a good year in shot, too — (finishing the Section meet) only one place off (from qualifying for state).”
The three top seeds have thrown the discus more than 130 feet led by St. Clair senior Ashley Thooft at 137-4.
Olson said her goal at the state meet is to get another personal best in the discus, for which the Class A girls competition is scheduled to begin at 4:45 p.m. Friday.
Falls sophomore Hailey Fentem, who is in her first year of track and field, qualified for the state meet for the first time after placing second at last Friday’s Section 7A meet in the 100 hurdles (16.53), 28-hundredths of a second behind the Section champion, Proctor senior Micayla Westendorf.
“It feels pretty good (qualifying for state), considering it’s my first year in track,” Fentem said.
Fentem, who also placed fifth in the high jump (4-9) and eighth in the long jump (14-10.5) at the Section meet and has competed in the 300 hurdles this season, said her favorite event is the 100 hurdles.
“I don’t really like the 300s, because I’m more of a sprinter,” she said.
Fentem said she hopes to get a new personal record at the state meet in the 100 hurdles. She will be running in the same heat as the top seed, Staples-Motley sophomore Jaelin Beachy, who clocked a time of 15.25.
The preliminaries for Class A girls 100 hurdles are scheduled to begin at around 3:30 p.m. Friday. The top-two in each heat, plus the next five best times to fill out nine lanes, advance to Saturday’s finals.
