Huskies capture first at Rochester Invitational

The Owatonna boys and girls track and field teams both secured first-place finishes at the Dick Norman Invite at Rochester Mayo High School last week.

Owatonna’s boys team took first with 871.5 team points while the girls team finished first with 669 points.

According to Owatonna girls team head coach Debby Gleason, the teams both featured “lots of great performances” while many athletes from the team posted personal record times and scores.

In the relays, Owatonna’s boys and girls teams tied for a meet-high three combined first-place finishes with the girls team winning in the 4x100-meter relay, and the boys team winning both the 4x400 and 4x800-meter relays.

Fort the girls team it was Carsyn Brady who finished the day with the team’s lone first-place finish.

Brady ran a meet-best time of 5:25.54 to take home first in the 1,600-meter race for the Huskies.

On the boys side, Carter Johnson, Ryan Gregory, Connor Ginskey and Justin Gleason all earned first-place finishes at the meet.

Johnson and Gregory got the job done on the hurdles with Johnson winning with a time of 15.09 in the 110-meter hurdles race and Gregory finishing first at 39.18 in the 300-meter hurdles race.

Rounding out the day on the track for the boys’ squad was GInskey who ran a 2:00.42 in the 800-meter race to secure first.

In the field, Owatonna’s top competitor was Justin Gleason who won a team-high two events at the meet.

Gleason took first in the long jump with a distance of 22 feet and 0.75 inches before posting a meet-high distance of 44 feet and 10.25 inches in the triple jump.

Earlier in the week, Owatonna took first place again at the Huskies’ home triangular against Winona and Rochester Century.

The Huskies boys team blew the competition out of the water with 129 team points to win by an 86-point margin while the girls squad fought out and won a close meet with Century to win 86.50-85.50.

Winners on the day for the girls team included Brady in the 1,600-meter race, Madeline Koslosky in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles, McKenna Dufrene in the high jump and Kya Dixon in the shot put.

For the boys, it was Tanner Stendel, Garret Karsten, Keanan Larson, Noah Kubicek, Ginskey, Gavin Dewitz, Johnson, Seth Johnson, David Smith, Aiden Charles, Gleason, Jacob Ginskey and Eli Spurgeon who all won events at the meet.

As a team, Owatonna also swept every relay except for the girls 4x400-meter relay where Owatonna came in second place.

Up next for the squad is a home triangular with Northfield and Red Wing scheduled for Thursday, May 19 at 4:30 p.m.