A half decade of winning sections

Owatonna boys track and field added to its section title collection last week by scoring its fifth-straight Section 1AAA championship and sending seven athletes and one relay team to the Class AAA state meet.

The Huskies took down the field with a final tally of 168 points to clear Farmington’s 140.5 for first place.

“We had a fantastic group of seniors last season, and going into this year I thought we might take a little dip because we don’t have a real senior-dominant team, despite having some really talented guys,” said Owatonna head coach Kevin Stelter. “I thought we might be lucky to be top three or four in the section, but our guys really stepped up to the plate. Our seniors provided great leadership, our juniors had a fantastic season and then that crazy sophomore class far exceeded our expectations. We knew it was going to be hard work to finish where we did, but our team really performed well,”

The boys team was led by seven athletes who qualified for the state meet.

Owatonna sophomore Jordan Gleason turned heads both days at sections to qualify for the big meet in all four of his events – a feat most recently accomplished by Huskies phenom Nolan Ginskey in 2024.

Gleason was the section champion in the 200- and 400-meter races while also winning the long jump and placing third in the triple jump.

On the track, Gleason finished the 200 in 21.58 seconds and the 400 in 48.57 seconds, netting him two personal-best times that doubled as two new school records.

In the field, Gleason’s long jump distance of 23 feet and one inch was the section-winning mark while his jump of 43 feet and 9.5 inches scored him third place.

Lucas Ginskey made his highly anticipated section return by taking second place in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.53 seconds to punch his ticket to state.

Owatonna was lightning quick in the sprinting events, but also excelled in the distance races.

Ayoub Farah and Dawson Levy, the senior leaders in Owatonna’s 2025 state cross-country team, both qualified for state in their respective events.

Levy handled the mile race and finished first in 4:26.95 to take his talents to the big meet, while Farah put on possibly the most dominant display of the day in the two-mile race.

Despite entering the race as a No. 2 seed to Farmington’s Carter Lippold, Farah made the section championship race look like a walk in the park by outpacing Lippold by 13 seconds to win with a time of 9:26.24.

Farah and Levy also played key roles alongside teammates Lowell Schultz and Micah Gentz in the Huskies’ 4x800 relay team that qualified for the state meet in 8:03.52.

The remainder of Owatonna’s state qualifiers came in the field where William Halverson, Cooper Routh and Alex Martinez earned their ticket to St. Michael-Albertville High School.

Martinez (shot put – 51 feet, 0.75 inches) and Routh (high jump – six feet, two inches) both finished second while Halverson (149 feet, nine inches) took fifth and qualified by meeting the state criteria for distance.

Girls Track

The Huskies’ girls team also saw success at Lakeville South High School last week by qualifying one individual and one relay team for the Class AAA meet.

Kyleah Miller will make a return trip to state for her senior season finale after throwing 38 feet, 11.5 inches in the shot put to take fourth place.

Meanwhile, the Huskies’ 4x100 relay team of Lauren Kollar, Finley Rolloff, Kendra Miller and Harper Coleman earned their spot by finishing second in 48.69 seconds.

The Class AAA state meet will take place at St. Michael-Albertville High School on Thrusday, June 4 at 9 a.m.