Five Blossoms earn all-conference honors
Blooming Prairie high jumper Gabe Hein soars over the bar at the Gopher Conference meet last weekend in Mapleton. Hein finished second in the high jump competition. Staff photo by Johnnie Phillips
Blooming Prairie boys and girls track and field traveled to Mapleton for the Gopher Conference Meet last week and saw five athletes receive all-conference honors for their performance.
Earning honors for the Awesome Blossoms were Annaka Forsberg, Owen Krueger, Cole Wangen, Gloria Hernandez, and Gabe Hein.
“It was a beautiful day, and all our athletes really came out to compete and do their best. We’re just trying to hit our peak at the end of the season – during the top performance time,” said Blooming Prairie head coach Alli Schmidt.
Out of the five athletes who received all-conference honors, two were multiple-events champions.
Forsberg scored first in both the high jump and triple jump, winning with a mark of five feet, two inches in the former and 36 feet, 3.25 inches in the latter.
Krueger was phenomenal in the field and continued his stellar junior year by recording wins in the shot put and discus events.
Krueger’s 47-foot shot put throw was enough to clear the field by nearly four feet; meanwhile, his discus mark of 136.5 feet beat second place by over a foot.
Hernandez was Blooming Prairie’s third athlete to earn honors in multiple events and did so in the 800-meter and 1,600-meter races.
The freshman placed second in the 800-meter by hitting a personal record of 2:27.22 and followed up with a third-place finish in the mile by running another personal-record time of 5:29.04.
Possibly the day’s best feel-good story came from the field events, where pole vaulter Cole Wangen took third place in his first meet back from dealing with a hamstring injury.
The junior wasted no time posting a 12-foot mark that was just one foot shy of first place.
“For him to pull a foot personal record in his first meet back and reach conference standards, it was pretty awesome to see,” said Schmidt.
Hein rounded out the Awesome Blossoms’ Day by taking second in the high jump competition with a final height of six feet, four inches.
He also competed in the triple jump event, where he did not receive honors but still hit a personal record distance of 37 feet, 5.5 inches.
Blooming Prairie’s teams will be back in action for their final regular season meet at Triton High School on Friday, May 17, at 4:30 p.m.