Six area athletes qualify for state track

Steele County will have a strong presence at this week’s state track and field meet as six local athletes, including three Huskies, two Blossoms and one Tiger, qualified at last week’s section championships.
For Owatonna, Jack Titchenal qualified for the state meet by earning first place in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.92 seconds. Justin Gleason qualified by placing first in the long jump and set a new personal record and set a new school record by jumping 22 feet and 9.25 inches. With the top two finishers advancing to the state meet, Ryan Gregory’s qualified by placing second in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 39.79 seconds.
Blooming Prairie junior Xavier Rennie punched his ticket to the state meet by earning first place in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.84 seconds.
Rennie will be joined at the state meet by Blossom freshman high jumper Annaka Forsberg who qualified by clearing the state automatic qualifier height, 5 feet and 2 inches.
Medford freshman Jackie Cole qualified by placing second in the long jump with a distance of 16 feet and 5.5 inches. The third-place finisher jumped 16 feet, 5 inches so Cole’s extra half-inch proved to be the difference in her advancing to the state meet. 
Owatonna’s boys team tied for fourth place in the section with 71 team points. In addition to Titchenal earning first place in the 110-meter hurdles, the Huskies had two more hurdlers, Gregory and Carter Johnson, also achieve top-five finishes in that event. Johnson claimed third place and Gregory finished in fifth place.
In other events, the 4x800 meter relay team earned fourth place, the 4x400 meter relay team came in sixth place, the 4x200 meter relay team also achieved sixth place, Connor Ginskey finished in seventh place in the 800-meter run and the 4x100 meter relay team came away with eighth place.
Meanwhile, Owatonna’s girls team finished in 10th place with 20 points. The Huskies were paced by their four medalists: the 4x200 meter relay team, which consists of Janessa Moore, Amelia Baldwin, Lauren Waypa and Ava Wolfe, the 4x100 meter relay team, which is made up of Moore, Laken Meier, Waypa and Wolfe, Carsyn Brady and Kya Dixon.
The 4x200 team earned fifth place with a time of 1:48.22, the 4x100 team also placed fifth with a time of 51.21 seconds, Brady finished the 1600-meter run in 5:30.52, which was good for sixth place and Dixon also achieved sixth place in the shot put with a distance of 36 feet and 3.75 inches.
Blooming Prairie’s boys team finished in 15th place with 21 points. In addition to Rennie, Blooming Prairie junior Sam Skillestad also earned a spot on the podium by coming in fourth place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 52.57 seconds.
One more individual Blossom, junior Bradley Simon, and one more Blooming Prairie team, the 4x800 meter relay team, which is composed of Hosea Baker, Stephen Fennel, Christian Quail and Ty Forystek, also made the section final. Simon finished the 100-meter dash in 11.76 seconds, which earned him seventh place, while the 4x800 team finished in 9:43.51 and finished in 11th place.
Blooming Prairie’s girls team finished in 18th place with 10 points. All 10 points were won by Forsberg in the high jump.
 
The Medford girls team earned 15th place with 22 points. Senior Kinsey Cronin won six points by placing fourth in the shot put with a distance of 34 feet and 6.25 inches. In addition to the 10 points she won in the long jump, Cole added a combined six more points by coming in sixth place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.90 seconds and by finishing in eighth place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.20 seconds.
Last but not least, the Medford boys team came in 11th place with 31.5 points. It was led by its 4x800 meter relay team, which includes Brock Merritt, Tyler Stursa, Garrett Fitzgerald and Cohen Stursa, and Kael Hermanstorfer. The 4x800 team placed third and won eight points for the Tigers, while Hermanstorfer also won eight points by coming in third place in the discus throw with a distance of 142 feet and 2 inches.
While the Medford boys team didn’t send anyone to state, it did recently break three school records. First, the 4x200 meter relay team, which includes Henry Grayson, Merritt, Cohen O’Connor and Hermanstorfer set a new school record with a time of 1:35.64. Second, Grayson broke the 400-meter dash record by finishing in 51.41 seconds. Third, the 4x800 meter relay team set a new school record with a time of 8:44.16 at the section meet.
The state track and field meet begins on Thursday, June 17, and concludes on Saturday, June 19. It will be held at St. Michael-Albertville High School.