The Forest Lake track and field teams took some solid wins at the University of Minnesota, where the boys and girls competed in the Minnesota Open High School Invitational meet on Wednesday, May 1.
In what boys head coach Andy Richardson said was a “great meet overall” for both units, the Rangers headlined a multitude of events runners earning top place finishes.
The marked times in the boys 100m dash were narrowly close – a less-than-a-second difference from the first-place runner to the 12th-place runner. Despite the small margins for error, a trio of Rangers seniors earned places in the top eight spots. Grant Neururer came in fourth with a time of 11.20, with Cam Mata finishing in sixth in 11.23, before Samuel Cordie completed his race in 11.33.
Neururer and Cordie placed third and sixth, respectively, with recorded times of 22.44 and 22.87 in the 200m dash.
“It was one of those meets where we tried to put together our best lineup from top to bottom, so it was fun to see what we could do with that,” Richardson said.
Moving along into the boys 400m dash event, another trio of Rangers found finishes in the top seven: senior Braycen Johnson put the team on his back with a first-place finish in 51.40, while Cordie earned sixth in a 53.29 time, and senior Noah Dunlap finished in 53.79, good enough for seventh overall.
Another trio of Rangers continued the trend in the 110m hurdles event. Reid Olson, another senior, placed second with a time of 15.30, while both Tyler Walters and Dylan Thayer finished right beside one another in sixth and seventh, respectively.
Olson and Walters each kept up the momentum into the 300m hurdles, where Olson earned his hard-sought first-place finish in 40.83; Walters took fourth in 42.83.
Olson also took second in the high jump finals, as Mata led the way for his Rangers in the long jump with a second-place finish as well – setting himself up for another second-place spot in the triple jump category.
Howie Johnson, a promising sophomore, took first in the shot put finals after recording third in the discus finals.
In the team events, the 4x100 group took fourth with a mark of 44.60 behind Chanhassen in third and ahead of Minneapolis Washburn in fifth – as the 4x200 unit wound up in fifth. The Rangers kept pushing their way en route to a second-place team finish in the 4x400 finishing in 3:29.94.
“It was a great all-around effort. Some of the guys in the 100m, 200m and 400m – everyone ran personal bests and lifetime best times – some really good quality times we ran there,” Richardson said.
Girls
The girls 400m dash had senior Arielle DeYoung and freshman Lucy Saari each place second and third in times of 1:01.28 and 1:01.77, respectively. The same duo would also headline the two and three spots in the 800m.
Junior star Norah Hushagen finished in first place in the 1600m finals, securing a time of 5:05.41 – a full three seconds ahead of the second-place runner. Sophomore Anna VanAcker and freshman Molly McCarthy took the sixth and seventh spots in the 3200m, recording times of 11:38.28 and 11:47.79.
Shifting into the hurdles category, junior Julia Legeault took fifth in the 100m in a time of 16.67, while sophomore Madeleine Bonnett found herself in seventh in the 300m hurdles. Legeault would also claim fourth in the triple jump format. Savanna Sanchez, a junior, gained a fourth-place finish in the long jump, with Makayla Miles taking sixth.
“I was really impressed by our 400m and 800m crews. ...The opens alone are a difficult double, and then they went out and ran a season best in the 4x400. They gave that combo their best shot and I was really proud of them,” coach Jenna Parent said.
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