Minnetonka's hurdler Clare Leitke is going to be instrumental in their push for a True Team Championship (Photo provided by Kraig Lundstrom)
AAA Girls
Participating Teams And Their Coaches
Section 1AAA: Lakeville South - Andrew Hilliard
Section 2AAA: Eagan - Rob Graham
Section 3AAA: Rosemount - Sara Hateli
Section 4AAA: Anoka - Pete Tremaine
Section 5AAA: White Bear Lake - Richard Samuelson
Section 6AAA: Mounds View - Aaron Redman and Scott Yllkanen
Section 7AAA: Minnetonka - John Steffen
Section 8AAA: Alexandria - Meghan Orgeman-Crumb
Wild Card: Wayzata - Alicia Pierskalla
The girls side of the Class AAA True Team state meet should be very interesting as always. Minnetonka
comes in fresh off its win at the Section 7AAA True Team meet as the favorite. Joining it from Section 7AAA is Wayzata after winning the wild card bid. Each team seems to have its low sticks
in multiple events. Minnetonka's Faith Robinson has the fastest 100m and 200m PRs coming
into the state meet and is expected to take the win in both if everything goes right for her. In
addition to her sprints, she is the top long jumper in the field by nearly a foot.
Accompanying
her on the distance side, Sophie Whicher will be one of the top contenders in the 1600m and
the 3200m. Jaycie Thomsen from Wayzata looks to make the race a tight one as she has the
fastest time in the 1600m and the 3200m. Look for both of these ladies to make significant
impacts on their teams' performances. In the hurdle events, Natalie Windels of Eagen is eyeing
the win in both the 110m and 300m events with the fastest times coming into the meet. She has the fastest
seasonal best in the 300 hurdles among these nine teams by over two seconds. Clare Liedtke of Minnetonka hopes to be
right on her tail, as she is among one of the top returners in both events as well.
As said before, when looking purely at the numbers, Minnetonka seems to have the
edge on the rest of the competition. Wayzata and Alexandria will be nipping at Minnetonka's heels
with some of their strongest events coming in the relays, a major key to winning important
points. Interestingly enough, Minnetonka, Alexandria, and Wayzata combine to have seven of the eight top triple jumpers coming into this meet, only separated by Arianna Paserri of Rosemount. For
these teams, it will most likely come down to a battle of depth, and each teams' second and third
athletes in each event will have the biggest effect on the team's overall importance. For example,
a team having athletes go first, 15th, and 16th in an event is worse off than a team going third, sixth, and seventh (which is the beauty of the True Team setup).
Rosemount and Lakeville South are among teams following closely behind the top tier and are led by sophomore Lexy Berger (Rosemount) in pole vault, junior Shae Buchman (Rosemount) in the
hurdle events, and senior Jenny Mosser (Lakeville South) in high jump. These ladies hope to
contribute to a large sum of points put together by their respective teams. White Bear Lake
seems to have some major strengths in very specific events such as the 300-meter hurdles led
by the duo of Erika Townley and Yajaira Lansiquot. Townley is also among the best in the
counterpart 100-meter hurdle event.
In the next tier, Eagan and Anoka both will also look to make statements on the state level. Although they do not quite have the overall team strength to possibly take the win as some of the other teams, their relay teams could very likely lead the way to significant points. Anoka's and Eagan's 4x400 teams seem to have serious shots at the win, coming in with the two fastest times of the year, while White Bear Lake seems to have more consistency throughout their relays hovering around the third to sixth spot in most. Just like the boys, the title of the True Team state champion on the girls side should be tightly contested, and the true focus and drive to win will be necessary of the teams that end the night atop the podium.
(This portion was written by Wes Heal)