Richfield junior Obsa Ali broke the state meet record in the 3,200-meter run Friday, but he had plenty of company.
The four runners behind Ali also clipped the Class 2A record, with two of them — Stillwater freshman Eli Krahn and Chaska sophomore Joey Duerr — joining Ali (8:57.07) under nine minutes.
Ali won in 8 minutes, 57.07 seconds at Hamline University. Krahn was second in 8:58.67, and Duerr was third in 8:59.03.
“I just wanted to break nine (minutes) and win,” Ali said after finding out he broke the record of 8:59.19, set by Mike Torchia of Rochester Lourdes in 2006. “I wasn’t even going for that. I knew (the race) was going to be really, really stacked.”
Zack Benning of Hastings finished fourth in 9:02.37 and Jacob McDermott of Cretin-Derham Hall fifth in 9:02.58 in the fastest 3,200-meter race in Minnesota high school history. Benning and McDermott both broke the 2A record of 9:02.65, set by Elliott Heath of Winona in 2007.
Krahn surprised himself with a second-place finish in his first state meet.
“I heard that it was going to be really fierce competition,” he said. “It’ll be quite a fight next year.”
Stillwater finished the opening day with 24 points to lead the boys team competition. Apple Valley is second with 13 points.
The Ponies picked up 14 points in the 3,200: 10 from Krahn, three from seventh-place Eric Colvin (9:07.80) and one from ninth-place Wayde Hall (9:09.04). Stillwater got its other 10 points from Connor O’Neil, who finished second in the pole vault (15 feet, 0 inches).
After bettering his qualifying time by almost 28 seconds, Ali already is gearing up to defend his championship in 2014. He plans to drop soccer in the fall to give him more time to train. He’s made an unofficial visit to the University of Minnesota, but no schools have offered him a scholarship yet.
Think that will change?
“Probably after today,” Ali said.
Hauger still on top
Shakopee senior Maria Hauger picked up her third victory in four years in the Class 2A girls 3,200 race, easily outdistancing Danielle Anderson of Eagan with a winning time of 10:26.39.
Hauger will try to attain the last piece of her self-dubbed “Triple Crown” on Saturday in the 1,600. She won that event last year. Her fourth straight cross country state championship was the first leg last fall.
For Anderson, it was her second year in a row finishing second to the Shakopee star. She’ll get her last shot at Hauger in high school competition in the 1,600.
“I want to finish strong,” said Anderson, who will run for the University of Minnesota next year.
Briefly
Buffalo’s Mitchell Valli outdueled Stillwater’s Connor O’Neil to win the Class 2A pole vault competition. The two athletes battled through multiple bonus rounds before Valli set a state record with a vault of 15 feet, 7-1/2 inches. … In Friday’s preliminaries, Megan Linder of Cretin-Derham Hall finished first in the 400-meter run with a time of 56.43 seconds. Teammate Brieasha Hunter had the second-best time at 56.86. … Jacob Gourley of Eagan won in his 100-meter heat in 11.00 seconds, the day’s third-best time. … Kaytlyn Larson of Lakeville South won her heat in the 800. Her time of 2:11.65 was second-best overall. … The Apple Valley boys 4×100 relay team topped qualifiers with a time of 42.63 seconds. … Jon Tollefson of St. Croix Lutheran breezed through his 1A 110-meter hurdles preliminary race. His time of 14.70 seconds was good enough for first place, with Kalvin Diekman of Spectrum finishing almost a full second behind at 15.44. … Warroad’s Deidre Hahn won both the girls’ long jump (17 feet, 2-3/4 inches) and high jump (5 feet, 6 inches). The senior singlehandedly has her 1A team in first place with 24 points. … Ashenafi Hatte of Washington Technology Magnet School was a step off the lead during the final lap of the boys’ 3,200-meter run, but a left calf cramp forced him to limp to a fourth-place finish (9:39.43) behind Foley’s Charlie Lawrence (9:33.73) and Perham’s Keeghan Hurley (9:34.67) and Brady Speicher (9:39.36). The finish between third and fourth place came down to seven hundredths of a second, as Speicher nipped the injured, slow-moving Hatte. … Warroad leads the 1A girls’ teams after one day with 24 points. Blake is second with 16, but leads the boys’ teams with 20 points. Perham is second with 18.
