Boys
100m/200m
There will be a new king of sprints this year, now that 100/200 meter 2017 AA state champion Denzel Brown has graduated, and we're here to discuss who is among the favorites to fill the shoes at the top of the podium. For the 100 meter dash, Mounds View's junior Nick Sharma will be the clear returning favorite, as he took 2nd place last season with a wind aided time of 10.69. Sharma will be challenged by Lakeville South's senior Jeremiah Jacobson, who took 5th in the state 100 last year, but has a lifetime PR of 10.64. Other returners from the state 100m final last year are Maple Grove's Evan Hull (6th) and Hopkins' Joe Fahnbulleh (8th).
As for the 200 meter dash, Jacobson will be the top returner in that event, as he took 3rd last year with a time of 21.68 (wind aided) Hull and Sharma will also contenders, but a name to keep an eye out for is Rocori's Jack Young, who competed in 3 different events last year at State (4 x 100, 4 x 200, 200) and took 5th in the 200, just .1 behind Jacobson. Young will also be a threat in the 100 meters with a career best of 10.94. St. Paul Johnson's Keylan Jackson is a guy who has proven to be very versatile in ever event from the 100 to the 400, and is someone who you can for sure count on to be up near the front. But one athlete to pay a lot of attention to who hasn't made any individual waves at the State meet yet is St. Michael Albertville's Ethan Peal. In his first year of track, the STMA football player helped both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays make it to State, but when he ran the 100 and 200 open events during the summer, he achieved times of 10.85 and 22.06 which easily rank among the state's elite.
400m
It'll be an interesting year for the 400 meter dash. 2017 champion Genuine Matthews is gone due to graduation, along with the other the top 4 returners from last season's state meet. Edina's Abner Moseti is the top returner from the that race, as he finished 6th last year, but Keylan Jackson has the fastest time from last season (49.05) from all the returners, and has run even faster than that in previous years. Champlin Park's Cade Lizotte is still just a junior, and he made the podium last season at 7th place overall, and has a lifetime best of 49.56, so he will definitely also be looking to make a run at winning the title. Other returners who qualified for state last year were Marshall's Garret Hoff, and Winona's Noah Schultz, both of whom ran their best races of the year at Hamline with times of 50.31 and 50.28 respectively.
But there were also a number of great runners who didn't even make it to State in 2017 in the 400, for one reason or another. In the case of Ethan Peal, that reason was because the rookie sophomore didn't run the open 400 until summer competition, when he achieved an impressive time of 50.23. For Park Center's Austin Peters (PR of 50.24), DeLaSalle's Julian Wright (PR of 49.51), and Becker's Kevin Andres (PR of 50.36), the reason was an unlucky third-place finish at Sections. And Cole Compton out of Moorhead was unable to follow up his stellar Section prelim performance of 50.09 with better than a fifth-place finish in finals. And finally, perhaps one of the most exciting athletes to watch will be Eastview's Alvin Green, who was only a freshman last year when he dropped a time of 50.34 in the 400.
Hurdles
Switching gears to the hurdles, it'll also be an interesting year, as the state will be losing a good chunk of the state's best from last season. This includes Edina's dynamic hurdle trio of Grant Fuller, Abdihafid Sahal, and Henry Adams all graduating, which will make for a lot of new faces up on the podium. The clear top returning hurdler in the state for the 110 meter hurdles will be Prior Lake's Mitchell Wangler, as he took 6th in the state last year, and has the state's best time of 14.49. Waconia's Caden Turner was right behind Wangler in the state finals, finishing 7th, however, eyes are going to be on Rosemount's Jonathan Mann, who made state finals as a freshman last year and owns a PR of 14.85. Consider for a moment that before last year, no freshman, not even eventual state record holders RJ Alowonle or Jon Tollefson, ever ran better than 15.20, and it's hard not to get excited over how good Mann could be. Other returners from the State competition in 2017 include Irondale's John Romes, Brainerd's Jeff Spieker, Century's Caleb Hedlund, and Highland Park's Josh Aune. Hopkins' Cimeon Daniel will be a name to think about this season also, as he will have a chip on his shoulder after narrowly missing the state meet last season, finishing 3rd in the brutal Section 6AA with a time of 15.08, while Waseca's Jack Vetsch was another unfortunate miss at Sections despite his PR of 15.11.
As for the 300 hurdles, the returning champion will be back, in Mounds View's Joel Smith, who boasts the fastest 300 hurdles time by over a second in Class AA, in addition to his 110 PR of 14.96. The only other returner who made state finals will be Osseo's Tyler Sealock, who made the podium last year in 8th. With all the graduating hurdlers, that leaves room for guys like Smith's teammate, the junior Josh Sampson, to get some attention. Sampson has the 3rd fastest returning time in Class AA, and will have Smith to train with, which will work to his advantage. Another name to look out for will be John Kosmach, from the Academy of Holy Angels. Kosmack was the next guy up that would have made finals last year, breaking 40 for the first time in the prelims.
Spieker and Alexandria's Preston Bowden are the only other athletes returning from State last year, so there is a lot of potential for athletes like Stillwater's Zach Jonson or Rosemount's Noah Irving to make a big splash. Or perhaps Theodore Keller can continue the legacy of Edina hurdlers on one more year. And of course, athletes like the aforementioned Wangler, Turner, and Mann could match their abilities in the shorter hurdles as well. But aside from the very top, this event is one of the most open in Class AA