What To Watch Out For At The Hamline Elite Meet

Boys Sprints

Two years ago, Minnesota had Evan McClellon. Last year, it was Denzel Brown. But in 2018, there is no surefire favorite for Hamline in either the 100 or 200. But it's possible that the depth is better than ever.

Nick Sharma, Marlon Wiley, and Evan Hull all enter the meet seeded at 10.78 or better in the 100 meters, although each of those times was achieved last year. Interestingly, each of those athletes is a junior. But even more interesting is the fact that both Hull and Wiley were track rookies in 2017 who also double as two of the best football players in the state. Now with another year under their belt, their ceiling could go even higher. But  without a doubt the biggest name to watch out for is Keylan Jackson, Hamline's top returner in both the 100 and 400. Competing in all three sprint races at Hamline for the second consecutive year, Jackson hasn't yet reached the level of stardom he's been aiming at for years, but he has been agonizingly close. By virtue of his 2017 races, he owns the 5th seed in the 100, 2nd seed in the 200, and top overall seed in the 400, and he has a realistic shot at taking all three events. No boy has ever pulled off that triple at Hamline.

Jackson's competition in the 200 will probably look very similar to the 100, with Jacobson, Sharma, Hull, and Wiley all also doubling, but perhaps the biggest threat to spoil Jackson's day could be yet another junior, Joe Fahnbulleh. Fahnbulleh is the only athlete in the 200 meter field who has run his seed time in the spring of 2018, and is already in peak sprinting condition thanks to his extensive winter club competition. And he will also be more fresh than Jackson, as he will only have previously run the 4x200, while Jackson will have done the 100 prelims, presumably the finals, and the 400. But Jack Young and Jack Burt both also have run very well this spring so far too, so the race truly is wide open.

The hurdles at this point are a little bit of a riddle. Reid Pierzinski is back to defend his 110 meter title, but the versatile Pequot Lakes star is going to have a really tight competition. No fewer than six of these nine athletes could realistically end up as the champion, but none is more exciting than Rosemount sophomore Jonathan Mann. In 2017, Mann had by far the best performance ever for a freshman in the 110H, nearly half a second better than the runner-up, and he's been sharp so far this year. But while he's amazing for a sophomore, he'll be right in the midst of talented seniors like Pierzinski, Caden Turner, Mitchel Wangler, and Jeff Spieker. And Mounds View junior Josh Sampson will be tough to beat too, as he's been on fire thus far this spring. Pierzinski is also the favorite in the 300H (unfortunately defending champion Joel Smith was forced to scratch), and will certainly be looking to make up for falling at Hamline in 2017. He, Sampson, and Turner will join Max Giza and Tyler Sealock as the biggest names to watch there.


But if the open races are hard to predict, the relays are virtually impossible. For instance, Mankato West is the defending state champion in the 4x100, and their seed of 41.95 is from that championship race. However two of the runners from that race have graduated, and the only instance this spring that Mankato West has run a 4x100, they ran 44.23, which would rarely have qualified for Hamline in the past. However, that time of 44.23 is, in fact, the fourth-best time of the spring in the whole state, speaking to just how much the weather has thrown the sport into a frizzle. Does Mankato West have the training and chemistry yet to defend not only their top seed, but their state championship, especially when teams like Hopkins and Southwest Christian have already run so much better this very spring? That's one of the questions that Friday is certainly going to answer, not just in the 4x100, but in the 4x200 and 4x400 as well.