Boys Field
Horizontal Jumps
Underclassmen is the theme in the horizontal jumping events. Of the four competing athletes in the long jump who have leaped over 22 feet this year, all four are juniors, while there are three additional sophomores in the 12-athlete field. Dante White and Parker Ellis are the two biggest standouts of all, with White being the top overall seed with a leap of 23-1, and Ellis coming in as the defending Class AA champion and also having a 23-foot jump as a career-best. Jonathan Sikel also comes in with a notable track record in the event, clearing 20 feet for the first time as just an 8th-grader and already with two All-State honors under his belt coming into his junior year.
Meanwhile in the triple jump, two of the four entries with seeds of 45 feet or better are just sophomores, including one in Moorhead's George Nyanforth who has already seen success at the State level from competing for Red River High School in Grand Forks, North Dakota before moving to Moorhead. However, the two unquestionable favorites are Wyrott Gerson and Jake Marzinske. Gerson returns as the Class AA runner-up in the triple jump last year and is the only athlete in the field to have cleared the 47-foot barrier, and as the 3rd-place finisher in the long jump in 2018 with a career-best of 22-6, he'll be a factor there too. Meanwhile Marzinske is the defending Class A champion in the triple jump with a career-best of 46-10.5, and has jumped 46-5 so far in 2019. Last year's Hamline champion Ian Fosdick also returns to defend his title, and had a season-best jump of 44-10 earlier this week.
Vertical Jumps
The field size for the high jump at the Hamline Elite Meet is set at nine athletes, plus any athlete who is tied in that ninth spot. This year, that tie rule resulted in a field size of 16 athletes, eight of them with a seed of 6-2. But while we're certain two see some PRs, season bests from that group, the competition will likely come down to either one of Eli Hylen or Noah Cvetnic. Hylen has been making waves in this high jump for a long time, first clearing 6 feet as an 8th grader and winning a State Championship as a sophomore. This season, he has already cleared 6-10, which matches his career-best jump from 2018. Noah Cvetnic also comes in with a season-best of 6-10, which he has actually achieved twice so far this year, and has made some several close attempts at breaking the 7-foot barrier. At the very least, we could see the Elite Meet record of 6-11 go down by the end of the night. However, the two favorites could face a challenge from Yahya Mader, a two-time State qualifier who has the next-best PR in the field of 6-6, and has cleared 6-5 so far this year.
In the pole vault, defending Class AA champion Alec Wittman comes in as the strong favorite, the only athlete who has cleared 15 feet, and until earlier this week, the only one who had even cleared a mark better than 14 feet. However, with last year's State Class A runner-up Hawkin Petron of Rockford clearing 14-6 on Tuesday, he establishes himself as the top challenger for Wittman, while the rest of the field lags a bit further behind (at the moment, at least).
Throws
Maxwell Otterdahl comes into the Hamline Elite Meet as the defending Class AA shot put champion and the top overall seed in both throwing events, and is well within shot of bettering the high school-best mark of 61-0.5 by his brother and current NCAA All-Time record holder in the shot put Payton Otterdahl. That said, he doesn't have the top career-best throw in the field. That honor would go to Burnsville's Kyle Atkinson, who's toss of 60-9.5 was the seventh-best in state history for a high school junior. Both throwers have been consistently hitting high marks in the shot put and, as long as both athletes are on their game, will likely take home the top two places at the competition. However, earlier this week, Gabe Webster broke out with a huge toss of 56-6, and then backed that up with 55-2.5 just yesterday. In fact, the shot put field is full of break-out athletes, including Waseca's Marcus Hanson (who already has the tenth-best shot put ever for a Minnesota sophomore), Prior Lake's Jarod Henderson, and Washburn's Latrell Bible. In addition, Will Mostaert returns to Hamline after taking 5th at the Class AA championships a year ago.
In the discus, however, Otterdahl is in a class of his own. He has the best seed by over 16 feet and has an excellent shot at breaking the eleven-year old Elite Meet record of 179-11. As long as Otterdahl is on his game, it'll be hard to see him not walk away with a discus title. If he does leave the door open, however, Garrett Shumski of Mankato West could mount a challenge as a two-time State-qualifier in the discus and the returning third-place finisher from last fall in Class A, a competition where he even beat Otterdahl (who finished seventh). In addition, Beau Backes, Yakob Ekoue, and Shane Byrne all have seen some significant improvements over last spring and own season-best throws of over 160 feet.