From left to right: Ava Fitzgerald, Jarod White, Ava Cinnamo, and Victor Lelinga
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After the 2021 Minnesota track and field season, we had one new state record with Nyalaam Jok tying the state high jump record with jump of 6' 0". After the 2022 season, we had a whopping four state records broken by the Mounds View boys 4x800m team, Ava Cinnamo, Ava Fitzgerald, and Jarod White.
Add on top of that a new state record in the 5K (XC) from Noah Breker, and it truly was a record-breaking year for T&F and XC in Minnesota
Here we look at those five record-breaking performances:
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Ava Cinnamo
Rosemount High School
Record: Girls Triple Jump
Cinnamo made history at the Section 3AAA True Team Meet where she jumped 41' 6" in the triple jump to break the old state record held by current Stanford senior and East Ridge graduate, Allyson Weiss. Weiss had previously set the state record at the 2018 Suburban East Conference Championships where she jumped 41' 2.25".
Cinnamo this track and field season had 5 triple jumps over 40 feet, the most all-time by a Minnesota girl. Overall she went undefeated in the triple jump, en route to the Class AAA state title in the event.
Noah Breker
Robbinsdale Armstrong High School
Record: Boys 5K (XC)
Breker finished 4th overall behind Jackson Heidesch, Simeon Birnbaum, and Ford Washburn at the 2022 Heartland Regional with a time of 14:51.0 to set a new Minnesota state record. The previous record was held by Seth Eliason who ran a time of 14:54.10 at the 2016 Heartland Regional where he beat out Alex Miley (then #2 all-time) by a hundredth of a second.
Breker also holds the Minnesota in-state record which he set this year with a time of 14:57.20 at the Hopkins Baum/Rovn Invitational where he also set the Gale Woods Farm course record.
Mounds View Boys 4x800m
Victor Lelinga, William Skelly, Elliott McArthur, and Maximus Gregory
Record: Boys 4x800m Relay
The Mounds View boys put together a stellar 4x800m relay team at the Suburban Conference East Conference Championships and once William Skelly had crossed the line, they had broken one of Minnesota's oldest state records in the 4x800m relay.
The foursome of Maximus Gregory, Victor Lelinga, Elliott McArthur, and William Skelly put together a time of 7:39.91 to break the old state record of 7:41.94, which was set in 1998 by the Stillwater boys team of Luke Watson, Lancer Lumby, Sean Graham, and Greg Wikelius.
The Stillwater boys record was the third oldest Minnesota boys state record going into this season behind the long jump (1982) and high jump (1973).
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Ava Fitzgerald
Roseville High School
Record: Girls 100m Hurdles
Ava Fitzgerald made state history at the State Meet when she ran a 13.81100m hurdles race to shatter Karina Joiner's state record of 13.94 which was set in 2016. Fitzgerald is now only the 2nd Minnesota girl ever to run below 14 seconds in the 100m hurdles.
Ava came into the meet with a strong personal best of 14.14 in the event, but no one would've thought she would've PR'd by over .30 seconds to take all the state records in the event (state record, meet record, etc.). She now owns the 17th fastest mark nationally in 2022.
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Jarod White
Pine Island High School
Record: Boys Pole Vault
In one of the most anticipated moments of this track and field season in Minnesota, Pine Island's Jarod White pole-vaulted 16' 2" at the Section 1A Championships for a new Minnesota state pole vault record! The previous record had belonged to Mounds Views Calvin Ciganik and his jump of 16' 1.75" in 2018.
White came into the meet with a personal-best mark of 16' 0" from last year's Section 1A Championships. There he became just the third Minnesota boy to ever jump 16 feet or higher (Ciganik, Grant Krieger). He came into this meet with a seasonal best time of 15' 5", tied for the best vault in Minnesota this season with Travis Reighard.
White now owns the All-Time State Record, the MSHSL State Meet Record, and the Junior and Freshman Class Records. His sophomore season was canceled due to the pandemic*