The Hamline Elite meet brings the best student-athletes in every event for one evening each year. Little did the spectators realize that they witnessed back to back races of national elite quality.
Let's review the guys race first. Jensen Orlow (senior, Holy Family Catholic) finished fourth with a time of 9:14. That time easily wins the race in the previous four years (let alone wins State in those years). Josh Thorson (senior, Wayzata) wins the race in 9:00.80 less than 1 second off the meet record set in 2006 by Mike Torchia. A very impressive performance as he ran alone in the last 500 meters and he was flying in the last 150 meters after dueling with Brandon Clark (senior, Blake) for the last few laps. In 2007, four runners ran a sub 9:08 at the Hamline Elite meet and all finished within two seconds of each other (Finnerty, Mead, Lumbar, and Heath – a few All Americans in that bunch). That bodes well for the future of the top four in this race, with Brandon Clark (senior, Blake) finishing second with a time of 9:09.50 followed by Riley Macon (senior, Rochester Mayo) with a time of 9:13.50.
What makes this a national elite quality race? 
* Five runners earned first team U.S. Milesplit honors (Will Burke of Edina finished just under 9:20)
* The top four runners all qualified for the United States Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships and this race does not have an easy qualification standard
* Josh Thorson and Brandon Clark also earned an invite to the New Balance Nationals Outdoor championship
* The top four times updated the Top 100 3200 All Time Bests (Thorson 7th, Clark 24th, Macon 37th, and Orlow 40th – Macon was 100th going into the season)
Thorson and Clark may get the chance to race against each other one last time as high school athletes at New Balance, and that will be their tie-breaker as they have faced each other four times as seniors and both have come out ahead twice (Clark may prefer the 5000 over the 3200). Based on the results of this race, the Class AA and Class A State 3200 races will be fun to watch as
both appear to be deep and in 2007 the top 10 all improved their time from the Hamline Elite meet to the State meet.
The gals race may not have had a photo finish, but it was exciting at the end, with Jamie Piepenburg (senior, Alexandria) winning the race with a time of 10:28.46. Clare Flanagan (sophomore, Blake) finished second with a time of 10:31.92 finishing her last lap at 64 seconds passing Maria Hauger (junior, Shakopee) finishing at 10:33.78. For the first 6 laps, Piepenburg and Hauger took control of the race, primarily racing against each other with fourth place finisher Danielle Anderson (junior, Eagan) just behind. Piepenburg made her move at the same time as Thorson in the guys race and pulled away with a strong last lap. For the second race in a row, the fourth place runner with a time of 10:39.99 would have easily won the race in the previous four years or in this case every year of the meet!
What makes this a national elite quality race?
* Four runners earned first team U.S. Milesplit status
* The top four runners all qualified for the United States Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships (again it is difficult to earn an invite in every event – the standards are high)
* The top four runners earned an invite to the New Balance Nationals Outdoor championship
* The top five times updated the Top 100 3200 All Time Bests (Piepenburg's fifth, Flanagan 9th, Hauger 10th, Anderson 16th, and fifth place finisher Vivian Hett of Burnsville performance of 10:56.25 was 57th best of all time).
In the last few years we have enjoyed Piepenburg and Hauger racing against each other and the Class AA meet may be the last time they face each other as high school athletes unless they both run at New Balance. The Class AA races will be deep this year and with the new 4 x 800 qualification requirements, it will be interesting to see the year-end race selections.
Friday night, our Minnesota distance runners showed they can compete on the National stage. As was the case in the 2007, why didn’t we take a group photo of the competitors in each race?
Photos courtesy of Andy Golebiowski, MNPhoto
