June 7, 2012
Contact: Jody Redman or Howard W. Voigt / MSHSL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
State Boys' and Girls' Track and Field Meet
Champions returning to defend 24 individual titles, 11 relay titles
Twenty-four individual event champions and representatives from 11 relay teams that won gold
medals last year have qualified to defend those titles this Friday and Saturday, June 8 and 9, when high
school athletes gather at Hamline University in St. Paul for the 2012 State Track and Field Meet.
Preliminaries in track events for both classes will be conducted on Friday. All of the 3,200-meter
run events will be finals only on Friday, as will be some field events. Friday’s schedule begins at 9:00
a.m. with the Class AA competition. The Class A events are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m., but
possibly may start later depending on the pace of the Class AA meet. The same schedule will be
followed on Saturday.
Class A Girls Highlights
Champions return in three individual events and two relays.
Ninth-grader Kayla Huhnerkoch of Redwood Valley, Redwood Falls, returns to defend her title
in the 1600-meter run. Her qualifying time is 5:16.51. Four other 2011 medalists also return, including
McKenzie Holt, a sophomore at St. Cloud Christian School, who has the best time of 5:08.13. Holt was
sixth last year.
Windom Area senior Hannah Steele will defend her discus championship. Her qualifying throw
was 120 feet, 8 inches. Five other 2011 medalists also return, including St. Clair senior Ashley Thooft
who has the best qualifying throw of 137 feet, 4 inches. Thooft finished third last year.
Junior Emma Lange of Caledonia/Spring Grove is the final returning champion. She won the
high jump last year and holds this year’s highest qualifying jump of 5 feet, 5 inches. The only other
returning medalist is New Richland-H-E-G sophomore Carlie Wagner, fifth last year, and who has also
qualified at 5 feet, 5 inches.
Pequot Lakes returns with another 4x100-meter relay team in pursuit of consecutive titles. Five
other teams that placed last year are also back, including Chatfield, which owns the fastest qualifying
time of 49.98. Less than three seconds separates the 17 qualified teams.
Seven of the nine medal-winning 4x400-meter relay teams return, including a squad from Breck
School of Golden Valley, the defending champions. Osakis, the 2011 runner-up, has the best qualifying
time of 3:59.02.
Class A Boys Highlights
Three individuals, all in field events, and representatives of two relay teams are returning to
defend titles.
Senior Aaron Wubben of Central Minnesota Christian of Prinsburg returns to defend his high
jump title. He has qualified at 6 feet, 5 inches, and will compete against three other 2011 medalists,
including Waseca senior Yves Spies who finished eighth last year but who has qualified with the highest
jump at 6 feet, 8 inches.
Grant Krieger, a junior at The Blake School of Minneapolis, is back to seek another pole vault
championship. He qualified with a 14-foot vault and faces two other 2011 medalists, including Blue
Earth Area senior Jake Zebedee who has the highest qualifying vault of 15 feet, 3 inches, a full 15
inches higher than the rest of the field.
Ada-Borup senior Brian Blasey will attempt to defend his discus title. He qualified with a throw
of 145 feet, 10 inches. Three other 2011 medalists will also compete. Junior Steffan Stroh of Ottertail
Central, a co-op of Battle Lake, Henning and Underwood, has a qualifying throw of 169 feet, 1 inch, a
full 3 feet farther than the rest of the field.
The 4x200-meter relay team from Caledonia/Spring Grove will attempt to win consecutive titles.
The only other medal-winning team back is St. Croix Lutheran of West St. Paul, which finished fifth.
The Rochester Lourdes squad has the fastest qualifying time of 1:30.41.
Four 4x800-meter relay teams that medaled last year are back, including champion Cotter of
Winona. The squad from Madelia/Truman owns the fastest qualifying time of 8:07.09.
Class AA Girls Highlights
The Class AA girls’ field is well represented with previous title holders. Defending champions in
10 individual events return and representatives from all four medal-winning relay teams will be
competing.
Six of nine medalists return in the 800-meter run, including defending champion Haylie Zenner,
a Fergus Falls senior. Her qualifying time of 2:13.74 is a mere one-hundredths of a second slower than
the best qualifying time of Prior Lake senior Taylor Scholl. A little more than 9 seconds separates the
entire field.
The 1600- and 3200-meter runs will be premier duels between Alexandria senior Jamie
Piepenburg and Shakopee junior Maria Hauger, with Albert Lea Area junior Christina Monson battling
alongside them both. Piepenburg won the 1600 in 2010 and 3200 last year. Hauger won the 3200 in
2010. Monson won the 1600 last year, but Piepenburg has the fastest qualifying time of 4:54.19 this
year. Piepenburg also has the fastest qualifying time of 10:24.57 in the 3200, with Hauger’s qualifying
time within about 3 seconds.
Richfield junior Jessica January will attempt to defend her 100-meter high hurdles title. She has
the fastest qualifying time of 14.29. Three other 2011 medalists are also among the qualifiers.
Minneapolis Southwest senior Tatyana Pashibin will attempt to defend her high jump title. Her
qualifying jump of 5 feet, 4 inches is just two inches shy of the best qualifying jump made by Lakeville
South sophomore Morgan Pieri, one of two other 2011 medalists also returning.
Minnetonka sophomore Piper Jensen is back to defend her triple jump title. Her qualifying jump
was 36 feet, 1 inch, more than a foot and a half short of her 2011 winning jump. Two other 2011
medalists also return. Farmington junior Nadia Lorencz has the best qualifying jump of 37 feet, 6 and
three-quarters inches.
St. Francis junior Maggie Ewen has the best qualifying shot put distance of 46 feet, 8 inches in
her attempt to defend her title. Among her competitors are four other 2011 medalists. Ewen also won the
discus last year and the year before that and is back to defend that title, too. Her qualifying throw of 150
feet, 8 inches is second best to White Bear Lake Area senior Angela Guenther’s throw of 154 feet, 3
inches. Guenther is one four other 2011 discus medalists’ who return. She was last year’s runner-up.
Hopkins is looking to repeat in two relays: the 4x200 and 4x400. The Royals own neither best
qualifying time. In the 4x200 that distinction is held by 2011 runner-up Osseo, and in the 4x400 the best
qualifying time belongs to Prior Lake, the 2011 third-place finisher.
Apple Valley will attempt consecutive wins in the 4x100-meter relay among three other 2011
medal-winning teams. Minneapolis Washburn has the fastest qualifying time of 48.70, 25-hundredths of
a second faster than Apple Valley.
Rochester Century is the final winning relay team to return, in the 4x800-meter relay. Two other
2011 medal-winning teams are also back. A Wayzata squad has the fastest qualifying time of 9 minutes,
25 seconds.
Class AA Boys Highlights
Eight individuals and three relay teams have qualified to defend 2011 titles.
Blaine senior Ayuk Tambe is back to defend his 100-meter dash title and has three other 2011
medalists as competitors. Tambe’s qualifying time of 10.87 is just six-hundredths of a second off the
best time of senior Leandre Campbell of Eastview in Apple Valley.
Hopkins senior Austin Salargo is one five returning medalists in the 400-meter dash. He will
attempt to defend his title and has the fastest qualifying time of 47.82.
White Bear Lake Area senior Eric Gebeke is one of three 2011 returning medalists in the 800-
meter run. He will try for two in a row and has the best qualifying time of 1:52.23.
Moorhead senior Glen Ellingson is back to attempt a title defense in the 3200-meter run. So are
two other 2011 medalists. Richfield sophomore Obsa Ali has the fastest qualifying time of 9:18.87.
Senior Rilwan (RJ) Alowonle of Park of Cottage Grove will attempt to defend both his 110-
meter high hurdles and his 300-meter intermediate hurdles titles. He has back-to-back wins in the 300-
meter event. He owns the fastest qualifying times in both events.
Lakeville South junior Lee Bares won the 2011 pole vault title and his event-best qualifying
vault of 15 feet, 6 inches is a half-foot better than his 2011 winning vault. He is one of only three
qualifiers to meet or eclipse the 15-foot mark.
Andover senior Thomas Anderson has qualified to defend his shot put title and has the furthest
qualifying put of 64 feet, one-half inch. Two other 2011 medalists are also in the field.
The 4x200-meter relay team from White Bear Lake Area is looking for its fourth consecutive
title. The 2010 squad of Ryan Olson, Matt Glasgow, Cody Thibault, and John McCoy set a new All-
Time State Meet record of 1:27.63 in the preliminaries. They are one of five medal-winning teams
returning. North, North St. Paul, was the 2011 runner-up and has the fastest qualifying time this year of
1:28.11.
The 2011 champions from Apple Valley are back in the 4x100-meter relay, as are three other
medal-winning teams, including fastest-qualifying Park of Cottage Grove.
Bemidji returns in search of consecutive gold medals in the 4x800-meter relay. So are three other
2011 medal-winning teams. Chanhassen qualified with the fastest time of 7:55.74.
Wheelchair Division
In addition to several additional events now available, athletes can not only win individual titles
but also earn points for their team. In Class A, Pine Island senior Kathryn Lubahn is the only returning
athlete and she will compete again in the shot put. There are no returning athletes in Class AA.
However, seniors Jackson Larson of Cambridge-Isanti and Mark Braun of Irondale in New Brighton
will compete head-to-head in the 1600, shot put and discus.
Live Results
Fans unable to attend the meet will be able to follow along with “live” results by clicking on a
link on the League website home page. As soon as each event is certified by officials, the results will be
posted to the website.
— 30 —
Harry Kitts wsill serve as media steward. All state meet qualifying performances and
seedings are posted on the League’s Web site – www.MSHSL.org. The League will post
results of the meet on its Web site throughout each day of competition.