Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Now that’s one way to end a high school career.

A day after graduating from Forest Lake, Tyler Kleinhuizen and Matt Schwartz were a double threat at the State Track and Field Meet in both the shot put and the discus, held on June 8 and 9 at Hamline University.

When it was all over on Saturday afternoon, Kleinhuizen and Schwartz would each have two medals hanging from their necks.

Before the season, Kleinhuizen said he had three goals in the shot put: win state, set the school record and go undefeated. Done, done and done.

Factoring into the mix was Schultz, whose specialty is in the discus, but he is also one of Minnesota’s best in the shot put.

For Kleinhuizen, the focus on the shot meant he would have to defeat the defending champion, Trey Davis of Farmington.

The cool morning and the big stage appeared to affect most competitors in the preliminaries, but as they went along, the young men began to launch some impressive throws.

Afterward, Kleinhuizen admitted the crowd and pressure caused his body to kick his mind out of the equation, and that’s not good for such a technical sport.

“A little too nervous for my liking,” he said.

Just when it looked like Kleinhuizen put himself out of reach in the prelims, Davis came back with a heave in the finals that made things interesting.

Kleinhuizen’s mark of 59-10 1/4 would end the debate, however, while Davis would take second with a throw of 59-5 3/4. As expected, Schwartz was right up there and finished in sixth place with a distance of 53-1 1/4.

With all the nerves causing a distraction, Kleinhuizen felt a twinge of disappointment in not hitting a huge number in the 60s, but that couldn’t outweigh his feeling of being a state champ.

“Wow, I finally won what I set out to do” he said. “I also felt kind of lucky, too.”

As the drama was taking place in the shot, sophomore Griffin Lentsch was wrapping up his first trip to state with a 16th place finish in the triple jump (40-1 1/4). Looking ahead to 2008, there are only four other returning jumpers who placed ahead of Lentsch.

“Conditions weren’t easy today here, so it’s even tough for a senior kid that has a lot of experience,” head coach Paul Kendrick said. “That’s going to set him up well for down the road, I think.”

Dillon Grant was part of the elite group in the 100 meters, and even though he was battling the flu, the junior took 16th place with a time of 11.35.

That event would get things started for Grant, as he was also part of the 400- and 800-meter relay teams, made up of fellow juniors Mitch Koenig and Dalton Keep as well as sophomore Dan Blaser.

The boys were close, really close, to qualifying for the finals in the 800-meter relay, but their time of 1:32.44 put them in 10th place overall.

The 400-meter relay had better results, as they ended up in Saturday’s final and took eighth place with a time of 43.81.

“As far as them coming in and getting the baton around, I think the relays executed well,” Kendrick said. “We were a little dinged up coming in. To be on the bubble of even making a finals I thought was a good accomplishment.”

Much like Lentsch, sophomore Zach Waldoch was getting a feel for his first state meet on Saturday by qualifying for the 1600 meters. His time of 4:45.17 would put him in 22nd place.

Also on Saturday was the discus finals, where Schwartz would earn second place with a throw of 175-11, to Mike Shaver’s (Owatonna) 183-01. Kleinhuizen was seventh at 151-07.

As a team, Forest Lake would come in eighth place with a total of 31 points.

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