Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Even though they’re keeping an eye on the bigger meets that are still to come, the Forest Lake boys track and field team turned in two more solid performances last week.

A small group of Rangers participated at the Hamline Elite meet on Friday, April 27 on Hamline University’s fast track, while the entire varsity squad also took part in the Roseville Invite on April 24.

At the Hamline Elite, it was the throwers who continued to put up numbers that announced they will be lingering near the top at this very same site when the state meet rolls around in June.

Tyler Kleinhuizen took first in the shot put with a throw of 58-9, while teammate Matt Schwartz came in seventh with a distance of 50-9 3/4.

Those two did a bit of a flip-flop in the discus, where Schwartz moved to second overall with a mark of 169-4, and Kleinhuizen went for 146-04, which put him in sixth place. Logan Robinson also finished in the top 10 with a throw of 136-9.

On the previously stated fast track, head coach Paul Kendrick put it in simple terms: “Our sprinters did well.”

Those sprinters would be Dan Blazer, Dalton Keep, Dillon Grant and Mitch Koenig, who earned a second place in the 400-meter relay, and a fourth in the 800-meter relay (1:32.29).

The time of 43.50 in the 4x100 landed this quick quartet on to the No. 7 position on Forest Lake’s all-time honor roll.

Koenig did a little extra work in the field events, where he came in 10th place in the long jump with a leap 18-5 1/2.

In the races that last longer than a Super Bowl commercial, Seamus Glewwe pushed through for a time of 2:00.44 in 800-meter run, and that was good enough for seventh place. Ben Brodin was 12th in the 1600 meters with a time of 4:47.59.

ROSEVILLE INVITE

Earlier in the week, the Rangers were in Roseville for an eight-team invitational, and Forest Lake ended the evening in third place overall. Andover was the leader and Roseville came in second.

According to Kendrick, the focus was not so much on maximizing points, but more on gathering information and allowing different relay teams to get in synch.

“To me it’s a good tune-up meet, and the kids have been training pretty hard right now, so we didn’t come into the meet very fresh,” he said.

“I think if we would have maximized points we probably would have been right there. So that was encouraging.”

Not surprisingly, Kleinhuizen and Schwartz were the Lord of the Rings, where they went one, two in the shot (Kleinhuizen - 53-11; Schwartz - 50-5). Kenny Klein came in sixth place with a throw of 48-1 1/4.

Schwartz was on top in the discus (154-9), and he had company with Luke Daninger in fourth (135-5) and Robinson in sixth (133-5).

Grant and Blazer finished in second and fourth, respectively in the 100 meters, and Grant also raced to fifth in the 200; the sprint medley team came in fourth; Glewwe was fourth in the 400 meters; Nick Kelley was second in the 800 meters; Brodin picked up a fifth place in the 3200-meter run; the 1600-meter relay was fourth; the 3200-meter relay team was third; and Koenig sailed to a distance of 19-4 1/2 for fourth place in the long jump.

The schedule starts to get serious as the boys will spend plenty of time in White Bear Lake. On Friday, May 4 they will compete in White Bear for what could be another tune-up, because the battle for the Suburban East Conference’s True Team berth is on the line, Tuesday, May 8, which is also in White Bear Lake.

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