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Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor
Soon after the Forest Lake boys track and field team qualified for the State True Team, the Rangers were ranked as the No. 4 school in the competition, behind defending champ Mounds View, Farmington and Anoka.
When the actual True Team finally concluded on Friday, May 16, it was Eden Prairie who would take the title away from Mounds View (who finished in second place), while Forest Lake did indeed settle into fourth behind Roseville.
“On the track we were as solid as we could have been, and we had some really big performances, too, as far as guys really stepping up,” Rangers head coach Paul Kendrick said.
On the field, injuries and less-than-normal results in events like the long jump and the triple jump left a few points in the sand, but the guys that do the heavy lifting certainly made up for it.
“I think a real strength of the meet was our throwers in the shot put and the discus,” Kendrick said. “They all had personal bests and outscored all of the other teams in the throws.”
Eden Prairie grabbed the first two spots in the shot put, but Calvin Larson, Kenny Klein and Jake Lepisto took command of fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
In the discus, Luke Daninger earned second place, and he had help from Nick Wilson in fifth, and Doug Backlund in ninth.
“They really stepped up. To have all of them hitting in the meet was outstanding,” Kendrick said.
The trio of 400 runners — Josh Nielsen, Brandon Brambilla and Mark Buerkle — could finish no higher than Nielsen’s fifth place, but Kendrick was happy to see all three make significant improvements in their times.
The head coach had similar praise for his distance runners, like Nate Moen, Zach Waldoch and J.J. Weigel, and then there are always the sprinters.
The top-ranked 400-meter relay team of Dan Blaser, Mitch Koenig, Dalton Keep and Dillon Grant met the challenge of the state’s best and cranked out the fastest time with a posting of 43.11.
Keep and Blaser were joined by Brambilla and Nielsen in the 800-meter relay for another first place for the Rangers, and Keep kept on going by pulling away in the open 200 meters to take the tape at 22.20
“We had a strong showing, and to take fourth at the state meet was a great accomplishment for this team. When I look at it, no one expected us to get out of our section,” Kendrick said.
State True Team
3200-Meter Relay
9. Forest Lake 8:55.01
110 Meter Hurdles
14. Shaw, Vince 16.58
15. Rivard, Brian 16.61
20. Edelen, Dillan 16.86
100-Meter Sprint
7. Blaser, Dan 11.46
12. Koenig, Mitch 11.60
16. Grant, Dillon 11.65
800-Meter Relay
1. Forest Lake 1:31.12
1600-Meter Run
9. Waldoch, Zach 4:33.67
10. Moen, Nate 4:34.50
18. Orth, Andy 4:43.22
400-Meter Relay
1. Forest Lake 43.11
400-Meter Run
5. Nielsen, Josh 50.84
10. Brambilla, Brandon 52.50
16. Buerkle, Mark 53.08
300-Meter Hurdles
8. Rivard, Brian 42.44
14. Shaw, Vince 43.71
21. Miller, Sam 44.34
800-Meter Run
9. Weigel, J.J. 2:02.82
22. Egbert, Richie 2:07.95
24. Stolberg, Brett 2:08.59
200-Meter Sprint
1. Keep, Dalton 22.20
13. Grant, Dillon 23.09
16. Koenig, Mitch 23.24
3200-Meter Run
8. Waldoch, Zach 10:09.30
10. Moen, Nate 10:12.32
19. Weigel, J.J. 10:29.20
1600-Meter Relay
9. Forest Lake 3:34.53
Long Jump
16. Buerkle, Mark 19-01
22. Keep, Dalton 18-07
26. Wittrock, Casey 17-10
Triple Jump
15. Lentsch, Griffin 40-02
18. Edelen, Dillan 39-00
24. Alt, Rory 38-03.50
High Jump
7. Plain, Jimmy 6-00
14. Peters, Seth 5-10
19. Lentsch, Griffin 5-08
Pole Vault
9. Alt, Rory 12-06
21. Massey, Tyler 10-00
25. Jensen, Tyler 10-00
Shot Put
5. Larson, Calvin 50-07.50
6. Klein, Kenny 50-06.50
7. Lepisto, Jacob 49-01.25
Discus
2. Daninger, Luke 142-01
5. Wilson, Nick 138-10
9. Backlund, Doug 134-01
Team Rankings
1. Eden Prairie 811
2. Mounds View 808.50
3. Roseville 722
4. Forest Lake 687.50
5. Anoka 687
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