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| Another section title for boys track team |
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| Wednesday, 04 June 2008 | |
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Glen Strandberg Sports Editor For both the boys and the girls, last weekend’s Section 7, Class 2A track and field meet didn’t look much different than the previous year. While the Forest Lake girls were repeating themselves to a third-place finish, the boys were on their way to claiming their third consecutive section title. A group of sprinters and a trio of throwers from the male contingent will continue on to the state meet at Hamline on June 6 and 7, but the section crown was won because of the Rangers’ depth. The top two individual competitors qualify for state, but Forest Lake loaded up on third, fourth and fifth-place finishes throughout Saturday’s finals. For example, Dan Blaser and Mitch Koenig took fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 100 meters; Dillon Grant was fourth in the 200; Mark Buerkle pulled in to fifth in the 400 meters; Nate Moen finished third in the 800; Griffin Lentsch and Jimmy Plain were a respective fourth and fifth in the high jump; and Nick Wilson was about as close to second in the discus as a third-place finisher can get. All of those efforts add up to points, points and more points for Section 7AA coach of the year, Paul Kendrick. But in terms of who’s actually going to St. Paul, it probably starts with the overpowering 400-meter relay team. Blaser, Grant, Koenig and Dalton Keep took eighth place at the 2007 state meet, and they’ve done nothing but set new standards in 2008. Coming off the Suburban East Conference championships — where they posted a new mark for the SEC while also setting a record for Forest Lake High School (42.80) — the Furious Foursome broke the section record on Saturday, with a time of 42.94. In the 800-meter relay, Blaser and Keep were joined by Josh Nielsen and Brandon Brambilla, and this quartet lowered the 7AA mark, coming in at 1:30.51. Keep has been a blur this spring in the open 200 meters, and he will also race at the state meet in this event after a first-place finish of 22.40. Another individual competitor will be Nielsen in the open 400 meters, where he came in second place to Duluth Denfeld’s Josh Carter. As for other individuals, Forest Lake moves to the field, as Kenny Klein and Calvin Larson went one-two in the shot put, and Luke Daninger edged out teammate Wilson for second in the discus. “That’s kind of a neat little story about him coming off major knee surgery from football and rehabbing himself back into shape,” Kendrick said of Daninger, after a tie-breaker decided the state berth between Daninger and his good friend, Wilson. The state meet gets underway at 9 a.m. on both Friday and Saturday. Social Bookmarking ...       |
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