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More talent speeds into Suburban East
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008
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Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor
The Suburban East Conference is already known to be fast and strong in boys track and field, and after what he saw at the White Bear Lake Relays on April 9, Forest Lake head coach Paul Kendrick thinks the SEC could be on the upswing in 2008.
“It’s like it was a few years ago. Last year I thought this conference was down a little, but just the overall talent (at the meet) was really good,” he said. “It was impressive, actually.”
Being so early in the season, the Rangers weren’t geared toward winning the competition, but they did manage to take fifth, even while not entering a few events.
“There’s just a lot of great, quality athletes and our kids were right in the mix,” Kendrick added. “We limited kids just because of their health. We could have easily been third, right on the heels of number two.”
Picking up top honors were the boys in the 400-meter relay as well as the corps that made up the high jump team.
Mitch Koenig, Dillon Grant, Dalton Keep and Dan Blaser wheeled around the track in a time of 43.76, which put them way out in front of White Bear Lake’s 45.06.
“They looked like they were in mid-season form, so that was fun,” Kendrick said.
The high jump was led by Griffin Lentsch, clearing a height of 6’2”, but his teammates were all in the top 10, helping the Rangers grab first overall.
Jimmy Plain and Sam Miller were part of a group that tied at 5’10”, and Seth Peters was right behind at 5’8”.
Forest Lake was active in the field events, as Kenny Klein came in second in the shot put and the rest of the throwers landed in the top 17 positions.
The boys long jump relay was solid, as were the discus and pole vault teams.
Rory Alt had the Rangers best effort in the vault, clearing 11 feet.
One other notable performance from the track was turned in by the 1600 sprint medley, where Forest Lake pulled into second, behind Cretin-Derham Hall.
“I felt good about the things we did,” Kendrick concluded. “It kind of sets the tempo, I think, for the team realizing how committed we’re going to have to be if we’re going to be competitive. And I think it also let them get the feeling like, ‘Yeah we can compete.’”
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