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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor
“I could not have asked for a better team performance than what we got.”
Comments like that will happen when a coach sees his squad win the true team competition, which is precisely what Paul Kendrick observed Tuesday, May 6, with the Forest Lake boys track and field team.
The Rangers entered the Section 5AAA championships as a legitimate contender, but even Kendrick admitted that schools like Stillwater, Blaine and White Bear Lake were perennial powers who were familiar with winning these types of events.
Forest Lake, on the other hand, hadn’t taken this title since 1993.
“The way this is set up I felt like we had a shot,” Kendrick shared. “We had a good team and I felt we were solid all the way through,”
After the win was secure, Kendrick said other coaches admitted that they were surprised by the Rangers.
Even more inspiring was the fact that it wasn’t one or two athletes propelling Forest Lake to this Friday’s True Team Meet in Stillwater.
“Everybody just had personal bests or just ran at such a high level,” Kendrick shared.
He mentioned runners like Brett Stolberg and J.J. Weigel, who both chopped seconds off their previous best times in the 800 meters to grab a combined 36 points for the team’s total.
And then there was Nate Moen, who primarily runs the 1600 and 3200 meters, but he dropped down to the 800, turned in a sub two-minute race and earned second (26 points).
The Rangers finished with 946 points, with second-place Blaine getting 882.5.
Kendrick also threw compliments to his hurdling crew (Brian Rivard, Dillan Edelen, Vince Shaw and Sam Miller), which brought up another reason why Forest Lake was so successful.
“One of the keys would be our No. 2 and 3 runners in the open events were just solid, just very strong and pulled in a lot of points for us,” Kendrick said.
The True Team Meet is at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 16, which also serves as preparation for next week’s Suburban East Conference Meet, beginning Tuesday, May 20.
True Team Notables
100-Meter Sprint
2. Dan Blaser 11.40
3. Dillon Grant 11.42
5. Mitch Koenig 11.52
800-Meter Relay 1:31.52
1. Dan Blaser, Dalton Keep, Brandon Brambilla and Josh Nielsen.
Discus
4. Luke Daninger 135-6
400-Meter Relay 42.99
1. Koenig, Keep, Blaser and Grant
400 Meters
1. Nielsen 51.42
300-Meter Hurdles
1. Brian Rivard 42.05
800 Meters
2. Nate Moen 1:59.76
200 Meters
1. Keep 22.74
4. Grant 23.40
High Jump
2. Lentsch 5-10
2. Seth Peters 5-10
2. Jimmy Plain 5-10
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