November 4, 2018
We had our largest ever group of individual qualifiers at the state championship, and you ran well under cold, windy conditions.
Henry and Matthew led things off in the boys class A race. Henry started fast, with a 5:01 first mile, then kept up a solid second mile in 5:17, and closed fast to earn 9th place and a medal, earning all state honors as well. His time of 16:16 moves him up to 3rd best all time for MPA. This was his best ever time by almost 20 seconds!
Matthew also started fast, with a 5:05 first mile. He slowed some during his second mile, and held the pace during the third mile to finish with his best ever time at the state meet. In any other year, he likely would have been very happy with this time. But this was a very good year for Matthew, with several sub-17 races. Nonetheless, this was one of the fastest 5000 meter races of his career at MPA. A fitting finish. Many thanks for all you’ve contributed to our team over the years.
Margo and Katie did their race just as the raindrops let up. You might say they brought a little sunshine to the proceedings! Both girls started their races fast, perhaps a little too fast. Margo eclipsed her time from last year by a few seconds, and looked stronger in the race. Katie discovered that the state meet is a different beast. But she still ran a time that she probably would have thought impossible only a year ago. She’ll be back again.
This meet ends a remarkable season. Many of our runners made huge improvements in their times. With another year of hard work, perhaps we can bring more of our runners to the state championship next year!
Results are available for Boys Class A and Girls Class A at MTEC Results.
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Race photos are from Mn Prep Photo.
