By AJ Reisetter
The Boy’s and Girl’s Track and Field teams combined to send one relay and four individuals to the state meet over the weekend at St. Michael-Albertville. The meet started on Thursday, June 8th with prelims and ended on Saturday, June 10th with finals. Two Raiders found their way onto the podium and earned All-State Honors.
All-State Honors
On Thursday, Brayden Brakke secured a spot in the finals of the 100m dash with a time of 11.38 despite a strong headwind. On Saturday, Brakke ran the fastest time of his career and broke the school record by 0.07 of a second, 10.87. He ended up finishing ninth, making him an All-State athlete. “Although our previous school record was a 10.7 set in 1983 by the legendary Rich Kleber, the time adjustment for a hand-timed race is .24 seconds,” said head coach Tyler Balow when discussing Brakke’s record. “With Brayden running under the 10.94 mark in wind-legal conditions he will move on to the record board as the fastest 100m runner in our school’s history.
Kamarion Gant also earned All-State honors after his sixth-place finish in the high jump with a leap of 6’4″. Gant had missed his first two attempts at 6’2″ but cleared his third attempt and went on to clear 6’4″ as well to secure a spot on the podium. “Strangely enough Kamarion was the Big 9 JV conference champion last year and didn’t even compete at the Varsity Conference meet,” said Balow. “Kamarion has made incredible strides as a student-athlete in the past year and this was the icing on the cake for a huge season of growth for him. Last week he was voted as the team’s hardest worker as well as a team captain for next season.”
Other State Finishes
The historic weekend started on Thursday when the 4×100 relay of Jackson Jerdee, Simon Lippert, Kamarion Gant, and Brayden Brakke took 14th place and ran their second-best season time in 43.78
The final Raider to compete on Saturday was senior captain Toby Grawe. He ended up finishing in 12th place in the discus throw with a toss of 143-4. Balow after his performance praised Grawe by saying “Toby is one of the most high-character student-athletes I have ever worked with and despite coming up short on his goal of making finals he had a great season and career.”
Amber Mahal Represents Girl’s Team in High Jump
Freshmen Amber Mahal was the lone athlete on the girl’s team to advance to the state tournament, and she did not disappoint. Mahal lept her way to 11th place with a jump of 5’0″. Mahal was one of three freshmen in the event, the other two jumped 5’2″ and 5’4″ to take fifth and sixth.
You can find full results from the state track and field meet here.
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