The Alexandria girls track and field team had its final tune up ahead of the Central Lakes Conference championship meet in Sauk Rapids on June 3, and the Cardinals dominated a home five-team competition on May 28.
That’s been the story for this group of athletes much of the year. Alexandria scored 168.5 points, well in front of second-place Moorhead at 116.
The Cardinals, the Section 8-3A true team champions, also entered their results from this meet into a virtual state true team competition. Alexandria finished seventh out of 12 of the largest and deepest programs in Minnesota by tallying 825 points. Rosemount was the state champion in Class 3A with 1,272.5 points.
“We went into this meet focusing on what our athlete's needed, rather than on how high we can place as a team,” Alexandria head coach Meghan Orgeman said. “With going hard at true team sections, and with CLC coming up, we needed to pick where we stretched our athletes and where we pulled back. Our home meet on Friday was a meet where we pulled back slightly.”
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Alexandria can do that and still post impressive finishes throughout the lineup. The Cardinals had first-place finishes from Aleah Miller (800 run), Emma Ecker (1600 run), the 4x400 relay team, Amaria Sowada (shot put) and Hailie Kent (triple jump).
“The girls did well and we had a ton of fun at our home meet,” Orgeman said. “Our focus was to honor our seniors, given it was our last home meet and their last day of school. I couldn't have asked for a better meet with the weather, the high level of competition, how our athletes performed, and the memories made together.”
The Cardinals are poised to make plenty more memories in the next couple weeks with the championship portion of the season up next.
The CLC meet is Thursday in Sauk Rapids with the whole conference field scheduled to be there with team and individual league titles on the line. Orgeman believes in the coaches and athletes on this team, and she is eager to see what they can do to finish off this season.
“We are going to push for a CLC Championship title,” Orgeman said. “There are a lot of talented athletes in our section, but I believe it is our well-roundedness that sets us apart. This is our greatest strength and it will be something we rely on as we move into our championship meets. “We have strong athletes in every event on the track and in the field. Our athletes are also developing well because of their desire to strive for personal bests and because of the incredible coaches that surround them. I believe we have some of the best coaches in the state all housed on one team. We have come a long way since the start of the season because of how hard our kids work and the expertise of the coaching staff.”
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ALEXANDRIA MEET TEAM SCORES - Alexandria - 168.5; Moorhead - 116; Rocori - 115; Detroit Lakes - 67.5; Bemidji - 56
ALEXANDRIA TOP-FIVE FINISHERS - 100 DASH - Elena Fuglestad - third, 13.30; 200 DASH - Jisella Haskamp - fourth, 27.94; 400 DASH - Fuglestad - third, 1:00.78; Miah Wessel - fourth, 1:02.64; 800 RUN - Aleah Miller - first, 2:18.38; Emma Reineke - third, 2:30.42; 1600 RUN - Emma Ecker - first, 5:19.98; 3200 RUN - Giselle Jahner - second, 11:50.02; Brynn Kosters - fifth, 12:15.12; 100 HURDLES - Alexis Cole - third, 16.70; 300 HURDLES - Cole - second, 47.48; 4x100 RELAY - Hailie Kent, Fuglestad, Allie Randazzo, Cole - second, 50.90; Marissa Linow, Sara Eddy, Dylan Witt, Addison Fettig - fifth, 54.77; 4x200 RELAY - Randazzo, Kaia Emter, Haskamp, Wessel - third, 1:49.53; 4x400 RELAY - Myah Kremer, Jaelyn Miller, Ecker, Aleah Miller - first, 4:08.10; 4x800 RELAY - Kamryn Coauette, J. Miller, Emma Hochhalter, Kremer - second, 9:57.84; Lilly Arnquist, Abigail Kor, Bianca Grace, Madeline Hochhalter - fifth, 11:29.36; SHOT PUT - Amaria Sowada - first, 35-8; Sophia Vinje - fifth, 31-7; DISCUS - Sowada - second, 111-10; Vinje - third, 106-11; HIGH JUMP - Wessel - t-fifth, 4-8; Rylee Richards - 4-8; Fuglestad - third, 16-8; Kent - fourth, 15-11; TRIPLE JUMP - Kent - first, 36-1; Marisa Rousu - third, 33-8.25; Ella Steussy - fourth, 33-6.25
