Track and field: Minnewaska girls take 7th at Class A State; A-B-E's Wales finishes highly in three events

ST. MICHAEL - The Minnewaska girls track and field team built off of a strong showing in the prelims of the MSHSL Class A State Track and Field Meet with a strong showing in the finals on Friday that earned it seventh place.

Minnewaska’s finish was led by McKenzie Luetmer, a junior, who finished second in the 400m dash (58.24 - personal record).

“I knew I could get second, and I didn't want to settle for anything less,” Luetmer said. “Honestly, I don't really have many thoughts when I’m running. I just run my hardest and don't leave any energy in the tank.”

Luetmer finished in second behind Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball’s Ellie Kuechel (55.86).

“We've been running together this season a lot, and we've just become really good friends,” Luetmer said. “I think we were just both blown away. I was just really happy for her.”

In last year’s state meet, Luetmer finished 16th in the 400m.

“My main motivation for this race today was how it went last year,” Luetmer said. “I made it in this event last year, but I got 16th place. So I was like, ‘Okay, everything is up from here.’ And I just wanted to make top three.”

With the time of 58.24, she broke the school record of 58.62, which she set at the Section 5A Championships.

Luetmer ran in the 4x800m relay, along with Lauryn Ankeny, Makenna Thoen and Olivia Danielson and placed third (9:37.98).

“That definitely warmed me up for the day,” Luetmer said.

Luetmer, Ankeny, Danielson and Teagan Stark also ran in the 4x400 and placed fifth (4:07.71). The Lakers ran in one other relay, the girls 4x100 with Alannah Christensen, Mya Lindemann, Emma Kovarik and Emily Kaiser and placed eighth (51.20).

Kaiser also finished eighth in the 100m dash (12.79) and Danielson placed fifth in the 800m (2:19.22).

Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball won the girls meet with 81 team points.

After finishing in eighth place in the long jump on Thursday, Ashby-Brandon-Evansville’s Lucea Wales , a sophomore, added two top seven finishes on Friday.

Wales finished in third in the 300m hurdles with a personal record time of 46.58.

“Earlier this week, my coach (Zach Traphagen) introduced a new technique for me to do, where the race is split up into different parts,” Wales said. “It’s five different parts of how to go through the race. Really this week, we got me comfortable, going with my left leg and my right leg and that really helped because I was able to attack the hurdle with each leg.”

Wales finished seventh in the 200m dash with a time of 26.68.

The 200m dash and 300m hurdles were both won by Concordia Academy-Roseville’s Shaina Zinter.

“Hopefully, I’m at the top next year, that’s my goal,” Wales said. “My goal for the state meet was to get to the finals and place in all three of my events, which I did do, which is pretty nice.”

Wales said she’s satisfied with the way the season ended but is hungry for more come next season.

Wales’ three finishes gave the A-B-E girls 13 meet points and a tie for 23rd finish.

Osakis junior Kiley Kranz saved her best for last on Friday in the girls shot put as she earned a personal record throw of 39-03.25 on her final throw of the event. That throw earned her fourth place.

“It felt great,” Kranz said. “I wanted a PR at state and it was good to see that hard work pays off. I really want to throw my PR thanks to my coach [Lee VanNyhuis]; he's helped me a lot. He reminded me to stay calm, not overthink, what positions I have to remember, as well as keeping my hopes high and keeping me in good spirits.”

Kranz also placed seventh in the discus throw on Thursday.

‘My mindset was just to have fun, don't overthink it and just do the best that I can,” Kranz said.

Kranz’s top seven finishes were two of the Silverstreaks' four top-nine finishes.

In the 4x100m relay final, Hailey Walker, Kiana Kendall, Mara VanNyhuis and Tessa Stanek ran a season-best 51.59 and finished ninth. Kendall, Stanek, Kaelyn Walker and Hailey Walker also posted a season-best time of 1:49.34 in the 4x200m relay finals and finished ninth.

The Silverstreaks had 11 meet points and finished in 30th place.

West Central Area’s lone state qualifier, senior Lexi Bright, had a strong showing in the 1600m run with a time of 5:20.83.

Coming down the home stretch of the race, Bright had been a couple of positions back of the top five. She made up some ground and passed a couple of runners to earn the fifth place finish.

Jade Rypkema of Nevis won the race with a time of 5:04.16.

Bright’s fifth place finish gave the Knights five meet points.

CLASS A FINALS RESULTS -