By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth boys' track team turned in a stunning performance during the Section 3A Championships staged in Benson Friday.
Patriot athletes racked up nine top-eight finishes during the event to place third as a squad in a 26-team field.
The day was big one for four Patriots, who supplied a lion's share of H-BC-E's 61 1/2 team points while earning the right to advance to the Minnesota State Class A Track and Field Championships in Blaine tomorrow and Saturday.
"We had an outstanding meet," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "We have four boys advancing to state in five events, which is excellent. With places those kids provided as well as the others we picked up, we were able to place third as a team at the meet. ThatÕs outstanding."
Goehle's No. 1 goal in Benson was to qualify as many athletes as possible for the state meet.
Athletes advance to state by placing first or second individually, place first as a relay team, or meet the state-qualifying standards (they are based on the average times and distances of the fifth-place finishers at the last five state meets) that are in place for each event at the section level.
H-BC-E's boys earned the right to advance by winning three individual section titles and placing second in a pair of individual events.
Making the trip to Blaine will be seniors Chris Willers and Chris Fransman, junior Brad Haak and sophomore Chris Reid.
Reid won one section championship and placed second in another event. Haak and Willers won section titles, and Fransman placed second in an event.
Willers and Haak will be making return trips to Blaine in the 400-meter dash and the 800-meter run after placing second in those events at last year's section meet.
Willers won the 400 with a time of 51.21 in Benson. Haak won the 800 with a time of 2:00.12.
Haak placed fifth in last year's state meet in the 800, but Willers was unable to advance to the finals in the 400.
Reid and Fransman will be making their first appearances at the state meet.
Fransman earned his trip to state by clearing 6-1 in the high jump to place second.
Reid won a section championship in the long jump with a distance of 20-5 3/4, and placed second in the 100-meter dash with an 11.69 effort.
Reid, Haak and Willers will be in action tomorrow when the state meet opens at the National Sports Center in Blaine.
Reid will compete in the long jump preliminaries that begin at 3:30 p.m. The finals follow the preliminaries later in the afternoon.
The running preliminaries begin at 4 p.m., and Reid will be competing in the 100, which is the sixth event on the track. The 100 finals are set for 11:55 a.m. Saturday.
Willers will run in the 400 preliminaries, which will be the 12th event Friday. The finals are slated for 2:15 p.m. on Saturday.
Haak will run in the 800 preliminaries, which will be the 16th event on Friday. The finals are set for 3:12 p.m. Saturday.
Fransman will have to wait until Saturday to compete. The high jump preliminaries begin at 9:30 a.m., with the finals to follow later in the morning.
H-BC-E made bids to qualify for state in the 800- and 3,200-meter relays before placing third in those events with respective 1:34.33 and 8:25.65 times in Benson.
Fransman, Willers, Reid and Haak ran the 800. Willers, Tyler Bush, Lee Jackson and Haak formed the 3,200-meter team.
Haak also placed seventh in the high jump by clearing 5-8.
The boys' 400-meter relay team of Reid, Jesse Leuthold, Lee Walraven and Fransman placed seventh with a time of 46.45.
Clint Roozenboom (pole vault), Bush (3,200) and the 1,600-meter relay team (Walraven, Lee Jackson, Roozenboom and Matt Buck) didn't place at the section meet.
The H-BC-E girls capped their season by placing 17th in a 24-team field at the section meet.
The Patriots used four top eight finishes to score 13 1/4 points.
H-BC-E's 3,200-meter relay turned in the best performance by breaking a school record that had been in place since 1987.
Cassi and Shanna Tilstra, Bev Wurpts and Janelle Jenniges covered 3,200 meters in 10:00.5, which was good for a third-place performance.
Their time surpassed the old standard of 10:05.8 set by Amy Feucht, Amy Bartels, BernDean Rozeboom and Michelle Boeve.
Wurpts and Shanna Tilstra also locked up individual places.
Wurpts ran 1,600 meters in 5:44.11 to place fifth. Tilstra cleared 4-8 in the high jump to place eighth.
The Tilstras, Jenniges and Erin Boeve placed seventh in the 1,600-meter relay with a seasonal best time of 4:18.15.
Boeve (long jump, 100 and 200), Connie Lewis (triple jump), Jenniges (pole vault), Brittney Olson (400), C.Tilstra (400), S.Tilstra (800) and the 800-meter relay (LaDonna Sandstede, Lewis, Olson and Jenniges) didn't place in Benson.
Here is a look at the team standings from the section meet.
Boys' standings: Montevideo 85, Luverne 67 1/4, Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth 61 1/2, Canby Minneota 58, Pipestone-Jasper 45, Westbrook-Walnut Grove-Red Rock Central 39 1/2; Murray County Central 34 1/4, BOLD 31, Renville County West 24, Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster-Southwest Star Concept 24, Jackson County Central 23 1/2, Yellow Medicine East 23, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 22, Redwood Valley 21, Windom 20, Lac qui Parle Valley 18, Benson-Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunberg 17, Dawson-Boyd 17, Edgerton 13, MACCRAY 10, Lincoln HI 7, Fulda 7, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton-Lake Benton 6, Southwest Christian 5, Adrian 5, Wabasso 2.
Team standings: Pipestone-Jasper 69 1/4, Southwest Star Concept-Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster 69, Jackson County Central 64, Westbrook-Walnut Grove-Red Rock Central 51, Redwood Valley 48 3/4, Luverne 48, Renville County West 46, Wabasso 41, BOLD 35.5, Tract-Milroy-Balaton 33, Edgerton 25, Yellow Medicine East 24, Lac qui Parle Valley 21, Montevideo 20, Murray County Central 20, Benson-Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunberg 16, Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth 13 1/4, Fulda 13, Windom 12, MACCRAY 10, Southwest Christian 8, Russell-Tyler-Ruthton-Lake Benton 6, Lincoln HI 4, Canby-Minneota 3 1/4.