Eight Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth athletes represented their schools at the Minnesota State Class A Track and Field Championships in Blaine Friday and Saturday. Front row, left to right, are: alternates Tyson Metzger and Kale Wiertzema, Lee Jackson and Greg Van Batavia. Back: Tyler Bush, Erin Boeve and Greg Van Batavia.
By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth boys' track team made a big impact at the Minnesota State Class A Track and Field Championships at the National Sports Center in Blaine Friday and Saturday.
Six Patriot boys competed in a total of five events during the state classic.
H-BC-E picked up top-nine performances in all of the events to score 26 points, which was good for a tie for seventh place with Concordia Academy in the team competition.
"We had a great meet and a great time," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "We tied for seventh place in the state, which is just awesome. To say you're the seventh-best team with more than 300 teams in your class is pretty awesome. These kids have a lot to be proud of."
Plainview ended up winning the team title with 65 points. St. Croix Lutheran (36), Warroad (33), Maple River (30), Luverne (29) and Staples-Motley (29) round out the top-six.
It takes dedication and sacrifice on the part of the athletes to experience success as a team in any sport, and nobody displayed more selflessness than Patriot senior Brad Haak.
As the defending state champion in the 800-meter run, it would have been easy for Haak to place emphasis on that event in 2002. He did not.
"Brad didn't win the 800 again, but that wasn't his main objective," Goehle explained. "When we talked about what he wanted to do before the sub-section meet, he said that we wanted to get a relay team to state and get a medal. In the end, his main objective was accomplished."
With Haak joining forces with sophomore Lee Jackson and freshmen Tyler Bush and Greg Van Batavia, H-BC-E fielded a 3,200-meter relay that placed fourth Saturday.
The Patriots produced a time of 8:17.3 in the finals, which was 12.12 seconds off the pace (8:05.18) set by the championship team from Warroad.
Haak ran a 1:56.3 split during the relay, and that effort took a lot out of the senior, who earned the right to compete in the finals of the 400-meter dash and the 800 later in the day.
The Section 3A champion in the 400 and 800, Haak ran respective times of 50.97 and 1:58.07 in Friday's preliminaries to reach the finals in both events.
Haak ran a 51.97 in Saturday's 400-meter finals, which was good for ninth place. Milaca's Craig Kotsmith won the race in 48.54.
Haak then made his appearance in the 800 finals in the afternoon, placing third with time of 1:58.51. Plainview's Pat Lehmann won the state title in 1:56.44.
Since the top nine performers in state competition make the All-State Team, Haak's name graced the list in the 400, 800 and the 3,200-meter relay.
Haak will continue his track career at Sioux Falls College next year.
"He should have an outstanding college career," Goehle said. "I think he’s just scratched the surface of how good he will end up being."
Bush and junior Chris Reid turned in all-state performances in Blaine over the weekend, too.
Like Haak, Bush qualified for the state meet in the 800.
He ran a 2:00.25 in Friday’s preliminaries to qualify for Saturday's finals, when he placed eighth with a time of 2:03.12.
Reid earned medals by placing in the top-six in two events.
After qualifying for the 100-meter dash finals with a time of 11.44 on Friday, Reid had to concentrate on two events at the same time Saturday.
The long jump preliminaries, an event Reid earned the right to compete in, were going on at the same time as the 100=meter finals. He came up with a jump good enough to qualify for the finals in the long jump, and raced his way to a fifth-place finish with a time of 11:38 in the 100. Cannon Falls’ Jared Chambers won the 100 in 11.32.
After a short rest, Reid came up with a distance of 20-7 1/2 during one of his three jumps in the long jump finals. That effort ended up being good for sixth place. Warroad's Beau Sabouathone won the long jump crown with a distance of 21-4 3/4.
Sophomore Erin Boeve represented the Patriot girls' program in Blaine Friday.
Boeve produced a distance of 15-7 1/4 during the long jump preliminaries, but she needed to beat 15-10 1/2 to reach Saturday's finals.
Boeve ended up with 12th place with her effort.
Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton's Alicia Mindermann won the state championship with her jump of 17-4 1/4.