St. Michael-Albertville Track Team Sends Group to State AA Meet

The track team comes off a successful weekend at the Section 5AA meet and heads right back to Klas Field in St. Paul for the State AA Meet this weekend in St. Paul. 

STMA finished fifth on the girls' side, and fourth on the boys' side at the Section 5AA meet, which includes some solid squads in Class AA, including Mounds View and Champlin Park. The teams are coached by Curt Hahn (boys) and Jason Massman (girls). 

The Knights, led by a few great individual efforts and two boys' relay teams, will send a handful of state qualifiers to the meet, including a few with a chance to medal onthe state's biggest stage. 

On the boys' side, Brendan Sage has a pair of shots to come home with some hardware, after winning the Section 5AA championship in dramatic fashion at the wire in the 3,200 meters, and also qualifying for the mile run. 

Sage's two-mile run will be part of the first day, kicking off action at 9:20 a.m. for the boys on Friday. 

The boys qualified two relay teams, including the 4x800 meter relay team, which currently has the fourth best time in its heat for Saturday's run. 

Brian Ferry pulled out a qualifying run in the 110-meter high hurdles, and will be in the second heat around 10 a.m. on Friday. Ferry also has one of the top five times in the state in the 300-meter hurdles, and will run that shortly before noon on Friday, with finals set for around the same time on Saturday.

Sticking to the boys' side, STMA's 4x400 relay team will look to move up in prelims Friday, hoping to earn a spot in Saturday's final. The prelim Friday is the closer for boys' action, and is scheduled for shortly before 1 p.m.

The boys' team, unfortuantely, was shut out in field events.

Hopping over to the girls' side, Section 5AA champion (again) Maddi Sjelin, a junior, is among the state's favorites in the 800-meter run, with one of the state's top three times this season. Friday's prelim for the 800 meters is set for just before the noon hour, with the finals on Saturday at noon as well. 

In the mile run, Rachel King leads the way for the Knights, with Sjelin also qualifying in the distance race. King and Sjelin's time of 5:06 is off the pace of defending state champion Jamie Piepenberg of Alexandria by about 10 seconds, but could be good enough to get on the podium if they can pull one out in Saturday's final, set for about 11 a.m.

King will open action for the girls on Friday with the 3,200 meter final, which starts at 9 a.m. sharp. Her time of just over 11 minutes is well off Piepenberg's state leading pace of 10 minutes, 27 seconds, but she is in the top five qualifiers, giving her a shot at all-state status.

King pulled the "double" at the Section 5AA meet, taking the title in both disatance races. She's only a freshman. 

In field events, sophomore Erin Autio has a top leap of 36 feet, 1 inch in the qualifiers. She is in the first flight, which will have finals on Saturday at 9 a.m. Autio is the only state qualifier in the field for the Knights.

For more photos and coverage of the Knights' track squad, check out their page on Facebook.