Five area runners will be looking to finish strong at the Class ‘A’ state track and field meet this at Hamline Unviersity in St. Paul this Friday and Saturday.

Blooming Prairie’s Michael Thomas will compete in the 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash and the high jump. Thomas, who is a senior, holds the BP school record in all three events, is seeded fifth in both of the sprints and has a good shot to advance to Saturday’s finals.

“I’m going to focus on the running events and I think I can go a little faster,” Thomas said. “I’m a little nervous and excited, but probably more nervous.”

Thomas will be running in his first state track and field meet last and he’s never even been to the state meet before.

“I just kind of ran faster this year. It just happened,” Thomas said.

The Grand Meadow-LeRoy-Ostrander-Southland girls track and field team is sending four runners to state as Elizabeth May is hoping to improve on her ninth place finish in the 400-meter dash in last year’s state track and field meet. May is seeded sixth.

May will also be running on the 4 x 400-meter relay team with Sydney Bendtsen, Danielle Hanson and McKenzie Kirtz. That team is seeded eighth.

The Class ‘A’ preliminaries begin at 3 p.m. Friday and the finals begin at 3 p.m. Saturday.

SEEDINGS

BOYS

400-meter dash: Blooming Prairie senior Michael Thomas is seeded fifth out of 16 runners with a time of 50.56 seconds. Kendall Strandlund of Christ’s Household of Faith has the fastest qualifying time at 49.39 seconds.

200-meter dash: Thomas is seeded fifth out of 16 runners with a time of 22.76 seconds. Tyler Beehler of Foley has the fastest qualifying time at 22.19 seconds.

High jump: Thomas is seeded 13th out of 17 jumpers with a height of 6 feet, 1-inch. Matt Neururer of Pillager has the highest qualifying jump at 6-8.

GIRLS

400-meter dash: GMLOS senior Elizabeth May is seeded sixth out of 16 runners with a time of 1:00.30. Madelyn Kammer of Chatfield has the fastest qualifying time of 58.68 seconds.

4 x 400-meter relay: The GMLOS team of Sydney Bendtsen, Danielle Hanson, McKenzie Kirtz and May is seeded eighth out of 16 teams with a time of 4:10.47. A team from Blue Earth has the fastest qualifying time at 4:00.32.