Andrea Rumpza regrets not running track during her eighth- and ninth-grade years at Blooming Prairie, but the rest of the state should be glad she didn't.

Rumpza exploded onto the scene last season by beating perennial standout Jayna Tangen of Chatfield in the Section 1A finals of the 800-meter run, and she capped her breakout season with a fourth-place finish in the state finals.

Just think if she'd kept running all through the years.

"I didn't enjoy it," Rumpza said. "My main reason for going out again was to get in shape for basketball, but I ended up having a pretty successful season.

"Track is actually my favorite sport now. I wish I would've gone out now, I would have had more experience."

Rumpza and senior teammate Lisi Ingvalson will represent Blooming Prairie at the Class A State Track and Field Championships Friday and Saturday at the National Sports Center in Blaine.

Ingvalson is the defending state champion in the 300-meter hurdles and was a qualifer in last year's 100-meter low hurdles. She qualified for state as section runner-up in both events at last Thursday's 1A meet in Dodge Center.

"This year I came in second at sections and that helped me realize that I'm not the only one out there," Ingvalson said. "I'm going to come out and run my best, and whoever has the best best wins."

Both Ingvalson and Rumpza worked this week on extending their events and concentrating on finishing strong. Ingvalson was caught from behind in the section finals of the 300 hurdles, while Rumpza could not catch Tangen as she had the year previous.

Rumpza ran her personal-best 2 minutes, 18.62 seconds in last year's state finals, and she'll need to do it again likely to qualify.

"She knows she's going to have to run that to make it to finals," said Blooming Prairie girls' coach Corey Hendrickson. "We're trying to find out how fast she can run that first lap and still have enough to finish that last lap.

"She's very strong-willed and tough-minded, and I have a hard time believing that she wouldn't make the finals."

Ingvalson returns to the state track meet for third and last time as a Blossom. She placed fourth in the event as a sophomore before reaching the pinnacle last season. Ingvalson will be running in the second heat of the 100-hurdles preliminaries, which start at 3 p.m. The 300 hurdles go at 4:35 p.m. and the 800 runs at 4:55 p.m.