Packers can’t get past preliminaries at state track and field meet
Published 7:21 pm Friday, June 6, 2008
None of the Austin athletes competing in the class ‘AA’ state track and field meet advanced to the finals Friday at Hamline University.
The closest to advancing was Austin sophomore Will Darling, who matched his section time, but it wasn’t enough.
In the 300-meter hurdles, Will Darling missed the cut to get to the finals by .04 seconds as he took 10th out of 18 runners (only the top nine advance in each event) in the preliminaries with a time of 40.79. Nicholas Dalske of Coon Rapids of Coon Rapids edged out Darling with a time of 40.75. Snonsio Boye/Weah of Park Center was first in the prelims with a time of 38.67.
Austin senior Jessica Webber closed out her track career by finishing 12th in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 47.34 seconds, and she took 16th in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.09 seconds at the preliminaries.
Webber missed qualifying in the 100-meter hurdles by almost a full second as ninth place finisher Jessica January of Ritchfield ran the event in 15.38 seconds. Kim Lieder of Eastview had the fastest preliminary time at 14.93 seconds.
In the 300-meter hurdles, Webber missed qualifying by about a second as ninth place finisher Jessica Keesling of White Bear Lake ran the event in 46.76 seconds. Jenna Severson of SLPSA had the fastest preliminary time at 44.63 seconds.
Both of Webber’s times on Friday, were slightly slower than her times in the section meet. Webber went to state four out of her five years on the varsity track team for Austin.
Austin’s 1600-meter relay team of Ryan Duren, Will Hagan, Henry Darling, and Tim Erickson took 10th in the preliminaries with a time of 3:31.64. The team missed qualifying for the finals by just over a second as a team from Mankato West took ninth with a time of 3:30.08.
The Packers ran about three seconds slower than their section qualifying time of 3:27.12, which got them into the state meet.
A team from Buffalo took first in the preliminaries with a time of 3:25.62.
The class ‘AA’ finals will be held Saturday at 9 a.m. at Hamline University.