ST. PAUL — Austin senior Madison Overby put an exclamation point on her running career at AHS and junior Jany Gash became the first Austin boys athlete to reach the podium at state since 2010 at the Minnesota Class AA state track and field meet in Hamline University Friday.

Overby shook off some extreme heat to run one of her better races of the year as she finished in ninth place with a time of 11:05.15. She was hoping to get her time under 11 minutes, but she had to pace herself due to hot and humid conditions.

“I actually didn’t know where I was standing. I just wanted to break 11 minutes,” said Overby. “I didn’t have any specific goals for today, I just wanted to be here. It was crazy and I didn’t have time to get tired in the first mile because I was so in awe of everything.”

Overby, who will run at the University of North Dakota next year, had run in six state cross country meets and she was glad to finally run in the state track and field meet in her last high school competition.

“This was my last step and it was my last goal,” Overby said. “I’m excited to move forward, but this was definitely a sweet ending.”

Emma Benner of Forest Lake won the 3200-meter run with a time of 10:29.69.

Gash made his vast improvements in his second appearance in the triple jump at the state meet. After not reaching the finals last season, Gash had a breakthrough performance as he came within a couple of inches an AHS school record when he jumped a distance of 45-6.5.

That distance, which was nearly two feet better than what Gash jumped at the Section 1AA meet, was good enough to put him in fourth place.

“It was the confidence and I wasn’t overthinking everything. Last year I thought about it too much and I didn’t do so well,” Gash said. “I knew if I wanted to make the finals I would have to PR by a lot and I did that.”

Gash said his goal is to finish even stronger next year and he’d like to make a run at the school record.

Mason Roomes of Woodbury won the triple jump with a distance of 48-11.25.