ST. PAUL — The Grand Meadow-LeRoy-Ostrander-Kingsland-Southland girls track and field team has had some of the fastest sprint relay teams in Southeast Minnesota over the past few years. Now the Bulldogs have the fastest relay team in the entire state.

The GMLOKS 4 x 200-meter relay team won the first state title in at least a decade for the program at the Minnesota Class A State Track and Field Meet Saturday.

The team, which includes seventh grader Anika Reiland, senior Emily Hovden, junior Lauren Buchholtz and sophomore Riley Queensland cruised to a finals win by over a half-second with a time of 1:45.23. A team from Mesabi East took second place with a time of 1:45.60.

Queensland finished the race in stride without ever taking a look back down the homestretch.

“It’s an awesome accomplishment,” Queensland said. “I honestly didn’t know how close everyone was behind me so I tried to run as fast as I could. I tried to finish strong.”

Buchholtz and Hovden have been chasing a state title since the two began running at state meets together three years ago. They were both on the 4 x 200-meter relay team took ninth at state in 2016 and they ran together on the team that took third in state in 2017, before finally striking gold in 2018.

“It was surreal. We’re best in the state. That’s something you only dream about,” Buchholtz said. “We definitely have a lot of talent this year and we’ve all been improving. We’re best friends. We all love each other and we support each other 100 percent.”

After the 4 x 200-meter relay team finished celebrating, the GMLOKS 4 x 100-meter relay team hit a speed bump. The team of Isabelle Olson, Hovden, Kassidy Kirtz and Reiland was disqualified after they miss-handled a baton hand-off on the final turn. The team was in position to finish in the top three.

Hovden, who will run at Hawkeye Community College next season, said it was tough to experience a DQ right after a state title, but she was proud of what the Bulldogs did this season.

“I’m really happy with how we performed today. Obviously the last race didn’t end how we wanted it to, but that’s life and sometimes things happen,” Hovden said. “You can’t get to down about it and you just keep your head up and move on with life. That’s the way I’m looking at it right now. [Winning a state title] was amazing. I couldn’t ask for a better way to end my year. Ending at state is one thing, but ending with a state championship is even better. It’s just amazing.”

Hovden is looking forward to running in college and she thinks the Bulldogs have a bright future ahead of them.

“I think they’re going to keep doing great,” Hovden said. “They have younger girls that will be able to take my place next year.”

Reiland is one of the young runners who will give GMLOKS a boost in the future. She burst onto the scene this season and worked her way into the lineup on two state-qualifying relay teams as a middle schooler.

“I did not expect this at all. We had the potential, but I didn’t expect this,” Reiland said. “I’ve learned tons of stuff this year. At the beginning of the year I didn’t know anything, but the older girls taught me a lot.”

Breck School won the 4 x 100-meter relay with a time of 50.18 seconds.