Area runners advance to finals at Class ‘A’ state track and field preliminaries

Blooming Prairie’s Michael Thomas nears the finish line of his heat in the 400-meter dash at the Class A Minnesota State Track Meet Friday afternoon at Hamline University in St. Paul. — Eric Johnson/sports@austindailyherald.com
ST. PAUL — All five of the area athletes competing in the Class ‘A’ state track and field preliminaries advanced to the finals at Hamline University Friday.

Grand Meadow-LeRoy-Ostrander-Southland’s Elizabeth May heads down the backstretch of the the second heat in the 400-meter dash during the Class A Minnesota State Track Meet Friday at Hamline University in St. Paul.
Blooming Prairie senior Michael Thomas took fourth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.76 to advance to the finals and he took third in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.65 seconds to advance to the finals.
Both of Thomas’s times on Friday were better than his Section 1A times.
Elizabeth May, a GMLOS senior, took seventh in the 400-meter dash to qualify for Saturday’s finals. May ran .06 of a second faster than she did at the Section 1A meet as she put in a time of 1:00.24.
The GMLOS 4 x 400-meter relay team of Sydney Bendtsen, Danielle Hanson, McKenzie Kirtz and May took ninth to qualify for Saturday’s finals with a time of 4:09.64.