Posted: 5/26/05
Track/field: St. Francis was runner-up in North Suburban boys' championships battle
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The St. Francis boys' team took second to Buffalo in the North Suburban Conference championships meet last week thanks to a strong individual performance by Dustin Gallagher.
Gallagher won both the 100 and 200 dashes in new conference record times of 11 seconds and 22.3 seconds. In addition, Gallagher had a fifth-place finish in the long jump and ran a leg (with Nick Kordiak, Justin Herbst and Jim McLaughlin) in the Saints' first-place-finishing 4x100 relay.
The 43.47-second finish was also a new conference record.
In addition to the exploits by Gallagher, throws competitor Blaine Hjelm came through with a first place finish in the discus with a toss of 138 feet. And the state's top-ranked pole vaulter Isaac Molin - to no one's surprise - captured another North Suburban championship by clearing the bar at 13 feet, 6 inches. Molin edged teammate Ryan Owens, who was runner up at 13 feet, and with Dannika Johnson's first-place finish in the girls' pole vaulting competition at 10 feet, 6 inches, his effort gave the St. Francis teams a dominating sweep of the event.
McLaughlin had a strong individual showing during this meet, too, notably a second-place finish behind Gallagher in the 200 meters in 22.69 seconds. McLaughlin was also part of the Saints' second-place finishing 4x200 relay (with Jon Blatchley, Herbst and Andy Scott) in 1:33.72.
Other top finishers for the Saints included Andy Scott, who was second in the high jump, Jacob Holen, who was third in the triple jump, David Anderson, who was third in the 800 meters and Kordiak, who had a third-place finishes in both the 100 meters and the long jump.
Despite these top performances, St. Francis finished with only 147.5 points, more than 40 short of the first-place total posted by Buffalo.
Swedlund was a Blaine pacesetter as well at state true team meet
In addition to throws competitor Chris Heihn, who took first in the discus toss (161 feet, 7 inches), Blaine was led to a fifth-place state true-team AAA finish by the superb finishes turned in by Jake Swedlund.
Swedlund, a sophomore, won two individual events and finished fifth and seventh in two others.
Swedlund was matched by junior teammate Doug Scott at 6 feet, 2 inches in the high jump, but was awarded one of those first-place finishes by fewer misses in the event. His other championship finish came in the 400-meter dash, a race in which he edged - by a hundreth of a second, 49.32 seconds to 49.33 seconds - Cory Johnson of Moorhead.
His fifth-place finish, meantime, came in the 200 meter dash in 22.53 seconds, while his ninth-place finish came in long jump competition with a leap of 20 feet.
Scott complemented his second-place high jump finish with a fourth in the long jump at 21 feet, 1.75 inches, while Ben Kreklow came through with a fifth-place finish in the 400 meters and Andrew Nienaber a sixth-place finish in the triple jump.
In the relays, Blaine's best finishes were by its 4x100 team, a second, and its 4x200 team, a third. In all, Blaine finished with 659 points, which as well off the first-place points finish of 883 by Lakeville...
Park had one NSC boys' championship finisher
Unlike the North Suburban champion girls' team, the Spring Lake Park boys' team (cooperatively sponsored with St. Anthony High School), finished back in the conference pack.
Park did, however, came out of the meet with on conference champion in Jordan Waiwaiole.
A freshman competitor, who finished third in the discus toss, Waiwaiole won the triple jump with a leap of 40 feet, 11.25 inches. The team's next-best finisher was Kevin Wolf, who was second in the 110-meter high hurdles in 15.83 seconds. Wolf also had a third-place finish in the intermediate hurdles, while Kelsey Duerr added a third in the open 400 meters...
Coon Rapids was eighth in its first true-team state meet experience
Coon Rapids' first experience in boys' state true-team (AAA) competition resulted in an eighth-place finish in a field of nine with 528 points.
Among the notable finishers for Coon Rapids were Eric Buss, Jon Lenz, Curtis Henneman, Ryan Adams and Brandon VanHee.
Buss was the lone individual to take a first, winning the triple jump decisively with a leap of 45 feet, 11.75 inches. Buss also had a seventh-place finish in the long jump and an eighth-place finish in the high jump.
Lenz, meantime, took second in the 110-meter high hurdles race in 14.15 seconds, then came back to take a fourth in the 300 intermediate hurdles in 39.56.
Henneman proved to be a top leaper in the triple jump competition with a third-place effort that carried him 42 feet, 10.5 inches.
In the pole vault, Adams and VanHee showed they could be two athletes to watch early next month during the Minnesota State High School League championships meet with third- and fourth-place finishes during the true-team competition. Both vaulters cleared 13 feet, just six inches behind the winner from Moorhead...
The Meadow Creek boys' team was runner-up in MCAA
The Meadow Creek boys' team finished second in the MCAA (Minnesota Christian Athletic Association) championships meet last week to West Lutheran and just ahead of third-place Trinity of Bloomington.
Nathan Budish was named the Outstanding Performer of the meet by taking first in both the high jump with a personal record 6-foot-3 effort and triple jump. He also anchored Meadow Creek's 4x200 relay to a second-place finish and took fourth in the open 400 meters.
Meantime, Ethan Migurd took first in the 100 and 200 and anchored Meadow Creek's 4x100 relay to a second-place finish. He also took fourth in the long jump.
Other notable efforts were turned in by Nick Terstee, who was second in the 110 high hurdles and won the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, Tyler Callie, who was second in both the high jump and long jump and third in the triple jump...
Fast pitch: Coon Rapids upset Blaine, then lost to Mounds View
The injury-plagued Coon Rapids squad, which won only five games during the regular season, came through with its biggest moment of the spring during the first round of Section 4AAA play May 23, a 4-3 upset win over the higher-seeded Blaine team.
The next day, however, Coon Rapids could not pull off another upset as it lost to Mounds View 4-0.
In the opening round of the tourney, Coon Rapids trailed Blaine 3-0 going into the sixth inning when it scored twice to make it interesting. And it became very interesting with one out in the top of the seventh when Ashley Erickson doubled and Christine Hallstrom was hit by pitch. Both runners moved up a base on a passed ball and scored after two outs when Alissa Abler doubled deep to right.
Buoyed by the timely offensive support, pitcher Allie Bramwell put Blaine down in order in the last of the seventh to secure the win. But the next afternoon against Mounds View, Coon Rapids did not get the same hitting. In fact, Coon Rapids did not get any hits in the 4-0 loss to Mounds View and its pitcher Kristin Danielson.
This defeat knocked Coon Rapids into the losers' bracket of 4AAA play...
Anoka won, then lost, too
Anoka opened 4AAA play with an 8-6 win over Forest Lake thanks to a seven-run outburst during the fourth inning May 23, but went down quietly (one hit) in the second round the next day in a 2-0 loss to North St. Paul. This also put Anoka into the losers' bracket of the sectional...
Golf: Blaine posted a best 299 in tournament victory
Behind Tony Meierhofer, who carded a 73, the Blaine boys' golf team broke 300 for the first time in winning the Mounds View invitational recently at the National Youth Golf Center.
Aaron Filstrup, Adam Erickson, Jesse Van Riper, Joel Stacklie and Tyler Moorhead followed Meierhofer with respective 18-hole scores of 74, 76, 76, 77 and 78. Blaine finished with a 299, which was its best score of the season...
Anoka won at Northland
Kevin Boie, Jordan Ensrud and Derek Holmes had 18-hole scores of 74, 76 and 76 last week as Anoka finished with a 306 to win the eight-school tournament on the shores of Lake Superior at Northland...
Kvidera was NSC medalist
Spring Lake Park's Emily Kvidera was medalist of the North Suburban championships meet Monday at Pebble Creek in Becker with an 18-hole score of 82. Kvidera also led the Park girls' team to a second-place finish with a 380, eight strokes behind conference team champion Monticello...
Baseball: Blaine pulled off an upset of NWSC champion Maple Grove
Blaine had won only four games through late last week and was not expected to be much of a challenge for newly crowned Northwest Suburban Conference baseball champion Maple Grove.
But, goodness, the expectation did not match reality.
Blaine stunned Maple Grove 4-2 in its second-to-final regular-season game May 20 behind the combined seven-hit pitching by Taylor Simons and Joe Brandt. Blaine took a 3-0 lead in the first thanks to a run-scoring hit by Brett Kuchenmeister and a two-run single by Blake Hedstrom.
In the end, the three runs were all Blaine needed, though a third-inning throwing error provided it with an insurance run.
Maple Grove scored single runs in the second, then the sixth, but were shut down by Brandt, who came on in relief of Simons with one out and two runners on base. Brandt got out of the sixth, then put Maple Grove batters down in the seventh to secure Blaine's fifth win of the season...
Coon Rapids won two of its final three regular-season contests
Coon Rapids won two of its final three regular-season games last week before heading into Section 4AAA play this week against Blaine.
The wins were accrued over Centennial, 8-4, then Elk River 4-0, while the loss was to Park Center.
In the win over Centennial, Coon Rapids rallied from a 4-2 deficit with three in the third and three in the fourth. Kenny Beese hit his third homer of the season during this contest.
In the win over Elk River, Jordan Englund making his first start of the season, gave up two hits and struck out five in the 4-0 victory...
Anoka closed out its regular season strong
Righting itself after a late-season swoon, Anoka appeared ready for the 7AAA playoff with back-to-back Northwest Suburban wins over Andover and Blaine.
Against Andover, Steve Goldman had three hits, including a homerun, in leading Anoka to a come-from-behind 6-1 win. Junior Jamen Hulegaard scattered five hits in collecting the pitching win.
Against Blaine May 23, Goldman had a run-scoring second-inning single, while the big blows were turned in by Josh Niedenfuer and Andy Pollock, who had two-run singles in the fifth and sixth innings...
Squeeze play gave St. Francis a second straight 10-inning win
St. Francis stepped outside the North Suburban Conference last weekend and used a suicide bunt in the 10th inning to squeeze past Winona 2-1.
Chaz Norrgard was the one-out batter who put down the squeeze bunt to score Jesse Richter from third with the winning run. Richter had three hits in the game and along with pitcher Steve Harvey, who scattered five hits and struck out 10, was one of the standouts.
Prior to this win, St. Francis edged North Suburban foe Irondale 5-4 in 10 innings...
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