Seven Big Lake athletes have qualified for the State Track & Field Meet next week after stellar performances at the Section 5AA Meet in Monticello las week.

Jack Leuer qualified in two events. The senior had the fastest time in the 800 meter preliminaries at 1:54.87, automatically qualifying for the state meet. He then finished first in finals with a time of 1:57.59. Leuer also took first and qualified in the 1600 meters in 4:29.79.

Abe Nebo qualified for two events at state. The junior set a new school record in the long jump and took second overall at 22’8.75”, beating the mark of 22’8” set by Jack Iverson in 2021.

Nebo also qualified in the triple jump by finishing third at 43’3”, beating the state qualifying distance of 42’4”. At the conference meet last week Nebo set a personal best of 44’10” and is second all time on the school’s Top 10 list.

Tayla Gassman qualified for the state meet by winning two wheelchair events. She threw the shot put 18’11.5” and the discus 39’8.5”.

The boys 4x800 meter relay team finished second and qualified for the state meet. The foursome of Trent Erickson, Eli Henning, Judd Layton and Gavin Flavin crossed the finish line in 8:15.96, beating the state qualifying time of 8:17.97.

Other Big Lake athletes did well without qualifying for the state meet.

Trent Erickson ran 2:03.49 in the preliminaries of the 800 meters and 2:03.51 in finals to take third.

Leah Uphoff and Alivia Voss finished 1-2 in their preliminary heat of the 100 meter hurdles in 16.79 seconds and 17.16 seconds respectively. Uphoff narrowly missed a trip to state in the finals, placing third in 16.87 seconds. Voss finished sixth in 17.42. Uphoff also placed 10th in the 300 hurdles in 51.81 seconds.

The boys 4x100 relay team of Abe Nebo, Josh Dupre, Alec Grew and Montell Hester was just .05 seconds off the school record and placed fourth in 44.69.

Gavin Flavin placed fourth in the 3200 meters in 9:58.96.

Naomi Huizenga went 34 feet even and placed fourth in the triple jump. She went 15’5.25” and took 10th overall in the long jump.

Kamal Bille placed fourth in the 300 hurdles in 43 seconds and moved into eighth place on the school’s Top 10 list.

Jerry Vazquez cleared 5’6” and tied for fifth in the high jump.

Alayna Boe cleared eight feet and placed fifth in the pole vault.

Judd Layton set a personal best time of 4:39.02 in the 1600 meters. The ninth-grader placed sixth overall.

Campbell Slattery finished out her track career for Big Lake with two good performances. The senior placed 10th overall in the 1600 meters in 5:49.76. She was 11th in the 3200 meters in 12:33.49.    

Three Hornets ran well enough in the preliminaries of the 110 hurdles to reach the finals, but didn’t qualify for the state meet. Kamal Bille was fourth in 16.75. Jackson Roehl took seventh in 17.21 and Precieux Sanguma placed eighth in 17.23.

The State AA Meet takes place this June 11-12 at St. Michael-Albertville High School.