The Becker boys and girls athletes competed at the Section 8AA track & field meet Saturday at Willmar.
Boys Track
Two Bulldogs - Kevin Andres and David Myres advanced to the state preliminaries with their superb showing at sections Saturday.
Myres ran the 300 meter hurdles in a record time of 39.88 seconds. Doing so placed him second in the section meet.
Andres ran well and has consistently been flittering with his 400 meter record as he ran the one lap race in 50.13 seconds to earn the championship status in the section meet. He also placed seventh in the 200 meters.
The Bulldog boys ran well and earned several places in the day while also breaking three school records.
The 4x800m relay record was broken with a time of 8:24.94 by Sam Ricker, Noah Fakhredine, Basil Ricker, and Jordan Gruenes. The foursome placed fourth. The previous record time was from 2018 at 8:25.89 with the team of Jonathan Novak, Basil Ricker, Justin Kringler, Jordan Gruenes.
Myres broke two of his own records with his two hurdle events. He ran the 110 meter high hurdles in a record time of 14.65 seconds. Doing so earned him the championship in Section 8AA.
Gruenes came ever so close to a state tournament bid. He finished hard in the last 100 meters but resulted in a third place finish by only 19 hundredths of a second.
“It was a crazy race in which nobody wanted to take the lead in the first lap,” said Head Coach Paul Schmidt. “It resulted in Jordan getting boxed in between the other runners until the final 100 meters. Unfortunately it was just a bit too much to overcome.”
The last relay of the night and hope for a relay in the state tourney was the 4x400M with teammates Myers, Gruenes, Jack Belde, and Andres — but the efforts of the previous races took a toll and the boys finished a very respectful fourth place.
Myres and Andres raced in the prelims of the state meet Friday with hopes of making the finals Saturday. A full report on their efforts will appear in next week’s Citizen-Tribune.
Girls Track
Becker’s girls had 12 personal record and six season best performances at the section meet this year! Saturday, the Bulldogs had the finals and all the relays were run.
Trish Reimer-Kealy’s placers for this meet were as follows:
• Cassidy Pleoger was seventh in the 100 meters with a time of 12.91, Her prelim time of 12.79 was a PR;
• Lexi Dehmer placed seventh in the 1600M with a season best time of 5:24.01;
• Victoria Kolbinger was 22nd with a season best of 5:44.8;
• Natasha Berthiaume was 24th with a PR time of 5:49.38.
The 4x800M relay team of Lexi Dehmer, Elizabeth Mackedanz, Alexis Rose and Dani Nuest ran 10:02.32 to place seventh.
The 4x200M relay team of Paige Maunu Abby Sanderson, Regan Hausmann and ran a time of 1:56.05.
The 4x100M relay team nearly broke the school record with a time of 51.95, just missing it by 5/100s of a second! The foursome of Paige Maunu, Abby Maruska, Sarah Woelfel and Cassidy Pleoger placed 10th.
The 4x400M team of Abby Maruska, Elizabeth Mackedanz, Lexi Dehmer and Dani Nuest ran well with a season best time of 4;20.77 to place 10th.
“Overall, we were pleased with the efforts of our girls at this meet and are looking forward to next year after such a fun season this year,” said Reimer-Kealy.
