Mehrkens, 4×200 relay team qualify for state

by Scott DCamp Sports Editor

Thief River Falls sprinter Kendra Mehrkens added to an already impressive season with a pair of first place finishes at the Section 8AA track and field finals Saturday at Detroit Lakes High School.

Mehrkens won both the 100- and 200-meter dash to qualify for the 2023 MSHSL Class AA State Meet. She also ran the anchor leg of the third place-finishing 4×200-meter relay team.

"Kendra Mehrkens had one of the best performances I have ever seen," said Co-Head Coach Katie Nelson. "She ran great in prelims, earning herself the top seed time going into finals. She ran a season best in the 100-meter dash to place first and was .05 seconds away from breaking Carley Johnson's 100 record. Kendra was extremely excited and is shooting for that record at the state meet."

Mehrkens’ big day continued with the 4×200 relay.

"Her split time was better than it has been all year in the 4×2 and she helped them break her own school record in the 4×2 and to qualify for state," Nelson said.

Mehrkens’ final event was the 200-meter dash.

"She ran that race extremely relaxed and flew by the competition to win by nearly a second and close to 10 meters in front of second place," Nelson said. "We have worked a lot this season on the proper way to run a 200 and race strategy, and it has paid off for her. To top it off, she broke Carley Johnson's 200 record with a time of 25.25. That time is nearly a full second PR.

"I can't say enough good things about Kendra; she is one of the most humble athletes I have every coached. She is focused on meeting her goals and she does everything possible to make it happen. She always has a smile on her face, and after every race, she makes sure she says good job to every other athlete in her heat. She has earned every ounce of her success and I am proud to be her coach. I can't wait to see what she can do at the state meet and hopefully she can add her name to another school record."

A trio of seniors – Kendal Rantanen, Dru Harbott, and Stephanie Dagg – will be joining Mehrkens at the state meet. The Prowlers’ 4×200 team had a strong regular season, with eight first place finishes in eight meets heading into Saturday's section meet.

The Prowler foursome ran its fastest time of the season Saturday, posting a 4×200 time of 1:44.84. That time was surprisingly only good enough for third in Saturday's fast field, but still good enough to qualify for state because it was faster than the qualifying standard.

"The state meet qualifying standards are set each year by averaging the previous fifth place finishes for the past five years," Nelson explained. "The standards are tough to meet. Earlier this season, when we looked at the state qualifying, it didn't seem like it was going to be a possibility for most of our girls.

"The girls 4×2 of Kendal Rantanen, Dru Harbott, Stephanie Dagg and Kendra Mehrkens have been running well all year and were ranked first all year until the last couple of weeks when we were ranked third going into sections. We knew that we could keep up with the top two teams and that we could beat them to qualify for state."

Nelson was understandably more nervous than unusual for the 4×200 final.

"I will admit that I was a nervous wreck for this race and was up in the stands to get split times," Nelson said. "Our handoffs were nearly perfect and the girls looked smooth while running. As Kendra crossed the finish line in third, my heart dropped as they were so close to placing second. As I looked down at my stopwatch, I realized their time was nearly four seconds faster than our seed time. I looked up to get their official time and scrambled to look up the state qualifying time as I knew they would be close. It took me longer than it should have because my hands were shaking so much. The girls may have gotten third, but they qualified by time for state and on top of that also broke our school record that was set in 2021.

"We tried telling them they made it, but they couldn't understand us from up in the stands. You could tell they were disappointed because they thought their season was over. Their demeanor changed a little when they realized they broke the school record and it was fantastic to watch when they finally realized that they were also going to the state meet. These four girls have worked so hard over the years and they are so worthy of this trip to state. I am so glad I don't have to say goodbye to three of my seniors quite yet. It will be fun to watch what they do on Friday at the state meet as they are ranked 5th overall in Class AA."

Overall, the Prowlers had 11 top-eight finishes at the section meet.

Brookie Bakke reached the finals in both the 100 and 300-meter hurdles. She finished fourth in both events.

Maren Espe missed qualifying for state in the pole vault by one spot. She finished third with a vault of 9-02.

The girls 4×400 relay team of Rantanen, Mackenzie Lee, Dagg and Dru Harbott ran a personal record 4:11.43 to finish fifth.

William MacLean led the Prowler boys team with a fourth place finish in the 400-meter dash. He also anchored the 4×200 relay team that also included Tyler Brouse, Keaton Hoverson and Max Peterson, and 4×400 relay team of Isaac Mauch, Brouse, Hoverson, with both teams reaching the medal stand with sixth place finishes. Mauch added a third place finish in the 300-meter hurdles.

"We had a fantastic section meet," Nelson said. "Wednesday and Saturday, we saw some great performances and numerous personal records. We had really focused the last couple weeks on the technical aspect of track such as starts, handoffs and race technique. We wanted the athletes to peak at this time and try to get as many events and athletes to Section Finals and onto the medal podium."

Team Scores• Girls – 1. Alexandria 168; 2. Rocori 132.5; 3. Detroit Lakes 95; 4. Willmar 69; 5. Pequot Lakes 67; 6. Thief River Falls 45.5; 7. New London-Spicer 33; 8. Albany 32; 9. Fergus Falls 30; 10. Melrose Area 15; 11. East Grand Forks 9; 12. Little Falls 6.

• Boys – 1. Alexandria 156.5; 2. Willmar 92; 3. Rocori 88; 4. Detroit Lakes 78.5; 5. Little Falls 69; 6. Pequot Lakes 61; 7. Fergus Falls 53; 8. Albany 48; 9. East Grand Forks 22; 10. Thief River Falls 17; 11. New London-Spicer 10; 12. Melrose Area 6.

Winner/TRF Places-Girls

100 Meters Finals – 1. Kendra Mehrkens, Thief River Falls, 12.30; 2. Abby Larson, Detroit Lakes, 12.41.

100 Meters Prelims – 1. Kendra Mehrkens 12.89; 17. Megan Peterson 14.03; 31. Kenzie Reynolds 14.83.

200 Meters Finals – 1. Kendra Mehrkens, Thief River Falls, 25.25; 2. Abby Larson, Detroit Lakes, 26.19.

200 Meters Prelims – 1. Kendra Mehrkens 26.19; 13. Kendal Rantanen 27.89; 18. Avah Waldal 28.37.

400 Finals – 1. Alison Krasky, Alexandria, 59.79; 2. Jasmine Sieben, Rocori, 59.83.

400 Prelims – 9. Dru Harbott 1:02.56; 11. Stephanie Dagg 1:02.95; 14. Mackenzie Lee 1:03.85.

800 Finals – 1. Calia Chaney, Pequot Lakes, 2:14.99; 2. Kasey Soderholm, Alexandria, 2:16.94.

800 Meters Prelims – 15. Livia Harbott 2:36.30; 24. Maren Espe 2:44.25; 34. Samantha Rodahl 3:05.07.

1600 Finals – 1. Jaelyn Miller, Alexandria, 5:00.43; 2. Calia Chaney, Pequot Lakes, 5:02.25; 13. Livia Harbott 5:54.09; 14. Elory Mossestad 5:54.21; 34. Sophie Eidsmoe 7:01.50.

3200 Finals – 1. Lauren Eilers, Willmar, 10:55.26; 2. Olivia Goebel, Albany, 11:09.32; 15. Elory Mossestad 12:42.80; 27. Kayla Peterson 14:56.02.

100m Hurdles Finals – 1. Cecelia Woods, Rocori, 15.06; 2. Rylee Johnson, Detroit Lakes, 15.28; 4. Brookie Bakke 16.71.

100m Hurdles Prelims – 5. Brookie Bakke 17.17; 25. Livia Thibert 20.38; 26. Gracie Anderson 20.81.

300m Hurdles Finals – 1. Cecelia Woods, Rocori, 45.50; 2. Sophia Korynta, Alexandria, 46.80; 4. Brookie Bakke 48.12.

300m Hurdles Prelims – 4. Brookie Bakke 49.35; 24. Livia Thibert 1:00.35; 25. Gracie Anderson 1:01.75.

4×100 Relay Finals – 1. Detroit Lakes 49.08; 2. Rocori 49.49; 9. Thief River Falls (Lilly Homme, Kenzie Reynolds, Megan Peterson, Brookie Bakke) 52.80.

4×200 Relay Finals – 1. Rocori 1:44.44; 2. Alexandria 1:44.75; 3. Thief River Falls (Kendal Rantanen, Dru Harbott, Stephanie Dagg, Kendra Mehrkens) 1:44.84.

4×400 Relay Finals – 1. Willmar 4:00.96a; 2. Pequot Lakes 4:03.21; 5. Thief River Falls (Kendal Rantanen, Mackenzie Lee, Stephanie Dagg, Dru Harbott) 4:11.43.

4×800 Relay Finals – 1. Alexandria 9:32.41; 2. Willmar 9:52.67.

Shot Put Finals – 1. Amelia Davis, Pequot Lakes, 39-03.50; 2. Brianna Schneider, Rocori, 39-01.00; 22. Sera Johnson 27-05.00; 24. Brianna Berg 26-01.00; 25. Megan Peterson 25-09.50.

Discus Finals – 1. Elise Maagard, Alexandria, 127-01; 2.Brianna Schneider, Rocori, 117-02; 13. Brianna Berg 88-11; 25. Sera Johnson 71-01; 28. Bell Hamre 67-10.

High Jump Finals – 1. Grace Gunderson, Detroit Lakes, 5-05.00; 2. Ava Thoennes, Rocori, 5-03.00; 12. Kelsey Baltes 4-09.00; 17. Maren Espe 4-05.00.

Pole Vault Finals – 1. Jerzie Horner, Detroit Lakes, 10-08; 2. Lyndi Koosman, Willmar, 10-08.00; 3. Maren Espe 9-02.00.

Long Jump Finals – 1. Ava Thoennes, Rocori, 17-09.50; 2. Kaija Schneider, Alexandria, 16-11.00; 27. Lilly Homme 13-05.00 (0.2); 28. Avah Waldal 13-04.50 (0.5); 30. Kayla Peterson 12-08.00 (3.5).

Triple Jump Finals – 1. Kate Van Erp, Rocori, 36-08.00; 2. Lyndi Koosman, Willmar, 35-09.25; 14. Avah Waldal 31-08.50; 25. Lilly Homme 29-03.25.

Winner/TRF Places-Boys 100 Meters Finals – 1. Ethan Carrier, Detroit Lakes, 10.93; 2. Will Steil, Rocori, 11.04.

200 Meters Finals – 1. Isaiah Brown, Alexandria, 22.28; 2. Will Steil, Rocori, 22.48.

200 Meters Prelims – 17. Max Peterson 24.81.

400 Meters Finals – 1. Evan Thomas, Detroit Lakes, 50.84; 2. Sam Raitz, Willmar, 51.08; 4. William MacLean 52.04.

400 Meters Prelims – 5. William MacLean 53.12; 14. Tyler Brouse 54.48; 17. Griffin Lundeen 55.04.

800 Meters Finals – 1. Wyatt Baum, Little Falls, 2:00.29; 2. Jaden Miller, Fergus Falls, 2:00.41.

800 Meters Prelims – 10. Griffin Lundeen 2:10.79; 21. Korben Coffman 2:17.41; 27. Colin MacLean 2:23.40.

1600 Meters Finals – 1. Vincent Kaluza, Rocori, 4:25.27; 2. Carter Schwalbe, Albany, 4:25.82; 13. Curtis Griffin 5:06.31; 17. Colin MacLean 5:10.52; 26. Korben Coffman 5:19.12.

3200 Meters Finals – 1. Eli Hall, Pequot Lakes, 9:34.57; 2. Sully Anez, Willmar, 9:41.65; 13. Curtis Griffin 10:48.95; 26. Lincoln Davis 11:37.77.

110m Hurdles Finals – 1. Samuel Williams, Alexandria, 15.23; 2. Otto Anderson, Alexandria, 15.31.

300m Hurdles Finals – 1. Otto Anderson, Alexandria, 39.72; 2. William Sportel, Willmar, 40.33; 3. Isaac Mauch 41.12.

300m Hurdles Prelims – 4. Isaac Mauch 42.55.

4×100 Relay Finals – 1. Detroit Lakes, 42.74; 2. Rocori 43.28.

4×200 Relay Finals – 1. Little Falls 1:30.48; 2. Rocori 1:31.66; 6. Thief River Falls (Tyler Brouse, Keaton Hoverson, Max Peterson, William MacLean) 1:36.27.

4×400 Relay Finals – 1. Alexandria 3:29.57; 2. Little Falls 3:29.88; 6. Thief River Falls (Isaac Mauch, Tyler Brouse, Keaton Hoverson, William MacLean) 3:37.68.

4×800 Relay Finals – 1. Alexandria 8:09.12; 2. Willmar 8:12.80.

Shot Put Finals – 1. Alexander Jensen, Fergus Falls, 55-06.00; 2. Grady Minnerath, Rocori, 52-01.00; 25. Trian Petrescue 38-07.75.

Discus Finals – 1. Alexander Jensen, Fergus Falls, 149-00; 2. Lawson Greene, Detroit Lakes, 146-09; 13. Trian Petrescue 121-11.

High Jump Finals – 1. Tysen Gerads, Albany, 6-02.00; 2. Jacob Balcome, Alexandria, 6-02.00.

Pole Vault Finals – 1. Koda Helfinstine, Willmar, 11-11.00; 2. Tyler Evans, Willmar, 11-11.00; 12. Griffin Lundeen 10-05.00.

Long Jump Finals – 1. Evan Kludt, Alexandria, 21-00.75; 2. Tysen Gerads, Albany, 20-10.25, Albany; 19. Max Peterson 17-10.00.

Triple Jump Finals – 1. Shane Zierden , Fergus Falls, 43-05.25; 2. Gabe Shanoff, Little Falls, 43-01.75; 19. Isaac Mauch 36-10.50; 21. Max Peterson 35-04.00.