Patrick Deegan took a gamble and it paid off for the Park Rapids boys track and field team at the Section 8A meet at Walker Saturday.
A year ago, the Panthers sent five individuals to the state Class A meet in seven events while placing third in the team standings at the Section 8A meet.
On Saturday, the Panthers again finished third in the team standings while qualifying six individuals for the state meet in six events.
The gamble was taking Austin Carlson out of the 200-meter dash and Kurt Fritze out of the 110-meter hurdles and putting them in the 4 x 200 relay. Carlson and Fritze qualified for state in those two individual events last season.
That move paid off as the two seniors joined sophomores Remington Hagan and Tristan Breitweser to win the 4 x 200 relay in 1:34.16. That sparked the Panthers to five first-place finishes and one runner-up effort en route to scoring 72 points. East Grand Forks won the section title with 86.33 points while Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton was second with 80 points.
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After the Panthers qualified in the 4 x 200 relay, junior Isaac Overmyer followed by returning to state in the 1,600 run with a winning time of 4:33.36. Freshman Hunter Jewison finished fifth in that event in 4:46.34.
Carlson followed by winning the section title in the 400 dash for the third year in a row with a 50.63 while Fritze returned to state in the 300 hurdles with a runner-up time of 41.44.
Overmyer repeated as the section champ in the 3,200 run in 10:09.61 before the 4 x 400 relay team of Fritze, Hagan, senior Bryce Brovitch and Carlson repeated as section champs with a winning time of 3:29.77.
Also scoring points for the Panthers were sophomore Scott Petersen in the discus (fourth at 130 feet, 3 inches), Brovitch in the high jump (fifth at 5-9) and senior Kalvin Hagan in the pole vault (eighth at 10-0).
Jordan Feder won the high jump by clearing 6-3 to return to state and lead Nevis to 13th place in this 22-team meet with 19 points.
Preliminaries of the state meet begin Friday afternoon at Hamline University in St. Paul. The finals will be held Saturday.
Entering Friday’s preliminaries, Carlson is seeded No. 7 out of 17 qualifiers in the 400, Overmyer is seeded No. 12 out of 16 qualifiers in the 1,600 and No. 10 out of 16 qualifiers in the 3,200, Fritze is seeded No. 15 out of 17 qualifiers in the 300 hurdles, the 4 x 200 relay is seeded No. 14 out of 16 qualifiers and the 4 x 400 relay is seeded No. 7 out of 16 qualifiers. The top-9 finishers during preliminaries advance to Saturday’s finals with the exception of the 3,200 (which will have all runners compete in finals on Friday) and the 1,600 (which will have all runners compete in finals on Saturday).
“Everything that happened was not unexpected. I figured we woud get third. The only concern all day for me was the 4 x 200 relay. We sacrificed a lot of points to make this happen. I knew they could win if they connected on all hand-offs. They ran almost perfectly,” said Deegan. “I think we have a great shot to get everyone to finals on Saturday. We are not that far off on most of the standard times. Of course, they must run better than they did in sections, which they are capable of doing.”
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Team scores: East Grand Forks 86.33, Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 80, Park Rapids 72, Park Christian 57, Hawley/Ulen-Hitterdal 53, Bagley/Fosston 45, Crookston 42, Roseau 32, West Marshall 28.33, Mahnomen/Waubun 28, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 25, Frazee 25, Northome-Kelliher/Blackduck 19, Fertile-Beltrami 19, Nevis 19, Red Lake County 18, Norman County 17, Badger-Greenbush-Middle River 10, Fisher-Climax 8, Lake Park-Audubon 7, Clearbrook-Gonvick 4, Lake of the Woods 4.
Individual results
4 x 800 relay: 1, East Grand Forks, 8:22.31. 2, Roseau, 8:27.25.
110 hurdles: 1, Moberg, PC, 15.99. 2, Heitman, NC, 16.15. 10, Jorgenson, PR, 17.58.
100 dash: 1, Thorson, BF, 11.62. 2, Thompson, HUH, 11.72. 13, K. Hagan, PR, 12.28. 16, Veit, N, 12.57.
4 x 200 relay: 1, Park Rapids (Fritze, R. Hagan, Breitweser, Carlson), 1:34.16. 2, Bagley/Fosston, 1:34.26. 6, Nevis, 1:38.41.
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1,600 run: 1, Overmyer, PR, 4:33.66. 2, Gagner, RLC, 4:36.65. 5, Jewison, PR, 4:46.34.
4 x 100 relay: 1, West Marshall, 45.80. 2, East Grand Forks, 45.84.
400 dash: 1, Carlson, PR, 50.63. 2, Tingelstad, EGF, 51.24. 9, Brovitch, PR, 54.54.
300 hurdles: 1, Moberg, PC, 41.25. 2, Fritze, PR, 41.44. 13, Jorgenson, PR, 45.47.
800 run: 1, Gagner, RLC, 2:03.43. 2, Perez, EGF, 2:04.23. 12, Jewison, PR, 2:15.09.
200 dash: 1, Thompson, HUH, 23.75. 2, Anderson, WHA, 24.06. 6, Feder, N, 24.52.
3,200 run: 1, Overmyer, PR, 10:09.61. 2, Kvalvog, PC, 10:11.04. 13, Jacobi, PR, 11:36.46.
4 x 400 relay: 1, Park Rapids (Fritze, R. Hagan, Brovitch, Carlson), 3:29.77. 2, East Grand Forks, 3:30.91.
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High jump: 1, Feder, N, 6-3. 2, Nickel, PC, 6-1. 5, Brovitch, PR, 5-9.
Pole vault: 1, Dufault, DGF, 11-6. 2, McGlynn, WM, 11-6. 8, K. Hagan, PR, 10-0.
Long jump: 1, Pineda, WM, 19-5.50. 2, Binstock, BGMR, 19-1. 13, R. Hagan, PR, 16-4.25. 16, Carlson, PR, 14-7.50.
Triple jump: 1, Moberg, PC, 41-2.50. 2, Tollefson, DGF, 40-10.50. 15, Kantonen, PR, 34-2.
Discus: 1, Scheving, EGF, 134-7.50. 2, Handyside, MW, 131-1.50. 4, Petersen, PR, 130-3. 6, Miller, N, 128-2. 15, Godwin, N, 103-1.
Shot put: 1, Scheving, EGF, 50-5.50. 2, McCullough, C, 47-6. 12, Godwin, N, 38-2. 14, Petersen, PR, 36-8.50. 15, Hanke, PR, 36-3.
