Girls Sprints
Three words: North Saint Paul. The ladies from NSP could very well wipe the floor of the competition in the short sprints. They occupy three of the top six seeds in the 100 meters, and the only reason they don't in the 200 is because they need to run the 4x100 and 4x200, both of which they are heavy favorites. The leader of this group is sophomore J'Ianna Cager, the fifth-place finisher in this past year's state championships. But here she comes in as the top seed.
Alexis Pratt returns to Hamline a year older and wiser after her first visit in 2016, only this time she won't be a seventh-grader. And rounding out the North trio is Shaliciah Jones, an experienced USATF and AAU competitor who finally joins North's team for the first time this year. But it isn't all about the young North girls. There are star seniors here, too.
Anna Keefer didn't quite set Hamline on fire at this meet in 2016, but she sure did at state, running under 11.89 seconds in the 100 and finishing runner-up to Jedah Caldwell. In the 200, Keefer might be the only realistic challenge for Honour Finley, as both of their lifetime bests top the whole field by over a second. The 400, however, might simply be a formality.
In 2016, Finley not only broke the Hamline Elite record but also dismantled it by 1 1/2 seconds. And she then proceeded to be the first Minnesota girl to break 54 second at the USATF junior nationals. With Finley, one may be tempted to ask not, "Will Honour win the 400?" but instead ask, "By how much?"
The relay events, as previously indicated, will be North Saint Paul's to lose. Pratt, Jones, and Cager will be joined by Jebah Cooke in both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays, where their seed times already are competitive with the Elite Meet records. Of course, twins Jada and Jia Lewis of Minneapolis Edison might have a thing or two to say about their competition from the other side of the river. The two-time Class A 4x100 champions may come from a small school, but that has never stopped them before from holding their own against much larger teams.
And I'm sure that
in the 4x200, Wayzata and East Ridge will not even consider rolling over to let
North walk away uncontested with either a title or a record. But without a
doubt, things get a lot foggier in the 4x400. A year ago, Wayzata took over
eight seconds off its seed time to pull away with the win (White Bear Lake dropped over seven seconds off its time too).
Both those teams return, and again both are seeded low. But they are hardly the only teams that are coming back. Anoka, Pequot Lakes, and Bloomington Jefferson are entered as well, along with 10 of the 12 runners between them. Perhaps we might not witness records fall here, but I see no reason why this will not be the most competitive Hamline Elite 4x400 in recent memory.
The hurdle events also might not see any records go down after the book was re-written by Karina Joiner and Meliah Biermaier this past year, but there is surely no shortage of quality in 2017. Ansley Schug was not an many people's radar coming into the season, with modest personal records of 15.36 and 47.09, but she has lit up the state so far and is outracing most of Minnesota's hurdle favorites.
Just a couple of those favorites are Shae Buchman, Julia Hayes, Kalley Harris, and Natalie Windels, each of whom are coming off either all-state or state championship seasons. But most likely, the most interesting battle to look forward to here will be the girls 300 hurdles between friends and rivals Windels, Harris, and Hayes, whom have each run in years past some of the best long hurdle times in Minnesota history.