by Scott DCamp
Sports Editor

Thief River Falls sophomore Kendra Mehrkens ran a qualifying time of 12.83 in the 100-meter dash preliminaries Friday, June 10 which was good enough for 11th place. She missed the top nine and a chance to compete in Saturday’s 100-meter championship by eight-hundredths of a second.

“Kendra ran well against a tough, fast field of 100 runners,” said Thief River Falls Co-Head Coach Katie Nelson. “She ran a good time, barely missing qualifying for finals by .08 seconds. Some of the other athletes dropped their times from their seeds by .3 to .5 seconds, so it was extremely competitive. She got another taste of what state was like, this time as an individual qualifying. She did so well this entire season and has no reason to hang her head. She is the 11th best in the state in AA. She should be incredibly proud as I am of how she ran this year. Next year we look to be back and running in the finals. With how hard Kendra works and her dedication to bettering herself as an athlete I have no doubt that she will keep dropping her times and continue to place at the top. We had an incredibly fun trip and I can’t wait until next year when we go back! Except I hope to have more athletes competing when we do.”

Ashley Fisher of Holy Angels went on to win the Class AA state championship in the girls 100-meter dash.

Other area athletes competing at the state meet include Brady Skeim, Treston Nichols and Liam Collins of the BGMR/Freeze co-op, Gerald Melin of Red Lake Falls, and Hannah Pederson, Markelle Pederson and Gavin Gullikson of West Marshall.

Skeim finished sixth in the Class A boys discus with a throw of 151-00.

Nichols was 14th in the Class A boys shot put with a personal record throw of 46-02.00.

Collins finished 15th in the Class A boys triple jump with a jump of 39-07.50.

Melin finished ninth in the Class A boys high jump with a personal record height of 6-02.00.

Peterson finished 14th in the Class A girls high jump with a height of 4-08.00.

Gullikson finished fourth in the boys pole vault with a height of 13-06.00.

Pederson finished 13th in the Class A girls 100 hurdles with a time of 16.90, and she finished fifth in the Class A girls triple jump with a jump of 35-03.75.

Team Champions – Girls: Class A – Eden Valle-Watkins/Kimball 81; Class AA – Monticello 71; Class AAA – Rosemount, 93; Boys: Class A – Nova Classical Academy 47.5; Class AA – St. Peter 44; Class AAA – Andover 62.2.