by Scott DCamp
Sports Editor
The Thief River Falls boys track and field team had 13 top-nine finishes while qualifying for state in six events at the 2026 Section 8AA Track and Field Meet. The two-day meet began in Thief River Falls at the Multi Events Center on Wednesday, May 27 and it wrapped up Saturday, May 30 at Rocori High School in Cold Spring.
“The boys competed hard and battled hard to do the best they could,” said Co-Head Coach Nathan Hruby. “Across all 18 events, we had 18 personal bests and season bests. We always preach throughout the year that this is the time of year we train for and it showed on Wednesday and Saturday.
“Wednesday, we had pre-lims of individual running events where we saw David King take the eighth qualifying spot for Saturday, running a personal best in the process [in the 200-meter dash]. Briley Olsonawski and William Smith both qualified for the section finals in the 400, finishing fifth and eighth, respectively Wednesday afternoon. They went on to finish seventh and eighth, respectively, in Saturday’s final.
The Prowlers also had two finalists in the 800-meter run.
“In the 800-meter run, both Curtis [Griffin] and Tobias Sobotta qualified for finals,” Hruby said. “Curtis ran a 1:59.57, which came up short of a school record by .59 seconds. Toby ran his personal best in the event, as well dropping a second to qualify for finals.
Neither runner could replicate their qualifying time in the 800 final. After qualifying second, Griffin ran 2:15.41 and finished eighth, while Sobatta ran 13 seconds slower and finished ninth.
Griffin made up for the disappointment in the 800 with a photo-finish win in the 1600.
“Curtis ran an incredible race in the 1600, ultimately claiming the section crown,” Hruby said. “He won the race by .05 seconds over a second-place Perham individual and third place Willmar individual. The top three finishers were all within .09 seconds of each other. Curtis led all but roughly 250-meters of the race, which proved to be the best race of the day.
“Curtis will be the 11th overall seed going into the state meet. He will need to battle hard and look at dropping three-to-four seconds in order to make the podium.
“One of the first athletes to qualify for state for the Prowlers in 2026 was Joey Bruggeman in the shot put. Bruggeman obliterated his previous PR to climb the section standings Wednesday afternoon.
“In the field events, Joey Bruggeman had by far the greatest personal best in all events, which helped punch his ticket to state,” Hruby said. “He came in seeded eighth, with a 44-foot, 11-inch throw and on his very first attempt, he tossed a 49-8 throw, coming up short by six inches on the auto-qualifying mark. It was enough to hold off third-place and land him in the mix this week at STMA. Joey becomes the first thrower from Thief River in 14 years to go to state, I look forward to what he can do, as he does want to add another one-foot, eight inches as he would claim the school record in his second season.”
Thief River Falls’ lone wheelchair competitor, Clayton Rudi, continues to improve his times as the state tournament approaches. Rudi took first in the 100, 200, 400 and discus wheelchair events on Wednesday.
“Clayton qualified in all four of his respective events in the wheelchair division,” Hruby said. “He wheeled personal bests in his 100-, 200-, and 400-meter races. His discus was not a personal best – he has been working very hard on discus all season. I love that he gets frustrated because it tells me he cares and shows his competitive edge. He will compete against two-to-three other wheelchair athletes this week at the state meet.”
Also placing for the Prowlers were Parker Kasprowicz, fifth in the discus; Bruggeman, ninth in the discuss; and the 4×400 relay team of Olsonawski, Sobotta, Colin MacLean and Smith with a fourth place finish.
“Overall, our other finishes across the boys team have me very excited and optimistic for the future of our team, as our relays are super young and we return a lot on those relays,” Hruby said. “I will always say that our section is by far the best and by far the toughest in the state of Minnesota, and our kids take it in stride and put their best foot forward and embrace the stiff competition.”
Team Scores
• Boys – 1. Willmar 102; 2. Detroit Lakes 101; 3. Perham 92; 4. Little Falls 85; 5. East Grand Forks 70; 6. Rocori 60; 7. Melrose Area 51; 8. Pequot Lakes 50; 9. Fergus Falls 43; 10. Thief River Falls 36; 11. Albany 16.
Winner/TRF Places-Boys
100 Meters Finals – 1. Blayne Schug, Rocori, 11.32; 2. Brock Jones, Detroit Lakes, 11.49.
100 Meters Prelims – 18. Ian Winter 12.17; 23. Corbin Hruby 12.40; 25. Gavin Demers 12.54.
100 Meters Wheelchair Finals – 1. Clayton Rudi 23.92.
200 Meters Finals – 1. Brock Jones, Detroit Lakes, 22.50; 2. Dereon Dadeah, East Grand Forks, 22.59; 8. David King 23.97.
200 Meters Prelims – 8. David King 23.63.
200 Meters Wheelchair Finals – 1. Clayton Rudi 47.17.
400 Meters Finals – 1. Jezrael Jones, East Grand Forks, 49.66; 2. Dereon Dadeah, East Grand Forks, 50.23; 7. Briley Olsonawski 53.14; 8. William Smith 53.31.
400 Meters Prelims – 5. Briley Olsonawski 52.48; 8. William Smith 53.57; 12. Wyatt Nelson 54.42.
400 Meters Wheelchair Finals – 1. Clayton Rudi 1:41.22.
800 Meters Finals – 1. Matt Jorgenson, Perham, 1:59.48; 2. Avery Nordby, Detroit Lakes, 2:00.69; 8. Curtis Griffin 2:15.41; 9. Tobias Sobotta 2:17.45.
800 Meters Prelims – 2. Curtis Griffin 1:59.57; 8. Tobias Sobotta 2:04.25; 13. Colin MacLean 2:09.71. 1600 Meters Finals – 1. Curtis Griffin 4:26.75; 2. Reid Wokasch, Perham, 4:26.80; 22. Lincoln Davis 5:16.47; Jonah Lee – DNF.
3200 Meters Finals – 1. Connor Malecka, Detroit Lakes, 9:32.39; 2. Brody Freeland, Perham, 9:37.58; 21. Jace Sands 11:53.01.
110m Hurdles Finals – 1. Andrue Stalboerger, Melrose Area, 15.63; 2. Noah Cameron, Little Falls, 15.69.
110m Hurdles Prelims – 17. Michael Rowe 20.17.
300m Hurdles Finals – 1. Owen Sportel, Willmar, 39.62; 2. Noah Cameron, Little Falls, 40.25.
300m Hurdles Prelims – 12. Michael Rowe 47.33.
4×100 Relay Finals – 1. Willmar A 44.02; 2. Detroit Lakes A 44.07; 10. TRF A (Ian Winter, Gavin Demers, Carson Walseth, Corbin Hruby) 47.42.
4×200 Relay Finals – 1. Rocori A 1:32.08; 2. East Grand Forks A 1:32.23; 11. TRF A (Ian Winter, Carson Walseth, Corbin Hruby, Wyatt Nelson) 1:37.38.
4×400 Relay Finals – 1. Perham A 3:28.75; 2. Willmar A 3:30.86; 4. TRF A (Briley Olsonawski, Colin MacLean, Tobias Sobotta, William Smith) 3:31.88.
4×800 Relay Finals – 1. Perham A 8:01.43; 2. Detroit Lakes A 8:13.68.
Shot Put Finals – 1. Quinn Wynn-Sheldon, Fergus Falls, 51-08.00; 2. Joey Bruggeman, Thief River Falls, 49-08.00; 19. Parker Kasprowicz 40-01.00.
Discus Finals – 1. Samuel Huisinga, Willmar, 172-01; 2. Dylan Stangler, Melrose Area, 158-00; 5. Parker Kasprowicz 142-10; 9. Joey Bruggeman 134-07.
Discus Wheelchair Finals – 1. Clayton Rudi 39-02.
High Jump Finals – 1. Oliver McKenna, Pequot Lakes, 6-04.00; 2. Becker Lipke, Pequot Lakes, 6-02.00; David King NH.
Pole Vault Finals – 1. Coye Braton, Detroit Lakes, 13-07.00; 2. Kobi Cameron, Little Falls, 13-07.00; 11. Lincoln Davis 10-07.00; 16. Keaton Tillett 10-01.00; Luke Smith NH.
Long Jump Finals – 1. Coye Braton, Detroit Lakes, 21-06.50; 2. Ashton Fitzsimons, Little Falls, 20-08.00; 21. Wyatt Nelson 17-00.75; 22. Carson Walseth 16-08.25; 25. Caleb Mauch 16-06.00.
Triple Jump Finals – 1. Jezrael Jones, East Grand Forks, 45-01.25; 2. Coye Braton, Detroit Lakes, 44-03.25; 12. Carson Walseth 38-11.50; 16. Hudson Brouse 36-09.00; 26. Keaton Tillett 32-07.75.