Jack Haussner, in the middle of the track in his Vikings gear, capped off his year by qualifying for the Minnesota State High School track meet in the 110-meter high hurdle event. The state meet is being held on Friday and Saturday, June 8 and 9 at Hamline University.
CCHS junior high hurdler Jack Haussner qualified for the Minnesota state high school track championships with a second place in the 110 high hurdle event at the Section 7A track meet held at UMD’s Malosky Stadium in Duluth.
The meet was held on a cool windy Thursday afternoon, May 31.
According to Vikings’ head coach Chris Hegg, “Jack had the fastest time in the prelims, a 16:38 into a pretty stiff wind. Like usual, he was a little slow through the first few hurdles, but he hauls everyone in during the later hurdles.
“In the finals, he got the best start I’d seen from him this year, and was leading early. Unfortunately, his trailing foot caught the last hurdle. He stumbled but managed to stay upright, just getting nipped in the final. Great stuff. He’ll be a low seed at state, but is capable of sub 16, and doesn’t rattle easily.”
Haussner finished one-hundredth of a second behind Derek Wester of Deer River as the two hit the tape together. Wester’s time was 16.55 and Haussner ran 16.56. It doesn’t get closer than that.
As far as the 300-meter hurdles, Haussner had too many stutter steps between hurdles to have any chance to qualify for state, Hegg said. “Jack hasn’t had any real practice on the 300 hurdles and it shows,” noted the coach.
With no track to train on, it’s almost impossible for hurdlers to get their steps down for a long hurdle race.
While Haussner is state bound, the other three boys that qualified for the section meet also had good days on the track.
“Leif Anderson had the best race of the rest of the guys,” coach Hegg said. He was fourth place in the 800 meters with a personal record (PR) 2:05.4. In his usual style, he stormed in with a big finishing kick.”
Sophomore Will Surbaugh was disappointed with his mile, said Hegg. “Geno Uhrbom (a freshman who was the fastest seventh grader in the U.S. with a 4:31 mile) took it out pretty hard in 65 seconds for the first 400 meters, with Wyatt Rauvola in tow. Will was in a group a couple seconds back. He didn’t get positioned real well, and slid further back over the next couple laps. He needs to get more comfortable with pace changes and tactics. We talked about that before the 800. He did a good job there, hanging on to a 61 second first quarter. Leif came by him on the last turn, but Will lifted his pace and held for fifth in a PR 2:07.6.”
Kevin Viren, a freshman, “was trying to run 11 minutes and beat a couple guys. The pace at the back slowed in the heat, but Kevin rallied with a 71-second finishing lap for 11:09 and 12th place. He’s got a real long distance future.”
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