Showing the sprint form that is taking him to state in both the 100 meter and 400 meter runs, Peter Warren powers down the track to finish 3rd in the Section 7A finals in the 100 meters. Normally only the top two finishers advance to state, but Peter broke the state standard qualifying time. Peter, a senior this year, is the son of Andrew and Susan Warren, Grand Marais.
On a beautiful day for track, six Viking athletes headed down to UMD for the Section 7A Track and Field finals. For most of the athletes, just getting to the finals was a major accomplishment. There are 32 teams in Section 7A track, represented by approximately 1,500 athletes. Fourteen had qualified for each of 14 individual events. Now, only two per event would move on to the state meet. With no team qualification for state, track is one of the toughest sports to get to the state championships, the biggest accomplishment in a high school athlete’s career.
The Vikings had a good variety of representatives—sprinters, hurdlers, throwers, and distance runners. They were led by senior sprinter Peter Warren. I remember when Peter first joined the team as a young, smallish sprinter in 8th grade.
Viking track, which has a storied history including a number of state champions, had reemerged as a school sport in 2004 after nearly a decade off. In the first few years, we were mostly a team of distance runners, building off of our successful fall cross-country program. The word gradually got out that we had throwing, jumping, hurdling and sprinting events too.
Peter joined us as a part of the wave of non-distance runners that grew the team to over 35 participants. He showed promise early, running about 13.5 seconds for 100 meters—good, but far from the 11.3 or under required to be with the leaders.
But if you know Peter, you know no one works harder. His sports passions are track and football, and his favorite training activity is lifting weights. He is only about 5’ 8” and 165 pounds (track season) to 185 pounds (football season), but he has the school record in the squat lift and is on the school alltime leader boards in numerous other lifts. After a 4th place finish in the 100 at last year’s section finals, he was super fit and super motivated to get to state this year.
Since most of the top sprinters in the section were back, and Peter was so fit, we added the 400-meter dash to his repertoire. The 400 is, by far, the toughest sprint. In the 100 and 200 it is just bang, start fast, run as hard as you can, and hope you are in front. The 400 is more of a one-on-one duel as you head down the long finish with lactic acid screaming through your veins— just up Peter’s alley. Coming into the finals, Peter was ranked 3rd in both the 100 and 400. He opened with the 100.
On a perfect day for sprinting, in the 70s, sunny and with a moderate tail wind, Peter powered out of the blocks smoothly but a little late, ran down a few competitors and finished a close third with an excellent time of 11.31, the best 100-meter time in school history and comparable to the old 100-yard hand-timed record of 10.1.
In a bit of a surprise, he and the No. 4 finisher from Virginia both made the state meet qualifying standard of 11.38 (the other way to get to state – rarely done). He was in!
But he wasn’t done. After about an hour break, he was back in the blocks for the start of the 400. He was in the perfect lane, number 3. Since you have to stay in your own lane for the entire race, those in the outside lanes start further ahead. With the favorites in lanes 4 and 5, Peter could see them the whole time. As usual, he powered out of the blocks and settled into that justslower than-all-out pace required for the 400. Around the final turn, he moved up through the field, coming around the turn, clearly behind Riley Mudek of Esko, last year’s fourth place state meet finisher, but clearly ahead of the rest of the field. Using all of his outstanding fitness, he finished strong in 51.68, a personal best (PB) by almost 1½ seconds. On to the state meet in two events, one of only three boys to do that this year!
Our next best chance to get to state was senior miler Sarissa Falk. Although she was technically the No. 2 seed, two of the girls from the other subsection had PBs over 20 seconds faster than Sarissa. Her strategy was to get out in the chase pack behind the Moose Lake front runner, which she did perfectly. Unfortunately, on the third lap the other two strong girls picked up the pace, and Sarissa slowly dropped behind. Finishing in a PB of 5:41, she was disappointed but proud of her fine first year in track. She is off to college cross county and track at Hamline in the fall, after trying to beat coach in Grandma’s Half Marathon and the Fisherman’s Picnic trail run this summer – good luck!
The rest of our athletes were just trying to put up their best performance of the season, move up from their seeded place from Subsection, and hopefully, get on the eightplace award podium.
Junior shot putter Jessica Berg- Collman had our next best place, throwing the shot 30’ 4” for a 4th place finish. Junior 2-miler Audrey Summers was next closest, finishing 9th in 13:02. Hurdler Meadow Adams moved up two spots from her 12th place seed with a flawless 300-meter hurdle PB of 53.23. First-year senior sprinter Luke Fenwick also set a PB of 25.11 in the 200-meter dash, also moving up to 11th from his 12th place seed.
Overall, a great meet. At press time, Viking track fans were looking forward to the state meet at Hamline on June 7-8. Peter’s goal will be qualifying for Saturday’s finals in Friday’s preliminary heats. Nine advance from 16-20 qualifiers. He will have an uphill battle in the 100 but a decent shot in the 400. Go Peter – go Vikings!
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