Jun. 6—ST. MICHAEL — Samuel Huisinga put the finishing touches on a big weekend for the Willmar throwers.
A sophomore for the Cardinal boys, Huisinga secured fourth place in the boys’ discus on Day 2 of the Class AA State Track and Field Championships Saturday at St. Michael-Albertville High School.
Huisinga’s top toss came at 164 feet, 3 inches.
Over the two-day meet, the Cardinals won three medals in the discus. In the girls’ discus on Friday, Maddison Molacek took first place and Isabelle Engel was fifth. Cami Oehlers also competed in the girls’ discus, placing 11th.
It was a point of pride for Huisinga to add to the medal count on Saturday. “(We have) a lot of great throwers,” Huisinga said. “Next year, we’re hoping to bring six. I’m hoping to bring my two teammates Travis (Venenga) and Briggs (Baumgarn). We definitely can (do it).”
Huisinga was sitting in ninth place after his second throw went 148-4. On his final attempt, he jumped into fourth place with a toss of 160-9.
“I didn’t feel a lot of nerves, but the heat was kind of getting to me,” Huisinga said. “(Hitting 160) was a big relief. I very much needed that. It took a lot of weight off my shoulders and I was ready to go into the finals.”
Knowing he was going to medal, Huisinga let it rip in the finals. He hit 161-6 on his fifth throw. His final throw was his best at 164-3.
Huisinga knows he’s the kind of thrower who gets stronger with each attempt.
“The 160 was the safe mark and I just wanted to send it as hard as possible in the finals to see how far I can really go.”
St. Peter’s Parker Maloney won the Class AA title at 182-3. Mankato East’s Carter Schwartz was second at 174-7.
Owen Sportel knew he had a little bit to give after prelims on Friday.
He qualified for the boys’ 300-meter hurdles finals with a time of 40.43 seconds. That put him in the eighth seed and away from the middle of the pack in Saturday’s championship run.
“I start off running and I see nobody in front of me,” Sportel said of the start of his race on Saturday. “It was hard to gauge how fast I wanted to run. But once I hear the footsteps, I’m like, ‘All right, I got to turn it on.’ So that’s what I did on the curve.”
Turns out, Sportel was able to keep pace with Class AA’s best. He improved on his seed by three spots, finishing fifth in 39.65.
He finished .03 off his personal best. But Sportel wasn’t about to dwell on that after placing in the top five.
“I knew I could do better (than Friday) and that was my goal,” Sportel said. “Every day, get a little better. I ran what I wanted to, I would say.”
Blake’s Otis Friesen won the boys’ 300 hurdles at 37.56. Waseca’s Tovin Grannis was second at 38.33.
After Sportel crossed the finish line, he booked it toward his teammates alongside the track fence. He was getting hugs and plenty of words of encouragement. He didn’t know quite what place he finished, but Sportel knew it was good by their reaction.
“My teammate Tommy (Quinn) has been there since the start of the year just supporting me the whole time,” Sportel said. “Seeing him at the finish line, he’s yelling ‘Let’s go’ and I could just see it in his face that I ran a pretty good time.”
Sportel turned around and the video board showed his fifth-place finish. That led to a roar from the Willmar contingent.
“It was my goal to get fifth or sixth place,” Sportel said. “I knew I had some real (good) competition.”
The Willmar boys finished tied for 32nd place in the team standings with 11 points. Mankato East won the Class AA team title with 71.5. The Willmar girls, who led after four events on Day 1, finished in 13th place with 27 points. Orono claimed the girls’ team championship with 64.
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