Class AA State Girls Track
Experienced gained on big stage
Bremer finishes fourth in high jump for the Lakers
The Prior Lake girls track team had 10 athletes representing it at the Class AA state meet June 10-11 at Hamline University.
Seven of them were underclassmen and four were first-timers, so the Lakers got some experience on the biggest stage to end the season. Sophomore Maddy Bremer had the Lakers best finish, taking fourth in the high jump in her first-career appearance.
She was one of six Lakers to earn medals, including junior Madi Scholl in the high jump, eighth-grader Mallory Stach in the 3,200 and the 4x800 team of Stach, sophomores Kristyn Arends and Serena Pfeiffer and senior Olivia Thielen.
The Lakers ended up 26th in the team standings with 13.25 points. Alexandria won the title with 44.5 points, edging Chanhassen by a half point for the crown.
Robbinsdale Armstrong was third (42), followed by St. Michael-Albertville (40) and Mounds View (35).
Meanwhile, Bremer tied the school in the high jump, clearing a height of 5-6. The winning mark was 5-7. Scholl also holds the school record with Bremer. She was making her fourth-career appearance at state, but couldn't duplicate her runner-up finish from a year ago. She ended up tying for ninth with a height of 5-2.
In her first state appearance, Stach had a strong showing in the 3,200, finishing sixth with a time of 10:55.43. That was just off her own school record of 10:54.68 that she set early in the spring.
The old mark was 11:00.60 set by Megan Brandeland in 2005, so Stach is the only Laker to ever break 11 minutes in the 3,200 and she has done it twice with still four more seasons left for her to compete.
Stach also anchored the 4x800 relay. Arends ran the first leg, followed by Pfieffer and Thielen. The foursome finished in 9:21.28 to finish seventh. The time was close to the school record of 9:20.18 set in 2010.
Prior Lake's 4x200 relay team of Arends, Caldwell, Hoepner and Altendorf just missed making the finals (top nine), finishing 10th in the prelims with a time of 1:44.86.
Junior Sophie Zak competed in the triple jump for the Lakers, but she couldn't match her winning leap of 36-0 in the Section 3AA competition. She went 32-5 1/4 to finish 19th.
Like Stach and Bremer, Pfeiffer and Caldwell were also underclassmen competing at state for the Lakers for the first time. Zak competed in the high jump last year with Scholl, while Arends was on state relay as an eighth-grader.
Lakeville North was the highest-finishing South Suburban Conference team in 22nd place (15), followed by Farmington tying for 23rd (14), Eagan in 27th (13), Lakeville South in 31st (11.25), Eastview in 32nd (11), Rosemount tying for 34th (10), Burnsville in 40th (9) and Shakopee tying for 50th (4).
