State track and field: Hastings’ sprinters power Raiders to boys team title

Jun 13, 2025 - 08:00

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State track and field: Hastings’ sprinters power Raiders to boys team title

It was just last year when Lane Hoffman said Hastings’ runners looked around and realized just how many fast kids were on the team.

“We were all like, ‘We’ve got to start training over winter, maybe we can make something happen out of this,’” Hoffman said.

So, off to work they went. And the labor instantly bore fruit this spring. Times dropped, wins piled up, potential for a team state title arose.

“There was talk about it,” Hastings junior Sebastian Strauss said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen.”

No one did, not until the final race of Thursday’s Class 3A state meet at St. Michael-Albertville. Hastings was in second place of the finale, the 4×400 meter relay, when Strauss got the baton for the final leg. The junior had already won the 400-meter dash and the 4×200 meter relay. Fatigue was setting in, as were the nerves of the moment.

“But faith is the biggest thing in my life, and I just knew that whatever was going to happen, God had a plan,” Strauss said. “It ended up working out.”

He kicked earlier than usual on his lap, and trusted that whatever he had in the tank would be enough to hold off Eagan. He was right, as Strauss crossed first and the Raiders won the relay with a time of 3 minutes, 19.41 seconds, a second clear of the Wildcats.

That was enough to clinch the boys team title for the Raiders. Mounds View placed second.

“For all the guys just to perform today was awesome,” Strauss said. “It’s a memory I’ll cherish forever.”

Hoffman, who won the 200-meter dash, said the Raiders “got lucky” with the number of fast runners who all came through Hastings at the same time. Jack Cloutier, Gunner Hanstad and Johnathan Vickney joined Strauss on the 4×400 relay Thursday, while Strauss, Hoffman, Hanstad and Cole Zeien were on the 4×200 winning team.

Hoffman said the entire group pushed one another for the past year.

“We push each other super hard in practice, always going as hard as possible, staying late after practice, practicing blocks, everything,” Hoffman said.

The end result? A championship.

“No one expected it from us,” Hoffman said.

Double duty

Roseville junior Jayda Wilson was back Thursday to defend her pole vault title, with an added responsibility this time around.

The Raiders’ 4×100 meter relay team qualified for the final. Wilson is on that, as well. So, another event was added to her slate. She’s used to that, and noted how fun it was to compete with her teammates on that stage. But Thursday’s conditions complicated matters.

It was pouring outside. So Wilson ran the relay, in which Roseville finished sixth, and was golf carted back to the school’s indoor facility to resume the pole vault competition. She was soaked, and a little rushed.

It likely affected performance. Wilson regularly clears 13 feet. But she got down to her final attempt on 12 feet, before coming in clutch to clear the bar. Wilson eventually cleared 13 feet to again win the competition and defend her crown. Irondale’s Lulu Semakula placed second after clearing the 12 foot mark.

“I definitely just had to take a deep breath, stay within myself and just jump my jump,” Wilson said of her final attempt at 12 feet, “because I knew that I could make it.”

Surprise, surprise

Mounds View’s Allison Richter believed she could win the 300-meter hurdles state title … with approximately 75 meters to go.

And not a second before then.

Richter’s goal entering the season was to qualify for state. When she earned a spot in the final, she had zero expectations for herself, and then proceeded to cross the line first in 43.62 seconds.

“I was just seeing what I could do,” she said. “I actually thought I could win it just on the home stretch.”

Pony power

Stillwater junior Sylvia Boyum noted she didn’t have her best throws in the shot put final on Thursday.

But her best toss of 41 feet, 2.25 inches put her in first place.

“I had a lot of energy going into it,” she said of that throw, ‘and I knew I had to get in there and execute.”

Still, she was nervous throughout that it wouldn’t be enough. But it was, and the junior — who placed ninth a year ago — is now a state champion.

“I feel crazy. I don’t even know. I’ve been wanting this for years,” she said. “I did a lot of lifting and a lot of offseason training. I don’t know, you’ve got to go for it.”

Boyum wasn’t the only Stillwater throwing champion Thursday. Stillwater’s Tyler Curnow won the discus with a throw of 176 feet, 8 inches, edging Forest Lake’s Howie Johnson.

Personal best, state title

Cretin-Derham Hall senior Michael Seifu surprised himself with a personal best in the 300-meter hurdles in Thursday’s final, given the rainy conditions.

But as he came around the turn of the final, he knew he hadn’t run the first half of that race that fast before.

“I felt like I popped it,” he said. “So, the last 100 meters I kept thinking, ‘Alright, I’ve got to make sure I don’t fall behind now.’ So, I kept pumping my arms and moved as fast as I could and I took the lead.”

And he won the race with a time of 37.73 seconds, a second faster than the second-place finisher, Rosemount’s Kavari Flowers.

“I’ve been looking forward — since I started track my freshman year — to winning state. It’s always been a dream of mine. Because I’ve always been a faster person,” Seifu said. “But when I got into track I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m not really that fast.’ So, I’ve been always been working hard, and winning state is one of my final big accomplishments of high school.”

Other 3A east metro titles

Lakeville South senior Eva Welsch won the 100-meter hurdle title with a time of 14.27 seconds.

Mounds View senior Casey Poppler won the boys 1,600 meter crown with a time of 4 minutes, 15.9 seconds, edging the 3,200 meter champion, Minnetonka’s Sean Fries, by nine tenths of a second.

Class 2A

One day after finishing second in the long jump, Simley senior Ayisat Adebayo came out on top in the girls triple jump with an initial leap of 40 feet, 3.75 inches that held up throughout the event.

Mankato East’s Rylie Hansen, who won the long jump, finished second to Adebayo on Thursday with a jump of 38 feet, 11.5 inches.

Mahtomedi junior Andrew Russell won the boys high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 7 inches, one inch better than Monticello’s Martavius Guertin.

Simley’s Naomi Moore finished second in the girls 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.59 seconds, 31 hundredths behind the champion, DeLaSalle’s Laila Moses.

Totino-Grace’s Josiah Young won the boys 400-meter race with a time of 48.9 seconds.