Jackson County Central senior Maci Farmer, who claimed 15th in the 2022 Class A state triple jump with a leap of 31-10 1/2, could be a challenger to Geerdes in the Relays’ AA horizontal leaps.Ĭhloe Groe and Addison Armstrong return for Blue Earth Area after combining for three second-place finishes at last year’s Relays. Bush threw the shot to a mark of 31-7 1/2, while Artz cleared the high hurdles in 17.76 and the 300 hurdles in 52.63. Geerdes garnered second in the long jump (15 feet, 7 1/4 inches) and third in the triple jump (32-1) a year ago, while Bush and Artz each earned bronze medals. Moeller went on to earn all-state status via an eighth-place showing (60.02) at last June’s Class AA meet. Moeller struck gold in the open 400 (60.49) and added a pair of silver-medal marks in the 100 (13.17) and 200 (26.57) at the 2022 Relays. If Hanson is not healthy enough to hit the track, the Fairmont girls team can turn to returning Relays’ medalists Corene Moeller, Jazlyn Geerdes, Alexa Bush and Hadley Artz for point production.

Unfortunately for area track fans, Hanson - who also posted a second-place showing in the 2022 Relays’ mile run - has missed the majority of the spring with a nagging injury.

Redwood Valley’s Kayla Huhnerkoch set the mile mark (5:12.6) in 2011. The Hutch all-stater, who set the Relays’ Class AA girls 2-mile record (11:04.89) as a seventh-grader in 2019, could shatter both long-distance marks this Friday. Schmitz is coming off second-place finishes in the 1,600 (4:52.07) and 3,200 (10:43.79) at last Friday’s Hamline Elite Meet.

The Tigers’ phenom went on to earn a bronze medal in the 2-mile run in the Class AA state meet with a time of 10:43.14 to complement a fourth-place medal in the mile run (5:01.32).

Schmitz outdueled Hanson for the 2022 Relays’ 3,200-meter gold medal, 11:21.98-12:00.79, respectively. Hutchinson junior extraordinaire Isabelle Schmitz and Fairmont sophomore standout Macy Hanson could square off in the Class AA long-distance events. While no coach among the 30 competitive teams has made any predictions concerning the final standings, there are at least a pair of area individual showdowns in both divisions during the 68th edition of longest-running outstate regular-season track & field meet. In the Class A competition, North Union mentor Loren Looft’s Warriors return a pair of skilled varsity corps, with the girls looking to defend the program’s first-ever Relays championship and the boys with their sights set on dethroning first-time Relays winner River Valley (Sleepy Eye United combined with Springfield).

Double or Nothing by Macy Blake