John's Journal: A Soccer Player Breaks A State Track Record

Not long ago, Joshua Kyei-Baffour had dreams of glory on the soccer pitch. Now a senior at Rochester Century, the 6-foot-3, 180-pound all-around athlete has been playing soccer for a long time, and on a soccer recruiting website a while back, Joshua wrote in part, “I have been in love with sports since kindergarten. I tried football and basketball but soccer was the one sport that I fell in love with when I reached middle school. Since then I've developed an ambition to play college soccer because I want to play at that high level.”

Oh how things can change. A member of the Century track and field team – as well as the soccer team -- throughout his high school years, Kyei-Baffour has made a name for himself as one of the state’s best hurdlers. And he solidified that fact by setting an all-time Minnesota high school record on Saturday.

Kyei-Baffour won the 110-meter high hurdles at the Section 1AAA championships with a blazing time of 13.58 seconds. That bested the previous state record of 13.66 by St. Croix Lutheran's Jon Tollefson in 2015.

“It’s amazing,” he said a few minutes after crossing the finish line on a sunny, warm day at Lakeville South. “At the beginning of the season my coaches were like, ‘Let's put our name in the record books.’ I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and said, ‘OK.’ But I didn't expect I was going to get to this moment. I'm super happy and grateful.”

Those dreams of playing college soccer have been replaced; Kyei-Baffour will join the track and field program at North Dakota State later this year.

“My joy for track and field has gone up 100 percent,” Kyei-Baffour told the Rochester Post Bulletin’s Pat Ruff earlier this spring. “It was competing at high levels that did it for me. When I went to visit NDSU, (hurdles and sprints coach) Reece Vega hooked me right away. I also loved the campus, the coaches and the guys on the team. I’ll be putting down my cleats and putting on my spikes next year.”

One of his Bison track teammates, as well as his roommate, will be current St. Charles senior Christopher Hilton. In Class A, Hilton qualified for state in the 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles, 200 meters and triple jump. (Read about Hilton by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/hVI1t)

“We're going to hang out soon, but we text here and there and encourage each other,” Joshua said of his friendship with Hilton.

Kyei-Baffour’s evolution as a hurdler has been steady. He ran a time of 15.22 as a sophomore and got down to 14.13 last season. He finished fourth at the Class 3A state championships in 2024 with a time of 14.28, and will return to chase a championship when the state meet is held June 10-12 at St. Michael-Albertville.

“I'm keeping my head down, staying humble, just preparing mentally and physically for the next week,” Joshua said.

He also ran the 300-meter low hurdles Saturday and was a member of Century’s 4x200 relay team; in both events the Panthers came up short of qualifying for state.

In Thursday’s section preliminaries, Kyei-Baffour had a first-place finish of 14.23 seconds. Knocking that time down to 13.58 two days later, and setting a state record in the process, was a mixture of preparation, focus, speed and power.

Earlier Saturday, Joshua said he told his friends, “I can feel the all-time record being mine.”

Afterwards, he said, “I just kind of remembered, ‘Get out of the box fast, stay clean, and it'll all connect.’ ”

He came off the start ahead of the pack and was clean over every hurdle. As he reached the finish line he dipped his head and threw his arms back. After crossing the line he lifted his head and put his right hand over his heart in appreciation.

“This was perfect weather, a perfect day,” he said with a big smile.

Indeed. Everything was perfect.

--MSHSL staff member John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Bluesky at johnmilleamn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]