John's Journal: Track And Field And Moments And Memories

Brynn Bakken is no stranger to the state track and field meet. The sophomore from Hills-Beaver Creek has competed at state since she was a seventh-grader, making this week’s Class A championships her fourth time on the big stage.

Maybe it was no surprise that such an experienced sprinter would turn heads, but that’s exactly what Bakken did this week at St. Michael-Albertville. She captured state titles at 100 and 200 meters, in both races outpacing defending state champion Ava Phrakonkham, a senior from Bagley/Fosston.

Brynn set a personal best of 24.86 seconds in the 200, with Ava next in 24.91. In the 100, Bakken’s time was 12.29 with Phrakonkham finishing in 12.36

Ava capped her illustrious career, having set a high bar in both sprint races, the 4x100 relay and the long jump. She will continue her track and field career at the University of North Dakota.

“Ava and I have gone head to head through the past three, four years and she's an amazing competitor,” Brynn said. “I am blessed to have been able to compete against her. I love her. I'm excited to see how her much farther track career goes.”

The two speedsters live far apart; the drive from Hills in the far southwest corner of Minnesota to Bagley and Fosston up north is 360 miles. But when the two runners meet at state, the space between them is miniscule.

“It was not my best day, but I'm proud of my career,” Ava said. “I have more to go and I'm looking forward to college. I’m proud of what I did.”

She is proud with good reason. Phrakonkham brought her school’s track program to heights not seen since Analisa Huschle won 10 state titles during her career, including the 100, 200, long jump and triple jump in 2011.

A year ago, Brynn was second in the 100 to Ava and third in the 200 behind Ava and McKaylen Lewis of Math & Science Academy. As an eighth-grader Bakken placed third in the 100, sixth in the 200 and ninth in the triple jump. She first competed at state as a seventh-grader, placing seventh in the 100, 11^th in the 200 and seventh as part of the Patriots’ 4x100 relay team.

Bakken’s double gold day this week might not have seemed very likely earlier in the spring, when she battled issues with both hips that she attributes to overwork.

“It feels so relieving to finally get what I came here to do,” she said. “I kind of was hurt all year. It was kind of an overuse thing and I didn't take care of it properly. So I've been trying to get back to where I was last year.

“There was pain and I didn't want to have any further injuries. So I've been limited in my events all year. I didn't make it in long jump this year, but I’m fine with it. It was kind of a building year for me.

“For the last week I've been focusing heavy on my mental health and my mental game, because mind over matter is a lot of the race. I've been trying to build myself up, give myself as much confidence as I possibly can. And I knew, through my faith and through my work and through my past, I can do whatever I put my mind to.”

The Class A girls 100 and 200 races were star-studded with some of the biggest names in recent sprint history. Chantle Reiland, a senior from Grand Meadow/LeRoy-Ostrander/Kingsland/Southland, won the 100 as a sophomore and finished third in that event this week while also running in the 4x200 relay. And Two Harbors senior Trinity Giddings won the 400 this week while placing third in the long jump, fourth in the 200 and fifth in the 400.

“This has been a goal of mine,” Trinity said of her 400 championship. “I’ve worked for four years for this.”

Following the awards ceremony for the 200 – their final event of the season – Bakken, Reiland and Giddings hugged, chatted and enjoyed the moment. They asked a nearby journalist if he would use one of their phones to take a photo of the speedy threesome. He was more than happy to oblige.

Two all-time state records were set during the 2025 track season.

Rochester Century senior Joshua Kyei-Baffour set a new mark of 13.48 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles Class 3A Section 1 championships, topping the previous state record of 13.66 by St. Croix Lutheran's Jon Tollefson in 2015.

On Thursday, Kyei-Baffour won the state championship with a time of 13.94.

The Wayzata girls 4x800 relay team of junior Addison Neitz, junior Jazleen Malherek-Osorio, senior Julia Link and junior Maddie Gullickson won that event in a state-record time of 8:58.22 in the May 21 Lake Conference championships. That topped the previous record of 8:59.04 set by Wayzata at the 2023 Lake Conference meet. On Thursday, the Trojans’ quartet of Neitz, Alyson Kleyman, Lila Golomb and Link won the state title in the 4x800 with a time of 9:16.67 in the rain.

Gullickson and Malherek-Osorio focused on individual distance events in the postseason. They finished first and fifth, respectively, in the 3,200 meters and first and eighth in the 1,600.

Becker senior Carter Reckelberg was one of the stars of the week. He captured his third championship in the Class 2A long jump, won the 200, placed second in the 100 and was part of the Bulldogs’ second-place 4x200m relay team.

St. Charles senior Tyler Gunnarson is the most accomplished wheelchair track athlete in the state. He won state titles in the 100 and 200 meters and discus this week, giving him a total of 20 medals, four every year since eighth grade.

Chaska junior Joshua Schmidt won the 3A title in the boys pole vault with a height of 16 feet, 6 inches. The state record is 16-9 by Jarod White of Pine Island in 2022. After clearing 16-6, Schmidt had the bar set at 17 feet but missed in all three attempts at that height.

In the Class 3A boys 4x200 meters, Hastings came tantalizingly close to an all-time state record. The team of Cole Zeien, Gunner Hanstad, Sebastian Strauss and Lane Hoffman finished in 1:25.80, just short of the record of 1:25.58 set by Hopkins in 2019. The Raiders also won gold in the 4x400, with Jack Cloutier, Hanstad, Johnathan Vickney and Strauss on the baton.

One of the busiest, -- and certainly the tallest – athlete at the state track meet was Brayson Boike, a 6-foot-8 senior from Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd. He came into the meet as the defending state champion in the Class A triple jump (finishing 10^th this week) and also competed in the high jump (11^th) and long jump (eighth).

In March Brayson helped Dawson-Boyd win its first Class A boys basketball state title. He will play college basketball at Southwest Minnesota State.

“It's been amazing,” he said of his high school career “Our community's been just amazing. In all our sports there are so many people there cheering us on. That's the best part about it.”

Siblings from Melrose competed at state in the Class A pole vault. The meet was sophomore Josie Eveslage’s sixth consecutive season that ended at the state championship level; she has qualified for state twice each in diving, gymnastics and track. She was 10th in the pole vault and her brother Grant, a senior, placed ninth.

Another pair of siblings, junior Maddyn and eighth-grader Beckett Greenway from Providence Academy, completed a busy three-sport season this week. They were part of Providence Academy’s state championship teams in soccer and basketball and wrapped up the spring with the state track meet. Maddyn was the 2024 Class 2A state champ in the 300-meter hurdles while also qualifying for state in the 100-meter hurdles and placing sixth in long jump.

This week, Maddyn repeated as the winner in the 300 hurdles, was third in the 100 hurdles and sixth in the long jump. Beckett was 18^th in the long jump, and Maddyn and Beckett ran on the Lions’ state championship 4x400 relay team.

Fridley junior Lorenzo Hamilton III is an example for us all. After winning the Class 2A 110-meter hurdles he false-started in the 300-meter hurdles and was disqualified. Did he sulk? No. After the race he went out of his way to congratulate the other hurdlers. Well done.

St. Peter junior Keira Friedrich is the epitome of an all-around great athlete. Last fall she played soccer and ran cross-country at the same time and was named first-team all-state in both sports. And this week on the track she won the Class 2A 1,600 meters and was fifth in the 800.

Triton junior Pierce Petersohn is another multi-sport star who excels in football, basketball and track. In Class A events this week he finished second in the 400, fourth in the 200 and high jump and sixth in the 100. He’s the second-ranked Minnesota football recruit in his class (behind Jackson County Central’s Roman Voss).

An oddity in the Class 2A boys 110-meter hurdles: Two runners tied for ninth in the prelims so a run-off was held to decide who would advance to the finals. Harper Dickinson of North St. Paul outran Aaron Plunkett of Faribault to lock down a spot in the finals. Harper finished seventh in the finals.

When Osakis junior Trenton VanNyhuis won the Class A boys triple jump, it was historic. The last state track and field champion from Osakis came in 1949 when Bob Gelle won the shot put in a single-class competition.

St. Charles senior Christopher Hilton capped his career with a Class A state championship in the 110-meter hurdles, he was fifth in the triple jump and ninth in the 200 and the 300 hurdles.

His performance was especially memorable considering what he has been through. As a sophomore, Chris placed second in both hurdles races at state and was fifth in the triple jump. A year ago, he seemed all set for more glory until injuries derailed everything. After suffering a hamstring strain in April 2024, he fought through that adversity to win the 110 hurdles at the section meet, qualifying for his second state championships. Shortly after that, he blew his other hamstring in the 300 hurdles section final. Even though he qualified for state in the 110s, the injuries ended his season at the section level. Now he goes home as a state champion.

The Class A boys discus champion was ninth-grader Auggie Yonkey from Maple River with a distance of 172 feet, 9 inches. His father, Mike Yonkey, is a former state record-holder in that event, throwing 195-6 for Wells-Easton in 1987. Mike’s mark ranks fifth all-time in Minnesota.

Auggie stands 6-foot-6 and has plenty of room to build even more strength. He said his father “helps me with a lot of stuff. He helps me learn how to prepare for meets, because he's had a lot of experience.”

Auggie said his goal is to break the national high school record in the discus, which is 236 feet, 6 inches.

“I think if I put on more weight and more muscle, I think it's definitely possible,” he said.

--Follow John Millea on Bluesky at @minnesotamillea.bsky.social. Contact John at [email protected]