File photo by Fritz Busch Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Samuel Stresemann competes in the 1600-meter run at the Section 2A track and field meet last Saturday at Mankato West High School. Stresemann qualified for state in both the 800 and 1600.

ST. PAUL — Going into each race, Samuel Stresemann always has a plan.

The senior for Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop is capping off his standout final high school season at the Class A state track and field meet on Friday and Saturday at Hamline University in St. Paul. A prolific long-distance runner, Stresemann has his eyes on a state title in both the 800- and 1600-meter races.

“He looks great; he’s trained for years, he trains year-round,” GFW track and field coach Roger Rogotzke said. “He’s as strong as he’s going to be.”

Stresemann won the 1600 and took second in the 800 last weekend at the Section 2A meet at Mankato West High School. Rogotzke said that even though the 1600 is Stresemann’s favorite, he still has some extra motivation in the 800.

At last season’s state meet, then-senior Angelo Metzger beat Stresemann’s school record in the 800 with a 1:58.63, good for a fifth-place finish in the finals. With that, Stresemann wants to recapture his old school record in the event.

“Sam would really like to beat that mark on Friday,” Rogotzke said. “He’s very competitive and he owns our distance records. He had that record until Angelo got it.”

The big obstacle for Stresemann on Saturday will be the amount of time between the 1600 and the 800 finals.

“He’s realistic, he knows after running 1600, it’ll be tough to [beat Metzger’s record] in the 800 finals, especially if it’s 95 degrees out,” Rogotzke said.

The heat will likely play a factor in Day 2 of the meet on Saturday, with temperatures projected to reach as high as 96 degrees.

The section meet was blistering as well, posing the same type of obstacle for Stresemann as he will likely face this Saturday.

“He wasn’t sure of himself in the 800… he said after the first 100, he felt that he had it, that he felt good and was gonna be able to run a good race,” Rogotzke said. “As far as strategy and everything like that, it kind of went out the window. He said the race was kind of a blur to him after running the 1600. But he always has a plan.”

In the girls’ side of the meet, Minnesota Valley Lutheran/New Ulm Cathedral’s 4×100- and 4×200-meter relay teams are hoping to post some good times.

The Chargers’ 4×100 team — featuring Shylo Hilbert, Ingrid Anderson, Hannah Marzinske and Brittany Sanders — finished second in the section meet with a 50.37 time, which would have still been good for an automatic-qualifying time had the team finished third or worse.

The Chargers’ 4×200 team — consisting of Hilbert, Lexi Fosburgh, Marzinske and Sanders — placed third at the section meet, but earned a state berth with an automatic-qualifying time of 1:48.56.

MVL/NUC coach Rollin Timm said the main expectation is for both teams to get to Saturday’s finals, which could be tough with 17 teams in the 4×200 and 19 in the 4×100.

Sanders, a standout three-sport athlete who will play volleyball at Bethany Lutheran College this fall, is in her first season going out for track and is anchoring both relay teams. For obvious reasons, Timm said having Sanders go out for track was big.

“When she decided to come out for track this year, that definitely gave us an opportunity to put together some solid relay teams,” Timm said. “We’ve already got four other solid runners, but when we got her, she gave us the opportunity to advance as far as we could.”

Having Hilbert, who is the best individual sprinter for the MVL/NUC girls’ team, starting the relay is also a keen strategic component.

“We don’t follow conventional wisdom, I guess,” Timm said. “She’s our best sprinter — she’s the fastest of all of them — and we’d normally put her as the anchor. But she’s such a good starter that we feel that she has to start and we make up a lot of ground because of it.”

Here are some other interesting tidbits about this year’s area qualifiers:

–Comfrey/Cedar Mountain/Springfield’s lone state qualifier is its girls’ 4×100 team that consists of Joci Nestande, Sydney Hauger, Chasyti Bird and Vishe’ Rabb.

Rabb, who was the state runner-up in the girls’ 400-meter dash last year, has been hampered by an ankle injury for much of the spring season but will still anchor the C/CM/S relay team.

Last year, Nestande and Rabb anchored a 4×200 team that finished second at state.

–Wabasso has four state qualifiers this year. Colton Taylor will compete in the boys’ 400 and will also be the first leg of the 4×100 team consisting of Mitchell Fulton, Cooper Taylor and Myles Zeug.

Fulton was a two-time state qualifier in the 100, but he just missed a state berth in the event as a senior with a third-place finish at the Section 3A meet.

Zeug also qualified in shot put, while Anjolic Salfer qualified in the 200 as the Rabbits’ lone qualifier on the girls’ side.

–Sibley East’s Logan Tesch qualified in both the 110-meter high hurdles and the long jump. Tesch was also a state-qualifying wrestler this past winter.

–New Ulm sophomore Ben Mathiowetz returns in both the wheelchair shot put and wheelchair discus events in Class AA morning sessions. Mathiowetz placed first in both events last year and is the lone competitor this season.

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CLASS AA – BOYS

WC shot put: Ben Mathiowetz, 10, New Ulm

WC discus: Ben Mathiowetz, 10, New Ulm

CLASS A – BOYS

110H: Logan Tesch, 11, Sibley East

400m: Colton Taylor, 11, Wabasso

800m: Sam Stresemann, 12, GFW

1600m: Sam Stresemann, 12, GFW

4×100: Wabasso (Colton Taylor, Mitchell Fulton, Cooper Taylor, Myles Zeug)

Long jump: Logan Tesch, 11, Sibley East

Shot put: Myles Zeug, 11, Wabasso

WC shot put: Brennen Schaefer, 9, C/CM/S

CLASS A – GIRLS

200m: Anjolic Salfer, 12, Wabasso

4×100: C/CM/S (Joci Nestande, Sydney Hauger, Chasyti Bird, Vishe’ Rabb)

4×100: MVL/NUC (Shylo Hilbert, Ingrid Anderson, Hannah Marzinske, Brittany Sanders)

4×200: MVL/NUC (Shylo Hilbert, Lexi Fosburgh, Hannah Marzinske, Brittany Sanders)