Staff photo by Jake Calhoun Wabasso's Colton Taylor competes in the boys' 400-meter finals on Saturday at the Class A state track and field meet at Hamline University in St. Paul.

ST. PAUL — Samuel Stresemann had a lot of obstacles to avoid in his two races on Saturday.

In his two final high school races, the senior for Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop finished seventh in a physical 1600-meter race before placing sixth in the 800-meter finals at the Class A state track and field meet at Hamline University in St. Paul.

Even out of the gate, Stresemann was fighting off shoves and jostling for good positioning in the tense, tactical 1600. Stresemann said he was hoping the race would be faster than what it was in shooting for a sub-4:20 time. Instead, the physical activity that took place slowed everyone down.

“Going into the race, a lot of the runners all had the same game plan – they didn’t really want to take it out too fast, they were all waiting for somebody else to go out,” Stresemann said. “Because of that, they all got bunched up. So I had to go out to Lane 4 to try to pass them and get some positioning. That definitely slowed me down, but then again it slowed down all the other runners.”

Stresemann said he was almost tripped twice, but he managed to maintain his balance to avoid a costly fall.

“There was one fall in the 1600 going in the last lap, but I was lucky to be ahead of it at that point so I didn’t get stopped by that,” Stresemann said.

In the 800, Stresemann managed to just barely miss a costly fall near the finish line caused by Mora’s John Schwinghamer that took out Pine Island’s Jack Williams and Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton’s Dan Wilson. Schwinghamer was disqualified and because it happened toward the end of the race, Williams was given a chance to re-run the 800 by himself after the final event on the track concluded.

This did not affect Stresemann’s standing, however, as he was still sixth.

After reclaiming the school record with a 1:57.93 in the 800 in Friday’s prelims, Stresemann ran almost 4 seconds slower in placing sixth in Saturday’s finals.

“In the 800, the competition was definitely there,” Stresemann said. “The strategy I had for that race was to run more conservatively that first lap and then try to pick it up the second lap because I knew I would definitely be a lot more tired from the 1600.”

Overall, Stresemann is the fourth-straight state placewinner for GFW. Dan Timm placed in shot put in the 2014 and 2015 meets, while Angelo Metzger placed in the 800 in 2016.

Stresemann was also a captain on the successful GFW boys’ cross-country team that placed eighth at the state meet this past fall.

“I’m honored to be here and elated to compete,” Stresemann said. “There’s a lot of runners out there who are better than me who didn’t get medals today. There are some who didn’t have as high of seed times who beat me today.

“I’m just happy to get up on that medal stand and to get to state and get a medal. That’s just one of my dreams.”

Sibley East’s Logan Tesch reached the medal stand in the 110-meter high hurdles with a sixth-place finish, parroting his finish in the prelims and improving his time from 15.81 on Friday to 15.50 on Saturday.

“I had a better start than I did yesterday,” Tesch said. “Halfway down, I started hitting a couple hurdles and getting a little loose on my form, but I kept going and I finished where I was seeded at sixth.”

This meet marked the second time this season Tesch, a junior, qualified as an individual for state. He was a state qualifier in wrestling this past winter at 160 pounds in Class A.

“It’s a really cool experience,” Tesch said. “We were looking back in our school’s history and I think I’m one of the only ones to do that in two individual sports making it onto state. So that’s been a great experience.”

Junior Colton Taylor of Wabasso finished ninth in the boys’ 400-meter finals with a performance that duplicated his qualifying finish from Friday. His 52.92 time was more than 1 second slower than eighth-place finisher Cole Gelhar of McGregor.

On the girls’ side, the Minnesota Valley Lutheran/New Ulm Cathedral 4×100-meter relay team placed eighth overall with a time of 51.02.

The placewinning finish by the MVL/NUC relay team — consisting of Shylo Hilbert, Ingrid Anderson, Hannah Marzinske and Brittany Sanders – puts the cap on a successful season by the entire girls’ team.

“We performed to the best of our ability; we let it all out there,” Hilbert said. “We’re a very hard-working team and I know my teammates go all out.”

The competition was tough to beat with Minneapolis Edison setting a new state record of 48.18 and Minneapolis North not far behind in finishing second. In an event where it is difficult to know what is going on at every part of the race, Hilbert said trust is important.

“You’ve really got to trust in your teammates,” Hilbert said. “You can’t see all of the race because once you end, they just keep going. You just can’t see everything. I can only see the end of the race, so I’m trusting my teammates to make it.”

Despite losing Sanders, Hilbert and Co. will use this experience as a building block for next year.

“It really opened my eyes to the talent that the girls put forward,” Hilbert said. “It makes me really excited to try and get here next year.”

In Saturday morning’s Class AA session, New Ulm sophomore Ben Mathiowetz won his second state title in the wheelchair discus throw with a throw of 23-10, which beat his mark last year of 18-9.

Mathiowetz won his second state title in the wheelchair discus throw after winning the wheelchair shot put on Friday. He was the lone competitor in both events in Class AA.

Class A state meet

FINALS

Boys

110HH: 6. Logan Tesch (Sibley East) 15.50

400m: 9. Colton Taylor (Wabasso) 52.92

800m: 6. Samuel Stresemann (GFW) 2:01.25

1600m: 7. Samuel Stresemann (GFW) 4:26.97

Girls

4x100m: 8. MVL/NUC (S Hilbert, I Anderson, H Marzinske, Brit Sanders) 51.02

Class AA state meet

FINALS

WC discus: 1. Ben Mathiowetz (New Ulm) 23-10*

*Classified as Category 2 competitor