The good news is that was it when it came to negatives as the record-setting quartet got another first-place finish on the year during New Ulm’s first full track and field invite of the season.

The relay team played a role in helping the New Ulm boys track and field team take third out of seven teams overall at the invite with 78 points, third behind Redwood Valley (153) and Marshall (99). Taking fourth for the boys was Windom Area (60), followed by Minnesota Valley Lutheran/New Ulm Cathedral (56), Tri-City United (41) and Sibley East (36).

On the girls’ side of the invite, TCU took first (159), followed by Marshall (112), Redwood Valley (83), MVL/NUC (61), New Ulm (49), Sibley East (44) and Windom Area (15).

The New Ulm boys 4×100 team turned in a top time of 45.71 Tuesday to finish ahead of MVL/NUC’s team of Chase Tweit, Trace Gunderson, Ben Riesgraf and Levi Johnson (47.92) and seven other relay teams.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Jesalyn Skoglund competes in the girls high jump Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

For Friese, Ocampo, Barie and Portner, Tuesday was far from what they had in mind. The team has high expectations, however, after breaking a 34-year-old New Ulm High School record in the boys 4×100 on April 10 at the Mankato West Outdoor Opener. On April 10, the team ran a 43.79.

However, Tuesday saw a strong start and less-than-ideal finish when Dain Barie’s final handoff to Portner took a little longer to cleanly hand off.

“I think maybe I need to take off earlier or Dain needed to say stick,” Portner said.

And while getting faster is the ultimate goal with each race, Dain Barie said it doesn’t always end up helping achieve the expected results.

“We’re both getting faster and we have to get used to be running in season,” Dain Barie said. “Not really early season anymore.”

Photo by Brady Dennis New Ulm’s LenDale Dunmars completes in the 110-hurdles on Tuesday during a track and field invite at New Ulm High School.

Friese, the senior of the junior-dominated team, said he had high hopes for Tuesday’s race because of how fluid the team is during practice.

“Watching their handoff made me a little bit angry, but other than that in practice our handoffs are really fluid and perfect and we’re like, ‘OK, that’s a PR tomorrow,'” Isaac Friese said. “So not getting it today was a little bit disappointing.”

Ocampo said with several meets left the rest of the season, he’s hoping to see his team complete in the true team state meet.

“I think at the beginning of the year, our goal was Hamline, but now that we got beat out by Orono by like .6 seconds, I think we set our goal now to getting to true team state and get to state,” he said. “I think we’ll do really well at state.”

AREA BOYS RECAP

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran/New Ulm Cathedral’s Tucker Kohls leaps over a hurdle during the boys 300 hurdles on Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

Portner also took fifth for the New Ulm boys in the 100 (11.5), while George Gag took fourth in the 400 (53.75), Barie took fourth in the 800 (2:05.91) and Michael Hames took fifth in the 800 (2:11.89). Also for the New Ulm boys, LenDale Dunmars took fifth in the 110-meter hurdles (19.34) and fourth in the 300 hurdles (50.49), while the boys 4×200 relay team of Portner, Ocampo, Hunter Heil and Gag took first (1:36.85). New Ulm’s Jonathan Wolkow took third in the discus (124-11.5, PR), while teammate Brooks Miner took fourth (123-3). Also for the New Ulm boys, Preston Holberg took fourth in the high jump (5-8), while Gag and Joseph Wise tied for fifth (5-8) in the high jump. New Ulm’s Samuel Ibberson took fourth in the boys shot put (40-2.5), while Holberg took third in the long jump (19-4.75).

The MVL/NUC boys saw Jeremy Feistner take fifth in the 1,600 (4:57.26) and fifth in the 3,200 (10:59.87), while Tucker Kohls took second in the 110 hurdles (17.28) and first in the 300 hurdles (44.84), Benjamin Rossow took first in the discus with a PR throw of 128 feet and Trace Gunderson took fifth in the triple jump (36-6.5). Emmanuel Edwards took fifth in the shot put (39-5), while Levi Johnson took fifth in the long jump (18-7.5).

Sibley East’s Gavin Pomplun took third in the 800 (2:05.2), while Julio Alejandro took third in the 3,200 (10:41.15), Montgomery Halquist took third in the 110 hurdles (18.43), Tanner Johnson took third in the 300 hurdles (49.52) and the boys 4×800 relay team of Alejandro, Mausten Krueger, Gage Horstman and Pomplun took second (8:51.23).

AREA GIRLS RECAP

For the New Ulm girls, Violet Beranke took fourth in the 100 (13.38), while Kaelyn Eikanger took third in the 400 (1:04.91) and Amelia Hinkle took fourth in the 3,200 (13:50.98). Also for the New Ulm girls, the 4×800 relay ream of Hinkle, Grace Barie, Mazy Kitzberger and Megan Gauert took second (11:03.02), while Ellie Dake took third in the shot put (32-9), Jesalyn Skoglund took second in the high jump (4-10) and Sophia Berger took fifth in the triple jump (32-2.5).

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sibley East’s Adilynn Odenthal and Minnesota Valley Lutheran/New Ulm Cathedral’s Claudia Weisensel compete in the girls 300-meter hurdles Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

For the MVL/NUC girls, Kamryn Davey took first in the 100 hurdles (15.92), while Claudia Weisensel took third in the 100 hurdles (16.55) and second in the 300 hurdles (50.7). Rebekah Vlieger took third in the 300 hurdles (53.75), while the girls 4×200 relay team of Olivia Hammer, Avery Hopp, Juliet Langsjoen and Tiphany Dos Santos took second (1:57.45). Jennarae Bates took fourth in the shot put (32-1) and third in the discus (97-9, PR), while Claire Beranek took fifth in the high jump (4-8), while Davey took fourth in the triple jump (33-0.5).

For Sibley East, Adilynn Odenthal took fourth in the 100 hurdles (17.18) and fifth in the 300 hurdles (54.16), while Abigail Kuehn took second in the shot put (35-3) and first in the discus (109-9).