The Farmington boys track team qualified athletes for the state meet in eight different events and repeated as team champions at the 2009 Section 1AA Championships held May 28 and 30 at Lakeville South.
Seniors Josh Zitzmann and Josh Jackson led the parade to state, each qualifying in three events.
Zitzmann swept the 110- and 300-meter hurdles and ran a leg on the winning 4x200 relay team.
Jackson anchored the 4x200 relay, won the 200-meter dash and placed second in the 100-meter dash.
Two more seniors, sprinters Derek Waldbillig and Adam Sturm, joined
Jackson and Zitzmann on the 4x200 quartet that edged Lakeville South by
two-tenths of a second.
The Tigers also fared well in the field events. Senior Mike Amofah’s
winning long jump of 22 feet, 1 inch broke his own school record set
last week and junior thrower Logan Hussung met the state qualifying
standard in both the shot put and discus, finishing fourth in each.
Farmington coach Brian Helmstetter was elated with his team’s record
number of state qualifiers and said winning the team title was icing on
the cake.
“We wanted to send as many people to state as we possibly could and we
had some great performances,” he said. “When you look across the board
at the boys and girls and see we qualified sprinters, hurdlers,
distance runners, throwers, vaulters and jumpers ... that says a lot
about our athletes, our coaches and our program. Everyone contributed.
This is a big day for Farmington track.”
The state qualifiers were by no means the entire story, however.
Farmington athletes piled up several more top five finishes and a
couple of local entrants barely missed adding to the school record list
of state qualifiers.
The 4x800 meter relay team of Ryan Monroe, David Zitzmann, Levi Freetly
and Isaiah Rockett chopped four more seconds off its school record with
its second-place finish in 8:08.1. Two years ago, the record stood at
8:26.
To drop the time that far in two years is awesome,” Helmstetter said.
High jumper Jake Lippert cleared 6-2 and tied for the second highest jump but finished third based on misses.
Amofah and Josh Zitzmann each triple jumped over 43 feet and finished
third and fourth, respectively. The 4x400 relay team of Andrew Thomas,
Tyler Grubb, Freetly and Rockett finished the meet on a high note with
a gritty third-place effort.
The state meet will be held Friday and Saturday at Hamline University in St. Paul.
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