Temperatures hovering around the 50 degree mark combined with rain and wind to make conditions less than ideal for the athletes participating in the finals of the State Track Meet on Saturday, June 6.

Blue Earth Area junior Nate Carr handled the weather and used a strong finish to claim third place in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 41.3.

“I was surprised the track wasn’t slippery, as wet as it was,” says Carr. “I was looking for a better time but with the weather and track conditions as they were, I was happy to get a medal.”

Athletes and spectators alike were able to see their breath at times during the late afternoon meet.

The athletes would warm up inside a building and then an official would lead them out to the track and their starting positions.

Courtney Grandgenett

The running event participants would stretch a little more before removing their warm ups and placing them in a big plastic bag to keep their clothes dry while they completed their race.

Once their race was completed the athletes went to a tent in the center of the infield to get back into their dry warm ups

BEA’s Kate Hassing earned a place on the medal stand with an eighth-place finish in the 400 meter dash — finishing with a time of 1:00.37.

Hassing had the fifth fastest qualifying time (59.3) and was running strong in the finals as she battled for third place with a hundred meters to go, before fading to eighth place.

“I cramped up coming out of the last turn and wasn’t able to finish as strong as I wanted,” explains Hassing.

Kate Hassing

Freshman Courtney Grandgenett made her first appearance at the state meet and clocked a time of 5:39.68 to finish in 14th place in the 1,600-meter run.

Senior Jake Lee tossed a personal best throw of 47 feet, 6 1/2 inches to place 10th in the shot put.

United South Central’s Ciara Christenson closed out her high school track career by placing in three different events.

She opened her day with a third-place finish in the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 16.39.

Next she ran the 300-meter low hurdles in a time of 45.99 that gave her a second-place finish.

Nate Carr

Christenson closed out her day by teaming up with Hannah Goemann, Brianna Gormley and Taylor Allis to snare fifth-place in the 4 x 400 relay with a time of 4:09.15.

The USC foursome of Matt Wood, Tom Allis, Riley Swearingen and Jordan Haroldson ran the 4 x 800 relay in 8:29.20 to claim fifth place for the USC boys track team.

USC's Ciara Christenson