Luke Norman is shown at the far right in the photo above after placing ninth in the State Track Tournament in the discus competition. Eloise Blair finished 12th in the 100-meter high hurdles.

Luke Norman closed out his high school track career at Blue Earth Area by making it onto the podium in the discus competition at the State Track Meet.

The senior’s best toss at State was 139-9 to finish in ninth place and earn an All-State medal.

He is the first BEA track athlete to win a medal at State in throwing since Josh Johnson accomplished the feat in 2012.

Norman had his best throws during the preliminary round to earn his shot in the finals

The two other discus throwers coming out of Section 2A, Ethan Fischer of Maple River and Caleb Vancura of Jackson County Central, also earned medals at State.

In fact, Fischer won the event with a throw of 191-0, which was a personal record for the senior and over 26 feet farther then the second-place finisher.

Vancura, a junior, also had a personal record throw of 151-8 to finish fifth.

Norman graduates as BEA’s school-record holder in the discus with a distance of 148-2 which he threw at this season’s Section meet.

He also earned Big South All-Conference honors in both 2021 and 2022 and his performance at State marked the 100th Buccaneer event in school history (since 1991) to earn All-State honors.

“Hats off to Luke on a tremendous season and career,” BEA track coach Tom Plocker said.

Eloise Blair also competed at the State Track Meet after winning the 100-meter high hurdles at the Section 2A track meet.

Blair’s time in the preliminaries of the 100-meter high hurdles was 16.43 seconds. Although it was her best time of the year, it did not place her in the top-nine which was needed to advance to the finals. Her time was just .2 of a second behind the girl who finished in ninth place and put Blair in 12th place.

Still, Blair’s progression in the final three weeks of the season was remarkable.

“She completed her first race of the year at Sub-Sections, won her first competition of the season at Sections and cruised to a personal record time at State,” Plocker commented. “Eloise cemented her position as No. 4 all-time in the 100-meter high hurdles on the BEA Girls Outdoor Honor Roll. More impressively, she overcame some challenging health issues to perform her best at season’s end, and be an encouragement to everyone on how to flat-out persevere.”