Addison Armstrong is all smiles as she clears the bar in the pole vault competition.

Blue Earth Area’s Addison Armstrong and the boys’ 4×100-meter relay team each qualified for the Class A Minnesota State Track and Field Meet which was held at St. Michael-Albertville High School on June 8-9. The top-two places, plus any competitor who meets the State standard, advance to the meet at St. Michael-Albertville.

Look for results from the State Meet in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.

Armstrong and the 4×100-meter relay team of Nick Nelson, Gage Barker, Jack Norman and Jacob Grandgenett both earned their way to State at the Section 2A meet held at Mankato West High School on June 3.

Armstrong earned her trip with a first-place finish in the pole vault. Although she won the event, she struggled in her opening vaults and was on the verge of being eliminated early.

She entered the competition at a height of nine feet, two inches and failed to clear the bar on her first two attempts. Down to her final attempt at that height, she cleared the bar to continue on in the competition.

The qualifying standard in the pole vault is 10-02 and Armstrong, along with Lauren Mutschler of Maple River and Riley Sater of Le Sueur-Henderson, all cleared that height to qualify for State. However, when the bar was raised six inches to a height of 10-08, only Armstrong was able to vault over the bar successfully and earn the top spot.

The 4×100-meter relay team had a bit of drama in their race also. When Jacob Grandgenett took the handoff of the baton from Jack Norman for the final 100 meters of the race, it appeared he was in fourth place. However, a burst of acceleration quickly had Grandgenett in second place and he held his position to earn the Bucs a second-place finish with a time of 44.93.

“The guys continue to improve and had their season-best time at the Section meet,” BEA head track coach Donna Nawrocki said.

While Armstrong and the boys’ 4×100-meter relay team were the only BEA athletes to qualify for State, a number of other Buccaneers achieved All-Section honors by finishing in sixth place or higher.

Armstrong had a third place finish in the 400-meter dash with a time of 62.02 and was a member of the 4×200-meter relay team, along with Eloise Blair, Tailor Douglas and Kate Armon, who finished third with a time of 1:52.15.

Blair, who came out of nowhere to win the 100-meter high hurdles at the Section Meet last year, almost pulled off another huge upset this year.

After barely qualifying at the Sub-Section meet with a seventh place finish this year, she won the first heat at Sections and qualified for the finals.

Blair then recorded her fastest time of the season in the finals with a time of 16.88. Unfortunately, her time was seven-hundredths of a second behind the girl who finished second so Blair took third place.

Chloe Groe had fourth-place finishes in both the shot put and the discus events.

Her mark in the shot put was 33-06 and her distance in the discus was 107-00.

The boys’ 4×200-meter relay team, which has the same members as the 4×100-meter relay team, finished fourth with a time of 1:33.28.

Grandgenett completed the 200-meter dash in 23.61 to finish in sixth place.

Douglas also placed in the pole vault when she cleared the bar at 8-02 to take sixth place.

Other Bucs competing at Sections included Cory Kitchel in the 100-meter hurdles, Aubrey Woodwick in the 3200-meter run, Norman in both the discus and shot put and Austin Stauffer in the long jump and triple jump.