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By Mike Shaughnessy

Sports

Local athletes display their talent at Elite MeetPublished May 5, 2016 at 3:26 pm

Eagles’ McKeag starts his comeback with shot put victory

Apple Valley senior KieranMcKeag launches the shot putat the Hamline Elite Meet.Photo by Mike Shaughnessy

A knee injury sustained during the section football playoffs last fall cast doubt as to whetherKieran McKeag would be 100 percent this spring for his state championship defense in theshot put – or whether he would be able to compete at all.

Last Friday, McKeag made it clear that he has no intention of being a spectator. The AppleValley senior won the shot put at the Hamline Elite Meet at Hamline University, only four daysafter he was cleared to resume throwing. Earlier in the week he threw far enough in the shot

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and discus in a South Suburban Conference meet against Eagan to earn entry into the EliteMeet, which brings together the top performers from the first month of the high school trackand field season.

His winning shot put of 56 feet, 10 inches edged Lakeville South junior Eric Rousemiller byhalf an inch. Five throwers from the South Suburban Conference placed in the top 11 in theshot at the Elite Meet. McKeag also placed eighth in discus with a throw of 159-6.

“I feel pretty good; I’d probably say I’m about 90 percent,” said McKeag, who tore a kneeligament during a football playoff game against Park of Cottage Grove on Oct. 20, 2015. “Theysay it takes a year before you’re fully recovered, but I feel like I’m just getting warmed up.”

McKeag’s winning throw in the 2015 state Class AA meet was 59-8.5. He holds the Apple Valleyschool record of 62 feet and is aiming for the Minnesota all-time record of 65-8 by Andover’sThomas Anderson in 2012. McKeag said he believes both of those records are in play for himdespite his late start to the season.

“I’m not making perfect throws but I’m not that far off,” he said. “With some more practiceand conditioning, I definitely think I can throw farther.”

In addition to Rousemiller’s second-place finish, other SSC throwers placing in the

Eagan’s Nate Nguon (left) and Rosemount’sTrevor Otterdahl greet a fellow thrower duringthe awards ceremony for boys shot put at theHamline Elite Meet. Photo by Mike Shaughnessy

shot at the Elite Meet were Rosemount junior Trevor Otterdahl (sixth, 53-2.25), Eagan seniorNate Nguon (seventh, 52-9.5) and Burnsville senior Andy Samuel (11th, 48-7).

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Otterdahl placed second in the discus with a throw of 170-2, more than 13 feet farther thanthe throw that got him into the Elite Meet. Jake Kubiatowicz of North St. Paul won the eventwith 176-0. Apple Valley’s McKeag and Burnsville’s Samuel (156-10) were eighth and ninth.

Eastview senior Natalie Manders, the defending state Class AA champion in girls discus,finished third in that event at the Elite Meet with a throw of 146-2. St. Francis junior AmandaAnderson threw 150-0 to win the event. Manders also placed third in the shot put with 42-5.25.

Elite Meet highlights

• Team scores aren’t kept at the Elite Meet, but if they were Lakeville South senior

Lakeville South senior Jocie Johnsonplaced in three events at the HamlineElite Meet. Photo by MikeShaughnessy

Jocie Johnson could have put the Cougar girls in the running by qualifying for three events.She placed fifth in the high jump, clearing 5-2, finished sixth in the 300-meter hurdles in 46.51seconds and took seventh in the 100 hurdles in 15.83.

The South girls’ highest finish in the Elite Meet was third in the 4×100 relay, with Kyah Orr,Sydney Klausler, Lilly Terry-Ohland and Abby Mullenbach running a season-best 50.29.

Jaimie McNamee threw the discus 128-10 to place sixth. Patty Jo English was 10th in the 800

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in 2 minutes, 20.08 seconds. Brianne Brewster finished 14th in the 1,600 in 5:20.48.

• Lakeville North sent more athletes to the Elite Meet than it has in a number of years,Panthers coach Todd Endersbe said. Two of them had top-three finishes – Evan El-Halawaniin the boys 300 hurdles (second, 39.14) and Kyle Meyer in the pole vault (third, 14-4). El-Halawani was .07 from a school record in the hurdles race. Meyer made three attempts at 14-10, which would have beaten his school pole vault record by 2 inches.

North’s boys were fourth in the 4×100 relay with juniors Evan Erickson, Alexander Hunter,Wade Sullivan running the first three legs and senior Riley Grim anchoring. Their time was43.71. Patrick Koss, Erickson, Sullivan and Hunter were eighth in the 4×200 relay in 1:32.27.

The five sprinters who ran the 4×100 and 4×200 all are first-year track and field athletes. “Tobe that competitive at the Elite Meet with very little experience at this level is ratherimpressive,” Endersbe said. The Panthers also competed at the Elite Meet without perhapstheir top sprinter, Gandi Kelly, who is recovering from an injury.

Lakeville North was sixth in the girls 4×800 relay at the Elite Meet with Ella Larson, BrookeAnderson, Emma Drangstveit and Danielle Bellino finishing in 9:28.48, less than three secondsoff the school record. Madeline Moorhouse, a junior, threw the shot put 39-7 to finish sixth.Junior Temi Carda was ninth in the long jump with 16-7.

• Burnsville was Elite Meet runner-up in the boys 4×100 relay. Senior Kelling Kain teamedwith juniors Alex Garlington, Aguda Oluwaseyi and Steph Olson Jr. to finish in 43.55. Wayzatawon the event in 43.21. The Blaze was seeded second in the relay behind Eden Prairie, whichplaced fifth in the actual race.

Olson also placed 15th in the 100 dash preliminaries in 11.44 and was ninth in the long jump at20-11. Blaze senior Sarah Gigstad was ninth in girls discus with a throw of 122-6.

• Farmington placed ninth in a competitive boys 4×400 relay that saw a difference of fewerthan three seconds between first place and ninth. Seniors Caleb Bray, Tyler Schafer, BenSorenson and Devon Webb finished in 3:26.76; Wayzata’s winning time was 3:24.23. Bray andWebb are returnees from a Tigers relay that finished second at state in the 4×400 last season.

Farmington seventh-grader Anna Fenske finished fifth in the girls 3,200 in 10:49.05. EmmaRecord, a junior, was 12th in the 100 dash preliminaries in 13.04.

• Two Eagan girls were top-five finishers at the Elite Meet. Sophomore Natalie Windels wasfourth in the 100 hurdles in 15.20 and senior Maddie Gourley placed fifth in the 400 in 57.63.