Boys Track: 4x800 sets school mark; 5th at State

(l to r) Tyler Lerbakken, Justin Hyytinen, Devon Webb, Jared Wolt

In what has become an almost regular occurrence the past few weeks the Tigers established a new school record in the 4x800 relay on Saturday.

The big difference was this one came on the biggest stage of Minnesota high school track, the Class AA Championships at Hamline University.

The speedy quartet of Jared Wolt, Devon Webb, Tyler Lerbakken and Justin Hyytinen placed fifth in a talent-rich field, finishing in 7:57.89, lowering their own school mark of 8:03 in the process.

Coach Brian Helmstetter said his team's goal was to get under the 8:00 minute mark and offered the record finishing time could have been even lower had the race been run in one heat.

"This was the only relay run in two heats," he said. "Based on section times Stillwater and Eden Prairie (the champion and runner-up) ran in the first heat. If we would have been in with them we would have been pushed even more...I'd like to see this race run one one heat here."

(l to r) Mason Auge, Ryan Parco, Tommy Weigel, Tanner Grubb

The 4x800 wasn't the only Tiger relay team to place at state. The 4x200 foursome (above) of Mason Auge. Ryan Parco, Tommy Weigel and Tanner Grubb that grabbed the last qualifying spot in the preliminaries clocked 1:30.43 to place seventh.

"Their goal coming in was to make the finals, so to finish seventh is impressive," Helmstetter said.

The 4x400 foursome of Lerbakken, Hyytinen, Weigel and Grubb (bottom of page) turned in a ninth place effort in 3:28.37, six seconds slower than it ran in the prelims.

Hyytinen was the only Tiger to run as an individual at state, placing 14th in the 1600-meter run in a time of 4:23.58.

Farmington scored nine points in the meet, ranking it 37th among 63 schools registering points.

(l to r) Justin Hyytinen, Tyler Lerbakken, Tanner Grubb, Tommy Weigel