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| Justin Hyytinen |
The junior speedster, who had the 12th fastest regular season time among the 174 state qualifiers, stayed with the lead pack through the first mile-plus before finishing 83rd at the state finals held Saturday at St. Olaf College in Northfield.
His finishing time 16:53.4 over the 5000-meter course was a full minute above the 15:53 he clocked in placing runner-up at the Section 1AA Championships the previous week.
"Justin didn't run as well as we hoped," coach Lisa Lippold said. "He knew going in to the race he didn't feel right and about a mile and half in you could see he wasn't feeling good.
"He had an amazing season and it was an accomplishment for him to return to the state meet. Overall this season he dropped 18 seconds from his personal record time that he ran at state a year ago....We are looking forward to seeing what the track season is going to bring."
Earlier this season Hyytinen, a consistent medal winner in high quality meets, became just the third Tiger ever to win an individual Missota Conference championship.
