Track: Hyytinen, Grubb shine at wet state track

Justin Hyytinen (photo by Jim Lindquist)

The weather outside was frightful but the performances of Tigers Justin Hyytinen and Tanner Grubb were delightful at the 2014 Class AA Track and Field Championships held Saturday at soggy Hamline University.

Junior Hyytinen and senior Grubb had their hands in all 25 team points as Farmington finished in a three-way tie with North St. Paul and Moorhead for ninth place in the final team standings.

The Tigers qualified for the state meet in nine events and earned points in four.

"Justin and Tanner were outstanding against the state's best," coach Brian Helmstetter said.  "I would say we had a good state meet.

"There were a couple of places where we could have done better, but overall it was good."

Hyytinen started his busy state run with a seventh place finish in Thursday's 3200-meter run, finishing in 9:22.46.

Tanner Grubb (photo by Jim Lindquist)

The same day, Grubb made the 400-meter dash finals with a school record time of 48.88 and the 4x400 relay team of Nehemiah Rockett, Ryan Parco, Devon Webb and Grubb set another school mark of 3:21.74 in qualifying for Saturday's finals.

Hyytinen placed third in the 1600-meter run on Saturday in a star-studded field that saw the top six finishers hit the line in a span of fewer than three seconds.

Grubb added fourth place points in the open 400, slicing 06. of a second off his school record in the process with a finishing time of 48.82.

Hyytinen stepped in to join Rockett, Webb and Grubb for the 4x400 relay final and erased Thursday's school mark with a third place effort in 3:20.97.


Other state meet results:
Grubb finished 12th in the 200-meter dash preliminaries in 22.46 and did not qualify for the finals
The 4x800 relay team of Jared Wolt, Alex Hart, Sean Dougherty and Webb finished 15th in 8:25.02
The 4x100 relay team of Caleb Bray, Jack Erickson, Sean McHenry and Mason Auge did not qualify for the finals.
The 4x200 relay team of Auge, Bray, Erickson and Parco did not qualify for the finals
 CJ Wynings did not qualify for the finals in the discus.

Tiger Girls Results
Farmington scored a single team point at the state meet on a ninth place finish in the 4x200 relay by the team of Isabelle Ferm, Emma Record, Jennifer Miller and Megan Graham.

The 4x800 relay foursome of Sofia Chadwick, Lauren Peterson, Morgan Mach and Alicia Hett ranked 15th in 9:42.46.

Farmington's 4x400 team of Hett, Miller, Graham and Ferm ran a 3:59.08, three spots out of qualifying for the finals.

Ferm triple jumped 35-7.25 and finished in 15th place.

"We competed hard but it just wasn't there for us today," coach Tom Hart said.

"If there was a disappointment it came in the 4x400 where I thought we would run around a 3:57 in the prelims but it didn't happen. If we had gotten to the finals, I thing we would have had a shot a top five finish."

Farmington placed second in the 4x400 at the 2013 state meet.