Photos by Sam Thiel Marshall's Bryce Paulsen leaps over a hurdle in the 110-meter hurdles at the Class AA Championships on Friday at Hamline University in St. Paul.

ST. PAUL – Bryce Paulsen knew he wanted to put it all on the line when he stepped foot onto the track for what was potentially his final race of his career.

The Marshall senior battled his way to the end, ultimately coming away with a 10th place finish in the 300-meter hurdles and an 18th place finish in the 110-meter hurdles on Friday morning at the Class AA championships at Hamline University.

Paulsen said it was a goal since the beginning of the season to make it to the state meet and is extremely grateful and blessed to be surrounded by his coaches, teammates and family to help him make it there.

“It’s awesome; it was a goal right away at the beginning of the year to make it here and I wouldn’t be able to do it without my coaches, my teammates and my family and everyone,” Paulsen said. “I’m just so blessed to be able to be here.”

Paulsen started his morning in the 110-meter hurdle event, where he finished with a time of 15.48 seconds. He then would compete in the 300-meter hurdles, where he ran a time of 40.43 seconds.

Although his times were short of the qualifying mark for the final day, Paulsen said he wouldn’t have had an opportunity to compete for his goal if he hadn’t set it in the first place.

“It was a goal to make it to finals, but it didn’t go according to plan,” Paulsen said. “But I can’t complain, just having those goals, even if you don’t make them, it’s important to have them.”

Paulsen also offered some advice to his fellow teammates: work hard and if your mind is in the right place, anything’s possible.

“You’ve just got to set your mind to it, you can do a lot of things if your mind is in the right place,” Paulsen said. “Just sticking through it, working on the workouts, everything. The offseason is big too, get in the weight room, all of that stuff helps.”

The Tigers also have a pair of relay teams competing at the state meet, with the boys and girls 4×800 teams participating this morning.