Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Eli Salisbury tries to maintain his balance as he sprints towards the finish line during the 800 meters at the Class AA meet on Saturday at St. Michael-Albertville.

ST. MICHAEL — As the saying goes, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” Marshall senior Eli Salisbury took that message to heart at the Class AA meet on Saturday at St. Michael-Albertville High School.

In the final race of his high school career, Salisbury earned a ninth-place finish in the 800 meters and walked away with some hardware and a record. Salisbury recorded a time of 1:57.65, which broke the school record previously set by Grant VanKeulen (1:58.06) in 2011.

Salisbury said it was a fitting ending to his career at MHS.

“It’s great,” Salisbury said. “The goal was either get a medal or get a school record and [getting] both was even better.”

Marshall boys coach Dave Sample said it was an honor to be able to coach Salisbury throughout his time at MHS and felt he did a good job of making the right adjustments during the season to get himself to the state meet and finish strong.

“Having a quality athlete like Eli, it’s an honor,” coach Sample said. “Our section was really tough in distance this year so we had to do some evaluations to make sure we could get him out of the section and I think it was a good call moving him into the 800. He wanted to focus on the mile and 2-mile and that was really competitive out of our section so he had to change gears during the season so he could see his opportunity in the 800.

“He was great and right where you want an athlete of his caliber to do. His heat took off fast and that was probably a good thing for him; I know he wanted to probably maintain and hold back just a little bit but we saw that in his form coming down the stretch. He got a little out of control but with his experience was able to hold it together and it’s always great when you have a quality athlete like Eli. He’s been in this position before and there might be a little bit of nerves because you only have the one shot at it and that’s always a factor. He did a great job, got a school record and I’m happy for him.”

Salisbury said he realized around the 600-meter mark that he had a strong chance to win his heat and pushed himself into another gear.

“It felt slow the first 600 meters and then with 200 meters left, I was like, ‘I could take this,'” Salisbury said. “These guys are all just as good as me and worked just as hard to get here and if they worked slightly harder, I worked slightly harder.”

As Salisbury headed down the final stretch, he felt himself getting out of rhythm. He was able to maintain his balance and regain his form and place fourth in his heat, with just .45 seconds separating the top four spots in the heat.

“The last 100 meters, I took a little stumble almost and with 20 meters left it was either just fall and not finish or slow it down and maintain form,” Salisbury said. “That’s what I struggled with if anything was maintaining form at that last 100, so I need to work on that.”

Salisbury added he is extremely grateful for his teammates over the years and his coaches for helping him get to where he is today and knows the success of the program will continue next season.

“When I got fifth with those guys in the 4×800 [in 2019], they were awesome to train with for two or three years,” Salisbury said. “This year, Owen [Holmberg] stepped it up and became a good training partner. The coaches are just phenomenal. Being from such a small school and getting someone out to compete against these guys, I know they’re going to do awesome next year when they get into a class with people their size.”

Coach Sample said Salisbury did a great job of being a leader for their team and knows they have athletes who are ready to step into new leadership roles next season.

“Eli had that great team that brought him up and he definitely provided some of that same leadership. He stepped into a great role there; our distance really carried us throughout the season with Eli leading the pack,” coach Sample said. “It’s going to be great because we’ve got those kids now that are going to step in and hopefully fill those shoes and we want to add a few more people with the heart that he has to show everybody else how it’s done.”