Independent file photo Canby/Minneota’s Grace Drietz reacts after winning the 1600 meters at the Class A meet on Friday at St. Michael-Albertville.

ST. MICHAEL — When the starter’s pistol went off to signify the start of the 1600 meter race at the Class A meet on Friday at St. Michael-Albertville High School, Canby/Minneota’s Grace Drietz had a plan: find the leader and stay with her.

Drietz stuck to that game plan, narrowly edging out Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda’s Morgan Gehl by .26 seconds (5:00.45 for Drietz, 5:00.71 for Gehl) to capture her first state championship.

The junior wasn’t done there, though. Nearly an hour later, Drietz competed in the 800 meters and found herself in another tight battle down the stretch, this time with Gehl and Zumbrota-Mazeppa’s Katrina Sortland. Once again, Drietz was able to make a late move and pass both runners and took first place with a time of 2:17.36 for her second state championship on the day. Sortland took second with a time of 2:17.87, followed by Gehl in third with a time of 2:20.29.

“Coming down the stretch, I just thought, ‘I’m so close now, I just have to keep going,'” Drietz said. “And when I passed those two girls, I was super excited.”

Canby/Minneota coach Sara Hemish said Drietz did a great job of executing their approach with each race.

“Grace is a very dedicated and smart runner,” Hemish said. “After sections we wanted to have her keep right with Morgan because in the 1600 at sections Morgan won, so we told her whoever the leader was to follow them and stay there and make your move when you’re ready and she executed it beautifully.”

Drietz said it was an awesome feeling to finish the season not only at the state meet competing against some of the best athletes, but also to earn a pair of medals as a result.

“It was pretty awesome,” Drietz said. “I worked hard for it and it was a good feeling, especially after not having track last year.”

Drietz added she really pushed herself to a higher level this season and was pleased to see her hard work pay off.

“I always want to work as hard as I can and I really pushed myself this year,” Drietz said. “Although the meets were way smaller during the season, it was cool to see my times get faster.”

Drietz later competed in her third event of the day, the 4×400 meter relay along with teammates RyAnn Hansen, Claire Stoks and Braelyn Merritt. While they just missed out on reaching the podium with an 11th-place time of 4:15.33, Drietz said they gained a lot of experience and they’re ready to come back next season. Hansen was a junior while Stoks was an eighth-grader and Merritt was a freshman this year.

“We were pretty bummed [about missing the podium], but we knew that we will all be back,” Drietz said. “This year we had to figure out who would be on the relay, so now that we have a team, we’re excited to work hard and hopefully make it back to state.”

Josephson, Bruns

also medal

Drietz wasn’t the only Canby/Minneota competitor to earn a medal at the state meet. Junior AJ Josephson ran in both the 400 and 200 meters while junior Aidyn Bruns competed in the high jump.

In the 400, Josephson earned a second-place finish with a time of 50.03 seconds. Kyler Bade of Plainview-Elgin-Millville took first with a time of 49.63 seconds. In the 200, Josephson took 15th with a time of 23.40 seconds. Ethan Lebrija of Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta took first with a time of 22.30 seconds.

“With the 400, my goal was to run a 49 [seconds] which is what I ran at sections but I wasn’t able to get quite that, but I still ended up in the Top 3,” Josephson said.

Going into next year, Josephson said he’s looking forward to spending his senior season with his teammates and hopes he can make a repeat trip to the state meet.

“Overall it was a fun season and I’m looking forward to next year especially since it’ll be my senior year,” Josephson said. “Hopefully I can make it back in the both the 400 and 200 and also bring a relay team to state as well as beat some of the records at Canby/Minneota.”

Bruns was able to find her way to the podium with a ninth-place height of 5’2″. Annandale’s Nyalaam Jok took first with a height of 6′.

“Throughout the season, I set a goal of getting higher heights and once I reached 5’2” which is the qualifying height for state, I wanted to try to get to 5’4“, but I was able to consistently jump at 5’2” and consistency was what I was looking for,” Bruns said.

Hemish said she was proud of the way her athletes competed this season and is looking forward to seeing what they can accomplish as a group next year.

“All of our athletes did really well; we didn’t get a season last year, so I was super proud of them and they all pretty much performed how we expected them to in terms of times and heights,” Hemish said. “Success breeds success and we had a lot of athletes who were close to getting to state this year so I’m hoping this year shows what can be done to make it and do well if you work hard.”