Eighth-grader Wolfgram wins two distance races in Class 1A

Tierney Wolfgram would prefer to "run brave" more often than she runs scared, but both worked for her this weekend.

On Friday, the eighth-grader from Math and Science Academy, a charter school in Woodbury, won the girls' 3,200-meter race in 10 minutes, 41.84 seconds in the Class 1A state track and field meet at Hamline University.

She said that one was her favorite race of the year because she normally gets nervous when a competitor closes in on her. But when one did so in the third lap, she held her own: "That was the real victory."

Saturday, Wolfgram immediately jumped ahead in the girls' 1,600 and stayed in front with no apparent challenger. During the race, she decided not to look behind her around the track's curves, something she normally does. She finished in 5:05.

Wolfgram, who won the state cross-country title in Class 1A last year, said she didn't set a personal record in the 1,600 because her legs "weren't responding" as she's used to a day after the 3,200.

"I came here to win, but I also wanted to go for time," Wolfgram said.

"That's OK, there's other races for time."

Minneapolis North's T'Nia Riley came into the state meet wanting to break her class record in the girls' 100, which she set last year. She thought she'd break it in Friday's preliminaries, and she nearly did so.

But when she actually surpassed the record time in Saturday's finals, she didn't believe it. "I thought that I wasn't even getting it," said Riley, a junior.

She actually didn't get it. Her time of 11.79 was wind-aided and won't count as a record, but it placed her well ahead of her closest competitors, Minneapolis Edison's Jia and Jada Lewis.

Riley didn't know what to attribute the success to. Whatever it was, she seemed to have it again in the 200. The order of the top three was the same in that race, which Riley won in 24.41. That time surpassed a 30-year class record but was also wind-aided.

The Lewis sisters helped set a Class 1A record as part of Edison's 4x100 relay, which won in 48.18 and also included Linda Senaphanh and Cayliah Rush. Edison won the girls' team title with 48 points, eight more than second-place Belle Plaine.

A day after winning the shot put title, Bertha-Hewitt/Verndale's Samuel Moore placed first in discus.

The junior threw 180-6 in the finals, just over 15 feet farther than second-place finisher Mitchell Weber of St. Clair.

Matthew Sill, a Blake senior, placed third at 161-10.

Reid Pierzinski of Pequot Lakes won both the 110 and 300 hurdles.

Staples-Motley senior Millie Klefsaas finished a disappointing sixth in the girls' 100 hurdles, which she won the year before.