The Star Tribune’s Cassidy Hettesheimer and David La Vaque will lead you through the second day of the track and field state championships at St. Michael-Albertville High School. Check back often. Coverage of Thursday’s Class 3A and 1A competition is here.
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3,200 becomes a two-girl race
10:15 a.m.
When you break a Class 2A record and come in second, you know it was a competitive race.
In the final lap of the girls 3,200-meter race Friday, Hutchinson senior Isabelle Schmitz broke away from Monticello sophomore Isabel Mahoney to defend her 2023 state title. Both Schmitz and Mahoney surpassed the previous class record of 10 minutes, 34.40 seconds, set in 2022. Schmitz ran in that race two years ago, too, and wanted to break 10:30.
Mahoney said that when the record was read aloud on the PA system before the race, she thought, “ ‘I’m going for it.’ I gave it my all the last 400 and luckily I pulled away with a state record— and got second,’ ” she said, with a laugh. “I’ve been looking forward to this race all season.”
Schmitz finished 10:24.14, and Mahoney ran 10:32.49. The pair raced ahead of the pack, lapping multiple runners, until Schmitz passed Mahoney heading into the last 400 meters.
“I’m just so thrilled that this was a great way to end out my senior year,” Schmitz said. “I knew I had the second [-fastest qualifying] time, [Mahoney] had the first time going in. So I knew that it was just going to be the two of us out there. And so I just wanted to stick together and run it fast together and not worry about what’s happening behind us.”
Macy Hanson, a junior from Fairmont, led the rest of the pack in a sprint to the finish, with a third-place time of 10:53.04.