Prep athletes of the week: Farmington's Emma Frost knew she got it all with walk-off title winner

This was the stuff that every kid dreams about. Extra innings. Tie game. State championship on the line. And Frost, a sophomore third baseman, had a first-pitch fastball from Anoka ace pitcher Amber Elliott headed her way.

"We knew coming in that she likes to throw a first-pitch strike, and I was ready for it," Frost said. "I knew it was coming."

The powerful Frost, who had narrowly missed a home run in the second inning, didn't miss this time, slugging a walk-off, two-out home run in the 10th inning to give Farmington its first softball state championship, 1-0 over Anoka.

Frost said she knew as soon as she connected that the game was over. "Sometimes, you can just feel it," she said. "I felt that one. It felt great."

Frost said she and her teammates never doubted themselves, even as the game went into extra innings.

"We just refused to lose," she said.

After finishing second in 2016, the junior took the next step and defeated teammate Joe Mairs 6-4, 6-2 to win the Class 1A singles championship. Two days earlier, Barker and Mairs were a part of the Blake team that won the Class 1A team championship.

The senior won her third consecutive Class 1A triple jump championship Saturday with a jump of 40 feet, 2¾ inches, a state record had it not been ruled wind-aided. She also finished second in the long jump and second in the 100 meter dash.

The senior set the tone for the Class 2A 3,200-meter run at the state meet, going out strong and increasing his pace as he ran. The strategy worked as Miley ran from the pack to win in a time of 9:10.82, more than 10 seconds ahead of the runner-up.

The senior concluded a season in which he was ranked No. 1 from the outset by winning the Class 2A singles championship. He rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the third-set tiebreaker, winning six consecutive points to defeat Rochester Mayo's Sebastian Vile 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

The eighth-grade distance-running wunderkind concluded a remarkably successful year by winning the Class 1A 1,600 and 3,200 meter championships at the track and field state meet. She was the Class 1A cross-country champion last fall.

JIM PAULSEN