Prep athletes of the week

Never sure how he's going to run until the race is underway, the sophomore was feeling particularly strong about a mile and a half into the large-school race at Saturday's Milaca Mega Meet. So he did something he's never done before: Dado broke away from the pack and ran with the leaders.

Turns out that being a front-runner agrees with him. He pulled away to win the Class 4A division of the nation's largest high school meet, covering the rolling hills of Milaca's Stone's Throw Golf Course in a 5,000-meter time of 16 minutes, 9.7 seconds.

"I've never tried that before," Dado said. "I was feeling good, and I wanted to go out strong. It was kind of scary because I kept thinking someone was coming up behind me."

No one did. He won the first high school race of his career by more than a dozen seconds ahead of the runner-up.

"This is the fourth year I've run in this race," Dado said. "I know the layout, and I like the fact that it has a couple of hills but not a lot of big ones. It worked out pretty well."

The senior captain was the dominant swimmer in a victory over Osseo last week. She placed first in four events, winning the 200 individual medley and the 200 butterfly in pool-record times and anchored the winning 200 and 400 relay teams.

While Saturday's Apple Valley Eagle Invite wasn't as large at the coinciding Milaca Mega Meet, its quality was just as good. King, a senior, beat teammate Lizzy Heil by 3 seconds to take first place with a 4K time of 14:46.3.

The senior quarterback is now 3-0 as a starter. He won two games as a junior before breaking his collarbone. He returned to the starting lineup Friday, completing 17 of 21 passes for 207 yards and touchdown in a 28-19 upset of Minnetonka.

The senior showed why she is the No. 4-ranked runner in Class 1A, winning the small-school division at the Milaca Mega-Meet in a 4,000-meter time of 14:59.5, the only runner in the race under 15 minutes. Trinity won the team portion with four runners finishing among the top nine.

The Skippers had an impressive week, defeating three ranked teams — Edina, Wayzata and Hopkins — over a seven-day stretch. The senior outside hitter contributed mightily to the streak, leading the team in kills, ace serves, hitting percentages and digs.

JIM PAULSEN