Five athletes advance to Class AA State Track and Field Meet

Two individuals and one relay will be representing Tri-City United (TCU) at the Class AA State Track and Field Championships Friday, June 7 and Saturday, June 8 at St. Michael- Albertville High School.

Seventh grader Nyadak Ruei, eighth graders Carly Hartwig and Jillian Houn, freshman Kaitlyn Hartwig, and sophomore Guadalupe Lopez will compete against the best athletes in Class AA.

Ruei was one of 31 individuals who will compete for the Class AA high jump title. She cleared 5-feet, 1-inch which was the state standard which needed to be reached to automatically advance to State from the Section Meets. A total of 24 girls cleared the same height.

The top qualifier is Princeton sophomore Kyleigh Noble with a height of 5-feet, 6-inches, which was one inch better than the second best qualifier Detroit Lakes senior Grace Gunderson.

Hartwig will be returning to State in the 400-meter dash and has the No. 2 time among the 19 athletes who advanced in this event. Her time of 57.29 is .45 tenths behind the top qualifier, Monticello junior Brooke Hohenecker (56.85).

Lopez, Houn, and the Hartwigs will compete in the 4 x 200-meter relay. They are seeded 12th among the 16 teams entered with a time of 1:45.78. The No. 1 seed is in their preliminary heat and they qualified with a time of 1:40.99.

All of the TCU athletes will compete Friday morning. The 800-meter relay will run at 10:25 a.m., Hartwig will run at 11:28 a.m., and Ruei will compete in the high jump starting at 9 a.m.

If Hartwig and/or the relay advance, they would compete Saturday in the Class A State Finals.

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