Last month I was covering the Youth Day Out event at the University of Minnesota when former Apple Valley track star KYLIE
PETERSONlet me in on an amazing accomplishment by the women’s 4×100 meter relay team.
“We set a school record,” the senior-to-be calmly said. “We also qualified for the NCAA Championships.”
Indeed they did.Peterson, who as a senior in 2008 won three track and field titles (100, 200, and as a 4×100 second-leg sprinter), teamed with TODEA-KAY WILLIS, NYOKA GILES and CHIMEREM OKOROJI to make history by setting a school record in the 4×100 relay (44.32) while becoming the second Gopher squad to compete in the NCAA Championships.
Former Minneapolis South cross country and track and field standout HASSAN MEAD, a nine-time All-American in his Minnesota career (four in cross country 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011) and five in track (2008 outdoor, 2009 indoor and outdoor, 2011 indoor and outdoor), had a bid for a spot on the 2012 USA Track & Field Olympic team but came up short, finishing eighth.
Mead, who graduated from South in 2008, was a four-time all-state performer in track, state runner-up in the 3,200 meters in 2007, and third in 2006. His time of 8:51.23, good for fifth place in the two-mile run at the 2007 Nike Outdoor Nationals, was the third-besttime in Minnesota high school history.
Mitchell Palmer McDonald welcomes reader responses to mmcdonald@spokesman-recorder.com.
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