SARTELL -- Nine members of the Bemidji High School boys and girls track and field teams qualified for finals after day one of the Section 8AA championship meet Wednesday in Sartell.
Lauren Berg broke the school record in the 300-meter hurdles. The BHS junior clocked a time of 45.73, the top time in the prelims. The previous school record of 45.96 was set by Holly Janson in 1995.
Three members of the Berg family now own BHS program records. Lauren’s brother, Isaac Berg, was a member of the record-setting 4x400 relay team. Their father, Nick Berg, is the school record holder in the pole vault. Both Isaac and Nick are state champions, as well.
The top eight finishers in each event qualified for the section finals.
Mady Schmidt also advanced to Saturday’s finals by placing second (15.79) in the 100 hurdles prelims.
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Seven Bemidji boys earned spots in the finals.
Nick Youso posted the top prelim time in the 800 with a mark of 1:58.61. He’ll be joined in the finals by teammates Isaak McDonald (7th, 2:01.45) and Ashton Niemi (8th, 2:04.45).
The other BHS boys to qualify for finals were Jacob Kelly (2nd, 15.68) in the 110 hurdles, Sam Schulze (5th, 42.07) in the 300 hurdles, and Paul Louvar (5th, 52.45) and Brooks Matetich (6th, 52.81) in the 400.
Four events held their finals Wednesday with the top two finishers qualifying for state.
Although no Lumberjacks qualified from those four finals, the Bemidji boys earned four points after Nate Alto took fifth in the 3200 finals with a time of 10:06.28.
Day two of the Section 8AA meet, hosted by Fergus Falls on Saturday, June 12, begins with field events at 9:30 a.m. and track events at 10 a.m.
