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The Winona High School senior didn’t qualify for state last year, after doing so a year earlier. She had no one to blame but herself.
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Winona Senior High School senior Chari Lehnertz is making her second appearance at the Minnesota State Track and Field Meet today for the discus at Hamline University in St. Paul. Lehnertz placed sixth in the discus at the state meet in 2006. (Photo by Andrew Link/Winona Daily News) |
It was an eye-opener, but she’s now back in the MSHSL Class 2A state track and field meet throwing the discus again.
“I was a little cocky about it last year,” Lehnertz said. “There was only one meet last year I didn’t throw the (state) qualifying standard heading into sections. I thought I had it in the bag, no big deal.”
She didn’t. A year after taking sixth in the state in discus, Lehnertz waltzed into her junior year thinking a state bid would be handed to her.
Instead, she missed the qualifying standard at sections by inches and watched as teammate Michelle Potter won it all.
“It was very painful to go and sit and watch,” Lehnertz said.
Sure, she felt great for her teammate, but it was supposed to be her competing, too.
“I remember my final throw at sections,” Lehnertz said. “I needed it to get to state and it was only a couple inches off. That was tough. Then looking at the flight seeds, I threw a low 121 (feet) and that would have seeded me fifth. That was hard to swallow.”
Everything happens for a reason, and only good came from what happened to Lehnertz last year.
“I think she took things for granted,” WSHS throwing coach Tim Brown said. “She was there as a sophomore and she would go next year.
“While she was feeling like that, Michelle Potter was working pretty hard in the offseason. When it came down to it, she saw what Michelle had done, winning it all, and I think that really drove her.”
Now, Lehnertz is in the almost exact same position Potter was last year.
Lehnertz has the third-longest throw in Class 2A (133 feet, 3 inches). She sits behind St. Louis Park’s LaiShema Hampton (139-6) and Jessica Cagle
(149-0), who took second last year.
“She worked a lot harder in the weight room over the summer, fall and winter,” Brown said. “She really wanted to get back here.”
The first time Lehnertz was at state, she was nervous. She didn’t have a great meet.
“Extremely nervous,” she said. “I wasn’t mentally prepared for it like I thought I was. It was all a big shock, because I wasn’t expecting to go in the first place.”
Lehnertz fully expects to be ready this time around. She’s tuning everyone else out, and just focusing on herself and her throws.
“I want to go into it, have fun, relax and not worry about the other people,” Lehnertz said. “It’s my last track meet. I’d love to get first. It’s a goal of mine, but I’m not going to be upset if it doesn’t happen.”
