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ST. PAUL — If Chari Lehnertz is going to be a runner-up at state, she may as well be second to the best ever.
Lehnertz wrapped up her Winona Senior High School career with a second-place finish in the discus Friday at the Class 2A state track and field meet at Hamline University.
She finished second to the best throw ever in the state of Minnesota.
Junior Jessica Cagle of Grand Rapids unleashed a 162-foot, 4-inch toss in the final throw of the meet, breaking the Minnesota all-time record of 156-0 set by Cold Spring’s Sandy Fuchs back in 1993.
Lehnertz’s throw of a 129-0 was just a bit behind that.
“Second place to a new state record,” Lehnertz said, “I’ll deal with it. It is weird having second be a 129 and first is a 162, but I’m fine with that.”
Lehnertz’s best distance came in the final throw of preliminaries. She scratched all three of her finals, but nearly had a personal best.
On her final attempt — the one right before Cagle’s record-breaker — Lehnertz let loose. Even into the strong wind, the discus sailed true.
“That last one was like a 140,” Lehnertz said. Her personal best is a 133. “But I tripped on the edge and fell out (of the circle for a scratch).”
Lehnertz took sixth in the discus two years ago at state. She didn’t go last year, but teammate Michelle Potter won it with a 146-9.
Three other Winona sophomores wrapped up their first trips at state Friday.
In the first race of the day, Claire Guidinger finished 11th out of 16 in the 3,200-meter run in 11:25.09. Eden Prairie junior Cassy Opitz won (11:08.61).
“I was in the top six for most of the race until the seventh lap,” Guidinger said of the eight-lap race. “I lost contact there, because I don’t have as much of a kick, but I was surprised I stayed up there as long as I did.”
Teammate Jon-Michael Brandt followed with a 13th-place finish in the boys 3,200 (10:00.66).
“My legs felt a little heavy,” Brandt said. “I wasn’t feeling the best. There wasn’t a whole lot of pressure on me though. Hopefully I’ll be back again next year.”
Burnsville senior Rob Finnerty won in 9:04.88, which was over two seconds off WSHS graduate Elliott Heath’s Class 2A record time of 9:02.65 set last year.
The last Winhawk to run Friday was Sam Miner, who finished 16th out of 19 with a 2:03.87 in the preliminaries of the 800. The top nine go on to finals.
He’ll be back again at 9 a.m. today, along with Ethan Kastello, Myles Beckman and Erik Blomsness in the 3,200 relay finals. It’s the first race of the day. Teammate Kayla Ewert will follow soon after in the 1,600 finals.
