Irish are OK with third at state True Team
Rosemount boys go for section track title next week
Rosemount senior Chandler Dye (359) tries to chase down Wayzata’s Scott Sippel during the 800-meter run at the state True Team finals. Dye finished seventh in the 800 and second in the 1,600 to help Rosemount’s boys take third in the Class AAA team standings. Photo by Mike Shaughnessy
The state Class AAA True Team track and field finals presented a thorny question to Rosemount’s boys: How happy should they be with third place?
Rosemount has become one of the state’s best programs in the True Team format, winning Class AAA championships in 2009 and 2011.
On Friday at Stillwater High School, the Irish finished third behind Lake Conference powers Minnetonka and Wayzata.
“I’m not going to lie and say third place is that big of a deal to us,” Irish coach Jay Hatleli said. “But at the same time, last year we won with a lot of top-end talent. We have a much different team this year. Looking back on it, we’re very satisfied with how we performed.”
Despite not winning an event in the state finals at Stillwater High School, the Irish used their depth to pile up 716 points. Minnetonka won the Class AAA championship with 889.5 points and Wayzata scored 811.5.
Rosemount senior Chandler Dye had a strong meet at the True Team finals, finishing second in the 1,600 meters in 4 minutes, 20.03 seconds and seventh in the 800 in 1:59.86.
“He’s the kind of athlete that sometimes gets overlooked,” Hatleli said, “but the fact is, you don’t get to meets like state True Team without kids like Chandler Dye.”
Darrell Hunt, a senior who joined the Irish after moving from Illinois, finished third in the 100 in 11.61.
Rosemount placed all three of its 3,200-meter runners in the top eight, with Nathan Rock finishing fifth, Trevor Capra sixth and Calvin Lehn eighth. Lehn also placed ninth in the 1,600.
Charlie Broback was ninth in the 400, Tegan Overbey finished 10th in the 200, Phong DoVu took third in the long jump and ninth in the triple jump. Marius Lewis finished fourth in the triple jump and Austin Leslie was sixth in the discus.
The Irish also had strong performances in the 4×100 (second) and 4×400 (fourth) relays, running what Hatleli said were top-10 state honor roll times in each event.
“We have a good group of quarter-milers who can all run in the 52-second range,” Hatleli said. “We’re hoping we’ll be able to put together a top-quality 4×400.”
The state True Team champion is now Rosemount’s No. 1 team goal, and Hatleli said he believes it’s the same at most other high schools.
“What we’re finding is more and more teams are going after the True Team,” Hatleli said. “Years ago, Eden Prairie felt it was a bigger deal to win its conference than the state True Team, but now they’re going after True Team every year.”
Rosemount, meanwhile, went after the South Suburban Conference championship this week at Burnsville High School. The Irish were defending champions in the SSC meet, which was still in progress when this edition went to press.
Rosemount won last year’s Section 1AA team title but since has been moved to Section 3AA, which will have its meet May 29 and 31 at the University of St. Thomas.
