Prep athletes of the week: Tollefson blazes to hurdles record

It doesn't really matter when it happened. What matters is that it happened.

The defending Class 1A state-meet champion in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles broke a Minnesota high school record that had stood for 34 years when he blazed to victory in a 110-hurdles preliminary race at the Section 4A meet Thursday. His time of 13.82 seconds bettered that of Owatonna's Rick Schroeder, who ran a 13.85 in 1981.

"The weather was warm and the conditions were perfect," said Tollefson, who will attend Harvard next year. "You don't get conditions like that in Minnesota too often, so I decided to go for it. I heard everyone yelling and I looked up at the board and saw the time and I said, 'No way.' "

Not needing quite that amount of effort in the finals, Tollefson, a senior, cruised to victory with a time of 14.28, still good enough to be the second-best time in Minnesota in the event this season.

For good measure, he also won the 300 hurdles in 38.42 (also a 2015 state-best time) and anchored the winning 4x400 relay team, outdueling St. Croix Preps' Michael Gutierrez down the stretch to win by .22 of a second, 3:29.18 to 3:29.40.

At the Class 2A, Section 5 meet last week, the sophomore won the long jump (18 feet, 3¼ inches) as well as the triple jump (37-5) and also led off the winning 4x200 meter relay (1 minute, 42.10 seconds) and the 4x100 relay, which finished third.

ASHLEY RAMACHER

At the Class 2A, Section 6 meet, Ramacher qualified for the state meet in four events. She won the high jump (5-6), finished second behind teammate Ann Harlos in the 100 and 300 hurdles and ran on the winning 4x100 relay team, whose time of 48.32 was a 2015 state best.

The senior, a sixth-place finisher in the Clas 2A cross-country meet last fall, dominated the girls' distance races at the 2A, Section 5 meet, winning the 1,600-meters in a time of 5:01.45 and adding a victory in the 3,200-meter run with a winning time of 11:03.90.

The 6-2, 200-pound junior pitched a gem in a 4-0 victory over Waconia in the Class 3A, Section 2 playoffs. Roskam hurled a perfect game — 21 batters up, 21 batters set down — to advance the top-seeded Hawks to the winners' bracket final.

The senior pitcher led the Southern Stars to their first state championship when they beat Mounds View/Irondale/Roseville 13-3 in the CI Division final. Wilson went 2-for-3 with a run scored and allowed only one baserunner over the final three innings.

The 5-foot-11 senior bolstered the state tournament dreams of the No. 4-seeded Lakers by pitching a four-hitter shutout in a 6-2 victory over top-seeded Wayzata in the Section 6, 3A playoffs. "He was amazing," teammate Jordan Kozicky said.

JIM PAULSEN