John’s Journal: The Next Heather Van Norman?

It’s not fair to put undue pressure on a young athlete, which is why I did a little tiptoeing when I interviewed Concordia Academy track and field star Shaina Zinter the other day.

We had been chatting about Shaina’s goals for her senior season, her decision to sign with the University of Wisconsin, the Class A state titles she won last year in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles, her two USA Track and Field national championships in the heptathlon, and other assorted topics.

Then I asked Shaina, “Do you know the name Heather van Norman?”

She replied, “It sounds familiar.”

These days, Van Norman is well-known as the mother of NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. Heather was an NCAA champion sprinter at Louisiana State before beginning a college track coaching career at schools including Rice, Georgia Tech and Tulane.

Back in the day, before all that, Van Norman made history at the 1987 Minnesota Class A state track and field championships. The young athlete from Windom finished first in the 100, 200 and 400, and she scored enough points to take home the team state championship all by herself. Her feat ranks among the most memorable performances in Minnesota high school sports history.

Shaina might not know a lot about Heather Van Norman, but she has thought about making a similar mark before her high school career ends this year. Her accomplishments mark her as someone to watch.

She ran on Concordia Academy’s 4x200 relay team at state when she was in seventh grade, placed fifth in the 300 hurdles as an eighth-grader, and as a sophomore in 2019 was second in the 300 hurdles and fifth in the 100 hurdles.

There was no track season in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, but Zinter had an outstanding 2021 season, winning both hurdle races at state while placing third in the 200 meters and fourth in the long jump. Those efforts were worth an individual meet-best (regardless of class or gender) 38 points, which put her in fourth place in the Class A team standings.

At this point in the 2022 season, Zinter has the top reported Class A times in the state in the 100, 200, 400, 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and long jump. She plans to run both hurdle events, the 200 and the long jump in section and state competition.

She will be among a quality field at Friday’s Hamline Elite Meet, which will return for the first time since 2019. The event, which was not held the past two years due to the pandemic, brings together the top athletes in the state in a finals-only format (with the exception of the 100 meters, which will have prelims).

The vision of winning a state team title all by herself materialized for Zinter after her performance at state last spring.

“Yeah, definitely after last year, seeing like, ‘Oh wow, my points got fourth place.’ ” she said. 

Concordia Academy also could score points in the shot put, with senior Nora Wilhelm currently having the third-best performance in Class A this year.

The state championships will be held June 9-11 at St. Michael-Albertville High School. This is the first year with three classes in Minnesota track and field; it had been a two-class sport from 1976 through 2021. Concordia Academy, which is in Roseville and has a high school enrollment of 273, remains in Class A.

“She definitely could have that kind of impact, it’s possible she could run the table,” said Concordia Academy coach Marc Paul. “If Shaina wins it with more points than any other team, that would be neat.”

Zinter is a two-sport athlete, playing volleyball from a young age. She was named a Class A all-state volleyball player last fall.

“Five or six years ago she was maybe looking at a college volleyball career,” Paul said. “She proves that you can be a high-level volleyball player and track athlete.”

With cold, wet spring weather hampering all athletes and teams, Shaina has worked out indoors more than outdoors so far. Things like the long jump and hurdles can be a challenge under such conditions; she talked about running over no more than two hurdles before slamming into a wall inside an auxiliary gym at Concordia Academy.

“I haven't been outside nearly as much as I was last year,” she said. “I was outside at the beginning of March to mid-March, and this year I got outside like two or three times in March. So it's been feeling like I'm sort of behind in my training and my preparation for events.”

Her decision to become a track and field athlete at Wisconsin was made after also considering the University of Minnesota.

“They were both close to home, and I did want to stay close to home,” Shaina said. “They're kind of similar. They’re both in the Big Ten. They're also really different. Wisconsin is more like a college city, sort of their own thing, and then Minnesota is more in the heart of the Twin Cities. It’s not a deal-breaker for me, but I've never really liked the city. I like having a little town of our own.”

She plans to focus on the heptathlon in college; that event encompasses 100-meter hurdles, 200 meters, 800 meters, high jump, javelin, shot put and long jump.

Shaina currently holds school records in eight events: 200, 400, 800, 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles, long jump and two relays. She was part of a school-record 4x200 relay team as a seventh-grader, when she was a very quiet young athlete.

“She wouldn’t say a word,” Paul said. “Now she talks your ear off. She was very quiet but she always advanced. She doesn’t shy away from a challenge. She just kind of continually grew into what she is, a confident young woman who has taken advantage of good opportunities.

“We knew when she was a sixth-grader, in middle school track, that she was special but I didn’t exactly quite see this much coming. As a seventh-grader you started to see glimpses. … Whatever the challenge was, she would meet it and rise above it.”

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org  

John’s Journal: Ready To Vault Into The History Books

The first track and field meet of the season for seven girls and boys teams in southeast Minnesota was held Tuesday in Lake City. The Lake City Invitational -- as has been the case with many scheduled gatherings during this wet, cold spring – was originally booked for Monday before being pushed back 24 hours in search of better weather.

Fifty degrees under overcast skies? That sufficed quite nicely for a Minnesota Tuesday in April. The meet was smooth, the athletes worked hard and everyone cheered. One of the most intriguing events was the boys pole vault.

Aaron Prinsen of Rushford-Peterson/Houston finished first by clearing a height of 12 feet, followed by Tanner Finstuen of Zumbrota-Mazeppa, Sam Knox of Pine Island and Zayne Novek of Zumbrota-Mazeppa, all at 10 feet.

By the time Pine Island senior Jarod White made his first attempt, all the other pole vaulters had finished vaulting and the girls and boys 4x400 relay events – the day’s final races – were taking place. It was after 9 p.m. … the meet had started at 4:15.

White asked for the bar to be initially set at 12 feet, 6 inches. He missed all three attempts and that was that. He was done for the day at his first track meet of the season and only the third time this spring that he has been able to pole vault outdoors.

White also ran the 200 and 400 meters, placing second in both; the winners were R.J. Sylak of Zumbrota-Mazeppa in the 200 and Zack Ihde of Pine Island in the 400.

Jarod is a polite young man who is dedicated to his sport. He will compete as a track athlete at North Dakota State and is one of the top track and field competitors in Minnesota in 2022. The accolades are based on what he accomplished last season and expectations for this season. At the 2021 state championships, he set a meet record by clearing 15 feet, 9 inches; he had cleared 16-0 at the section meet. The all-time state record in the boys pole vault is 16-1¾, set by Mounds View’s Calvin Ciganik in 2018.

At state in 2021, White’s final three attempts came with the bar set at 16-2. The bar came down on all three attempts, but on a hot, sunny afternoon at St. Michael-Albertville High School, Jarod set the table for 2022.

“I think that did definitely put him on the map,” said Pine Island pole vault coach Amanda Swintek, who was a two-time NCAA Division II indoor national champion in the pole vault at Minnesota State Mankato in 2004 and 2005.

“He's got a lot of speed,” she said. “He's got a lot of strength, but I think the thing that really sets him apart is that he has a lot of really good body awareness and he's super coachable.”

Jarod spent most of Tuesday’s track meet wearing a Star Wars stocking cap with a Batman blanket wrapped around himself for warmth. Underneath was a 2021 state track hoodie and his vaulting and sprinting uniform. He wore black leggings under his maroon and gold Pine Island Panthers gear, and when vaulting his head was protected by a black helmet.

The school colors match those of the University of Minnesota, which White considered before choosing North Dakota State. Minnesota dropped indoor men’s track and field in 2020, resulting in recruiting repercussions.

While also considering South Dakota State, he said, “It was mainly between the U of M and NDSU. The main thing was the U of M didn't have an indoor men's track team.”

Right now, however, his focus is on vaulting higher than anyone in the history of Minnesota high school track and field. His 16-0 accomplishment puts him third on the all-time list behind Ciganik’s 16-1¾ and a 16-1¼ by Blake’s Grant Krieger in 2013. Next is Mitch Valli of Buffalo, who cleared 15-11 in 2013.

“My main goal this season is to get 16-5,” Jarod said. “That's my first goal because that would be about five meters and that's what I really want to try to hit before I go to college.”

Not surprisingly, White has a gymnastics background. Many top pole vaulters are former or current gymnasts, a sport that helps develop body control and the proper mechanics for the pole vault, which requires a mix of speed, strength and agility.

Jarod was involved in a Rochester gymnastics training center from kindergarten until fifth grade, he said.

“Ever since I was young I would climb on things and just be a little kid that would mess around climbing things and doing stuff like that. So I had upper-body strength, I guess, and (coaches) wanted to put me into something where I could do that stuff.”

Asked what Jarod needs to work on, Swintek had to think.

“That's the hardest question, right?” she said. “I've been racking my brain all year, thinking, ‘What can we work on?’ We're going to work on getting back a little bit further on his vault, rocking back so that he can go up off the top of his vault a little bit better. He's been working on his run in the offseason so that he can optimize his plant. He's not the tallest vaulter (at 5-foot-9), so he really needs to extend his plant to make sure that he can be as tall as he can at takeoff.”

Everything has certainly worked out very well so far, even if the circumstances are not always perfect. By the time Jarod made his first attempt Tuesday in Lake City, the people running the pole vault were using cell phone flashlights to set the standards in the proper spots.

White used a measuring tape to mark the spot where he would start his sprint down the runway, a spot much farther away from the landing pit than any of the other vaulters. His pole, measuring 15 feet, was also much longer than the rest. Poles can cost hundreds of dollars, with some more than $1,000, so Pine Island rents poles for White rather than buy them on the off chance that another high-level vaulter will appear on the scene.

Jarod took three warmup runs as he focused on his steps and takeoff spot. On all three of his errant vaults, he smoothly went over the bar but tapped it with his midsection on his return to Earth.

“I didn't do as well as I wanted but it was still a good time, building blocks,” he said. “So sure, the first meet didn’t go like we wanted, but we're training through meets so I don't really expect that much yet.”

The season, and the vaults, will continue for White and his teammates; Thursday in Stewartville, next Tuesday in Cannon Falls, April 28 in Byron, April 29 at the Hamline Elite Meet in St. Paul and beyond.

The sky, as they say, is the limit.

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org  

John’s Journal: Speaking Out, Sparking Conversations

Lakia Manska is a busy senior at Morris Area High School. She’s a three-sport athlete, a member of the National Honor Society, a two-time qualifier for the MSHSL state speech tournament, a dancer and more. She’s also fearless.

At this week’s Class A state speech tournament, Lakia (pronounced “lu-KY-uh”) will compete in Original Oratory. The state meet will be held at Eastview High School, with Class AA competition on Friday and Class A on Saturday.

Lakia is one of seven Morris Area students who qualified for state. The others are Aarav Devkota, Alexis Lhotka and Zachary Dietz in Discussion, Samuel Jordan in Extemporary Speaking and Hailey Lesmeister and Emily Hamm in Duo Interpretation. Lakia and Aarav are team captains.

Lakia’s skills as a writer, a thinker and a force for good reached a wide audience recently after she wrote an editorial that was published by the Stevens County Times in Morris. It spread very quickly online throughout Minnesota and beyond. You can read it here: https://www.stevenscountytimes.com/opinion/time-to-change/

Her essay was in response to an ugly incident during the boys state basketball tournament. After Minneapolis North defeated Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta in the state semifinals, a student from Chokio-Alberta sent a vile, racist social media message to one of the North players. (https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-i-worry-these-are-my-kids-these-are-my-kids )

“It just broke my heart,” she said. “It’s horrible.”

Lakia, who is Black, was adopted by Stacie and John Manska when she was three weeks old. She has two older brothers: Lukus, 22, is in the Army in South Carolina and Logan, 26, is a teacher and head boys basketball coach at Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial.

The social media message was sent late on Friday night of the state tournament, and by Saturday morning it had been publicized. Lakia said gathering with her friends to cheer for the Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta Tigers in Saturday’s third-place game at Concordia University in St. Paul was difficult.

“The whole year we’ve been watching this boys basketball team and the energy has been so explosive and crazy,” she said. “But you could tell we were all thinking about, ‘How excited should we be today without it being insensitive?’ It was a whole different atmosphere there.”

As she has gotten older, Lakia learned that she felt better if she wrote about things that were emotional for her. So after returning home from the state tournament, that’s what she did.

“I needed to vent,” she said. “And I was so upset and confused and sad. I ended up writing this paper. I read it to my mom one night and thought that would be the end of it, or maybe I would send it to a couple teachers and see if they wanted to talk about it at school.”

At the same time, one of the editors at the newspaper was searching for a way to begin a discussion of what had taken place and asked if Lakia would like to write something. It was already written.

Lakia’s words are powerful.

Wearing “Morris Tigers” across my chest felt like a betrayal. Some of my closest friends were on the team, yet I felt a pang in my heart each time I clapped. My body was in the gym, but my mind wandered. I felt nauseous. 

John Kleinwolterink, who is a music teacher and head speech coach at Morris, has a son on the basketball team. After the social media message was made public, his first reaction was, “ ‘What are we going to do about this?’ Then we have kids like Lakia who say, ‘This is what needs to be done, this is what I’ve experienced, and we need to address it.’ ”

Lakia had emailed her essay to Kleinwolterink, and he broke down in tears while reading it.

“I didn’t know all the things she had been through because of who she is,” he said. “If I could have, right then I would have grabbed her and hugged her.

“We need to do better. Our community needs to hear these things. It starts the conversations that have to happen and the change that has to go with it.”

I have been called a monkey. People have used the n-word to devalue me as a human being. My successes have been taken away because how can a black girl truly be successful? I understood what those boys were going through. Those boys fought their way to the state championship, yet they were made to feel they did not deserve it. 

Lakia, who plans to study English education at Minnesota State University Moorhead, said the reaction to what she wrote has been nothing but positive.

“I was surprised at how many people reached out and asked questions,” she said. “People from the Morris area asked how they can fix things around here. It’s crazy seeing how many people I know and people I don’t know talking about it. It’s cool to know it started a conversation.”

Before writing, Lakis reached out on social media to Minneapolis North assistant coach Trent Witz. She sent him a private message that read in part, “I am from Morris and just wanted to apologize and say I am absolutely disgusted by the message your team received.”

Lakia has had many wonderful moments during her high school career. She was a member of the girls tennis team that was the first in school history to play at state last fall. Her first year on the team was in eighth grade, when the team consisted of just a few girls and they lost every competition. But the girls worked hard in the following years, capped by their trip to state.

“That was definitely the highlight of my high school career,” she said. “That is probably the closest I’ve ever been with anybody, and we still talk every single day.”

Lakia and her speech teammates are focusing on Saturday’s state tournament. She has been a member of the speech program since eighth grade; last year she placed fourth at state in Original Oratory. Just like with the tennis team, the friendships made in speech are special.

“I really like the group of friends that I’ve made there,” she said. “There are about 16 of us on the team, and we talked about it on the bus ride home from (section speech in) Albany. It’s such a fun environment. I can tell my confidence speaking and writing has gotten so much better over the last five years.”

Kleinwolterink said, “I don’t think anybody could write as clear of a storyline as she does and explain to others what she wants to say. She is a smart kid and she’s talented. She’s involved, she knows what she wants to do and she’s driven, that’s for sure.”

Her Original Oratory presentation this year is titled “Getting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable.”

“I’m talking about uncomfortable conversations and why we don’t like to have them but why we need to,” she said. “Mental health, race, politics, all these different things. I struggled coming up with a topic but I talked about it one day in one of my classes, the importance of having discussions even when they’re not comfortable.

“I was definitely not a confident kid, not for a long time,” she said. “Now I’m pretty fearless.”

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org  

John’s Journal: New Season, New Hopes For 2021 State Champions

When the Farmington High School baseball team took the field on Monday afternoon, it was the first time the Tigers had been on their home diamond since last season. That was a memorable season, too, with Farmington winning the Class 4A state championship 31 miles away at Target Field.

But here they were, hosting Eastview in the season opener for both teams. This was a third shot at starting the season for the Tigers, who had been scheduled to play Rochester Mayo and Rochester John Marshall the previous week ... but as we know, spring in Minnesota can play havoc with outdoor events.

Even 24 hours before the first pitch, Tigers coach Jon Graff wasn’t certain that the weather or the field conditions would be sufficient to play.

“I left here yesterday after dragging everything and it was like, ‘It's gonna be close,’ ” he said after Eastview defeated Farmington 7-4 in a game dominated by sterling pitching.

Eastview starter T.J. Egan, a lefty who has signed with the University of Minnesota, struck out 12, walked five and gave up three hits in five innings. Farmington’s Zach Dohrmann, who will play next season at North Iowa Area Community College, struck out nine, walked none and gave up three hits in four innings.

Farmington was held without a hit until the bottom of the fifth, when singles by Mason Conrad and Kyle Hrncir were followed by a double from Connor Weed. That helped make the score 3-3 before Eastview locked up the win with a four-run sixth.

Farmington has 10 players returning from the state championship team, resulting in plenty of optimism for the new season. A banner celebrating the 2021 title was unveiled below the big scoreboard in left-center field before the game.

“I was just happy to be out here and get on the field,” said Hrncir, who was the winning pitcher in the Tigers’ 12-10 victory over Park in last year’s 4A title game. “We've been stuck in the gym so a little rust showed but it’s definitely good to be out here. It was a nice day.”

The temperature was 56 degrees when Dohrmann’s first pitch was called for a strike at 4:28 p.m., preceded by four Farmington students standing behind home plate and knocking out a wonderful acapella national anthem. Fans sat in lawn chairs, some under blankets and winter coats, some hanging onto their dog’s leashes. High school boys sat in the metal bleachers in t-shirts and shorts.

The sky was blue, big clouds blocked out the sun at times and cleared a path for warmth at other times. The grass was greenish, the trees had buds.

The Tigers had spent a few days in Florida this spring, working out and scrimmaging and escaping the Minnesota spring. Before Monday, however, they had not been able to practice outdoors in more than a week.

“I think it showed a little bit,” said Graff, not having to mention his team’s five errors (compared to four hits). “We’ve got work to do but let's find out what those things are.”

Hunter Frost and his Farmington senior classmates know that the defending state champions, with a large number of returning veteran players, are on every opponent’s radar.

“Everybody's out to get us like,” he said. “We're obviously the number one ranked team in the state and I like how we’ve got a target on our back. We’re going to see the best games out of everybody. I just like that competition.”

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org