Owatonna Boys Race to Big Nine Conference Title; Girls Finish Fourth

Owatonna senior Jacob Johnson repeated as Big Nine champ in both hurdle events, setting a conference mark in the 110 race, and OHS won the boys' title Friday in Faribault.

Johnson's first-place showings in the 110 and 300 hurdles were the Huskies' only titles, but Owatonna added seven other top three finishes to outdistance Rochester Century for the crown. OHS scored 256.50 points. Century had 230.50. Mankato East was third at 230 and John Marshall scored 226. Johnson's 110 time of 14.36, broke the previous record of 14.67, according to times and information provided by wayzataresults.com.

Second-place finishes for the Huskies were Jake Borchert in the high jump, Nick Raichle in the 400 and the 4x400 relay team. Third-place OHS finishes came with Lance Ulrich in the 110 hurdles, Braydon Kubat in the 3200 and the 4x200 and 4x800 relay teams.

In the shot put, the Huskies placed 4-5-6 with Brady Ruiter, Ethan Dekam and Darik Elstad.

Girls Track

The Owatonna girls finished fourth in the final Big Nine standings with 197 points. Rochester Century took first with 242 points, followed by Red Wing with 238.50 and Mankato East at 237.50.

The highlight for Owatonna was a conference record-setting run by the 4x200 relay team of Margo Achterkirch, Karissa Gregory, Steph Kretlow and Sydney Schultz. Their time of 1:44.35 broke the previous record of 1:44.89. OHS was third or better in the other three relay runs.

Owatonna's other first-place finish was Syd Kretlow in the 800.

In the 200-meter dash, Margo Achterkirch was second with Karissa Gregory third. Mary Biegert took third in the shot put.