Athletes from more than 40 rural Northland schools will compete in the state track and field meet Thursday-Saturday, June 4-6, at St. Michael-Albertville High School.
The region will have over 250 entries, and nearly 90 students are positioned to come home with some hardware. The top nine finishers in each event earn a medal.
But Northern Minnesota student-athletes are the ones to beat this week, with the top seed in Class A heading into the meet.
Ely sophomore Violet Udovich recorded the only sub-12-second 100-meter dash time at a section meet. She has the fastest seed time by over three-tenths of a second.
Udovich was the silver medalist in the 400-meter last year. She has got the fastest seed this year — 56.87 seconds — by more than eight-tenths of a second, and her personal best is almost a second faster than that.
Udovich is also a top-five runner in the 200-meter.
Seniors Emily Marquis and Markelle Pederson compete for West Marshall, a co-op between Stephen-Argyle Central and Warren-Alvarado-Oslo.
Marquis was third in discus last year. Her throw of 135-8 is the farthest seed by over 3 feet, and her personal best is 5 feet further than her closest competitor. Marquis is also projected to medal in shot put.
Pederson is the only pole vaulter who cleared 11 at sections, her personal best, though second-seeded Harlie Schwope of Osakis has cleared 11-6 this season.
And Aitkin junior Ashley Asmus has the top seed in the 800-meter, running 2:17.38. Esko freshman Naiya Russka is right behind her with a 2:17.49.
Asmus was sixth in the 800-meter in 2025, and Ruuska was 15th.
Staples-Motley senior Turney Beachy is another Northland athlete to watch, trying to defend his pole vault title.
Cloquet junior Makenzie Lynch is the only rural Northern Minnesota athlete competing in four solo events: 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles, long jump and triple jump. She's seeded in the top 10 in all but 100 hurdles.
Brainerd has the most entries of any Northland school with 17, including all four girls relays. The Warriors had the most entries last year, too, with 14.
State begins with Class 3A prelims at 9 a.m. Thursday, followed by Class A prelims. Class 2A prelims start at 9 a.m. Friday, followed by Class A finals. 2A and 3A finals are Saturday.
The meet can be streamed on NSPN with a subscription. Live results are available from Wayzata Timing.
