Not only did Karsjen earn the only placing of the tournament for GMG, he left his mark on the Wolverines record book with a new school-best time of 2 minutes, 0.29 seconds.

As soon as he finished his race and saw the time, Karsjen let out a big yell and raised his hands to the sky, knowing he accomplished his ultimate goal.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better race, I just got the school record and crushed it by four seconds,” Karsjen said. “That’s awesome, districts was a little rough and kind of a weird race but then I came back with this one and this is the race I wanted all season.”

Karsjen entered the 800 as the 18th seed after running a 2:06.09 in the state-qualifying meet, and while he qualified for state he knew he had to prove himself on the Blue Oval at Drake Stadium.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

After the first 400 meters, Karsjen found himself leading the pack and knew he had some more left in the tank.

“Once I heard that bell go off, I love 400s, so in my mind it went from an 800 to a 400 and I just went,” Karsjen said. “I went out and got it.”

Rounding the final turn and coming down the home stretch, Karsjen was in a full sprint and doing everything he could maintain his spot in third place of the first heat. He said he had the final part of the race all figured out prior to running, but once it came time for action his mind went blank.

“Everything was gone in my head, I had a plan to look at the clock to see where I was at but that got thrown out the window and I just ran,” he said. “It was awesome, it was an awesome race.”

Wilkening sets school record in final event

There are a lot of reason’s Kyla Wilkening is a popular name at the GMG schools. Before the state meet, the grade school wanted to hear from her and teammates Wes Steiner and Karsjen about their experiences leading up to a date at the Blue Oval.

The GMG senior distance runner put her school on the map during the 2015 cross country season when she became the first female athlete to qualify for the state meet in school history. Fast forward a couple seasons, and as a junior, Wilkening set the school record in the 1,500 at a 5:09.

But in her final race in the white and blue, Wilkening left her marks in the Wolverines’ record book with a 5:07.30.

“It’s always about the people,” Wilkening said. “My friends. My family. My coach. Everybody is always supportive and they help push me in practice. It’s just the people.”

There have been a lot of laps around the dirt boulevard in Garwin, which Wilkening said has only made her better when getting on the asphalt tracks.

“I love that we don’t even have a track; we have a boulevard,” Wilkening said. “Yet, we come out and we dominate. I love that. It gives us something extra to work on. When we come onto the track we come to compete.”

Wilkening also ran in Thursday’s 3,200, where she took 15th in a time of 11:41.35.