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Fairmont’s Becker contemplates track future

FAIRMONT — While the current COVID-19 pandemic has dampened the spirits of countless high school senior student-athletes across the nation, it seems to have inspired numerous future collegiate freshmen in southern Minnesota.

Fairmont High School senior standout Joni Becker is a prime example of the resiliency on display by area athletes during the current Minnesota State High School League’s moratorium that will erase nearly half of the 2020 spring seasons.

“I’m trying to stay busy,” a smiling Becker said in reference to the school district’s extended spring break required in order for the Fairmont administration and teaching staff to install an efficient e-learning system that began Monday, “but how many times can you rearrange your room at home, and how many cookies can you bake?”

Becker’s heightened competitive nature, however, motivates her to resist the tollhouse treats she pulls out of the oven and continue her daily training ritual just in case a portion of the track & field season can be salvaged after May 3.

“Right now it doesn’t look like we’ll have a spring season, but it never hurts to stay physically active during this down time,” said the Cardinals’ three-sport extraordinaire. “On Twitter, I found a workout where you put on a weighted backpack and do swats to keep muscle tone in your legs.

“I’ve also looked up videos on YouTube that allow you to get in a good ab and core workout without using free weights to supplement riding a stationary bike and running outside when it’s not bad weather.”

After guiding the Fairmont Area girls soccer program to its second consecutive appearance in the Section 2A championship game in November and capping her final fall prep sports season as the Cardinals’ all-time leading goal scorer, Becker selected the University of North Dakota as her next stop in the educational process.

At the time of her academic decision, the Fairmont High School athletic phenom seemed content to play hockey in the winter, compete in track & field in the spring, and then become “just a normal college student” not competing in sports.

The bruising Becker then finished No. 2 in both goals scored and assists distributed during Fairmont Area’s hockey season that ended in February before toning her physique for literally one last go-round Bob Bonk Track in Fairmont this spring.

“I went into the first week of track practice with one definite goal in mind,” said Becker, who qualified for the 2019 MSHSL state track & field meet in the open 400 meters, in addition to running the respective anchor and second legs on the 4×200 and 4×400 relays teams. “After my junior season I was in the school’s top seven in the 400, so my goal was to close out my career somewhere in the top four in that event.

“My personal-best is a 59.2-second split in a 4×4 relay, so I figured if I worked extra hard, I could try to make it into the high 58s.”

Becker, who played an integral role in guiding the Cardinals girls varsity tracksters to the past three consecutive Sentinel Relays’ Class AA team crowns on the first Friday in May, literally took the first steps toward capping an outstanding prep career by defending her Fairmont pentathlon championship on March 13.

Becker generated a winning total of 3,650 points on the strength of a first-place finish in the 40-yard dash (5.7) and a second-place showing in the 800-meter run (2:40) before the entire sports world turned upside down due to the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

“I wanted to have one last little push to close out the (high school) track chapter in my life. If I didn’t reach the times I wanted, then it wasn’t to be,” said Becker. “But this (pandemic), it’s like I got everything stripped from me without even having the opportunity to compete.

“The feeling is worse than qualifying for state and not advancing to Day 2. I felt at the end of last track season that I still had some unfinished business on the track.”

With that sense of redemption moving to the front of her mind, in addition to a little nudge from her future college roommate, Becker seems destined to lace up her spikes and literally make a run at a spot on the University of North Dakota track squad next season.

“I didn’t receive a track offer from the coaches there, but one of my three roommates is going to compete in track and has encouraged me to try out for the team,” said Becker, who will register online for college courses in April and then, hopefully, travel to Grand Forks for orientation at the end of July.

“We’ll see how the rest of this spring goes, and make a decision about college track & field then. Maybe I haven’t closed the chapter on my track career just yet,” said a grinning Becker.

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