NEXT ROUND — Fairmont’s Hank Artz begins his spin before hurling the shot during field event action. Artz won the shot put during Wednesday’s Section 2AA track & field meet in Waconia to earn an individual state berth. (Photos by Greg Abel).

WACONIA — New competitive class, new sectional format, new venue but the same steady stream of Fairmont track & field athletes qualifying for the next rounds of the postseason.

“Our athletes really stepped up to the challenge of being moved from Class A to AA due to the Minnesota State High School League’s expansion during the offseason,” said Fairmont activities director and assistant track & field coach Mat Mahoney. “In addition to switching classes, we’re also adjusting to a new two-day format — with only one day’s rest in between — during the same week.

“A couple of the positives are your long-distance runners don’t have to run the mile and two-mile races on the same day, and the relays are all run the same day.”

Freshman thrower Hank Artz, senior jumper/hurdler Ellie Hernes and senior long-distance extraordinaire Laura Thompson converted three of the Section 2AA Meet’s seven finals on Wednesday into Class AA individual state bids.

Artz and Hernes each etched their names into the hallowed pages of the Cardinal record books’ top 10 to leapfrog past Day 2 of the sectional competition — Friday — and into the state meet Friday, June 10, and Saturday, June 11, at St. Michael-Albertville High School’s athletic facilities.

Artz hurled the shot to a personal-best mark of 51 feet, 3 inches to move into the Fairmont program’s all-time best No. 9 spot en route to striking Section 2AA gold in his field specialty.

Hernes also broke into the Cardinals’ career Top 10 category by spraying the sand in the long jump pit at a personal-best distance of 17-3 3/4 to garner the sectional’s No. 2 state-qualifying berth.

Thompson also moved directly to next week’s Class AA state track & field competition by meriting runner-up accolades to Hutchinson’s Isabelle Schmitz in the 3,200-meter run.

Thompson covered the distance in 11:02.02 to earn the silver medal, while Schmitz broke the wire in a winning time of 10:50.38.

Fairmont freshman phenom Macy Hanson, who led the 2-mile sectional race for the initial three laps, just missed a state bid by capturing third place in 11:24.76 on Wednesday.

Hernes, along with Cardinal teammates Corene Moeller and Hudson Artz, caused the capacity crowd at Waconia to experience double vision as the speedy threesome earned two individual bids apiece to Friday’s Section 2 track finals.

Fairmont’s Evan Meade, Carissa Saxton and David Maakestad also each merited respective solo spots in Friday’s second round of competition.

Hernes bested the field in the second of four preliminary heats of the high hurdles by crossing the finish line in 15.84 seconds. Hernes gained the 10:35 a.m.-scheduled finals on Friday by netting second overall to Jordan’s Jillian Hiveley (14.85).

Hernes will double her hurdles experience at Section 2 by also qualifying for a scheduled 12:20 p.m. 300-meter showdown on Friday. Hernes netted a time of 49.36 to place second in Heat 2 and sixth place overall.

Ironically, Moeller and Hudson Artz each gained a spot in one of Waconia’s nine lanes in the finals for both the 200- and 400-meter dashes on Friday.

Moeller produced one of her best-ever times of 1:00.8 to top the open 400 field during Wednesday’s first round, while capturing the fourth overall spot in half the sprint distance with a time of 27.33.

Hudson Artz nearly duplicated Moeller’s performances by breaking the wire first in the open 400 with a gold-medal time of 51.02. Artz also marched forward to Friday’s sectional final in the 200 by claiming third overall in 22.7.

Meade, who captured first in the Heat 3 prelims on Wednesday with a time of 11.37 in the 100-meter dash, qualified for Friday’s finale by garnering the fourth-fastest time overall.

Saxton will join Moeller in the open 400 by generating second place in the Heat 3 prelims en route to a fifth-place overall time of 1:02.34, while Maakestad will battle it out in the 300-meter hurdles finale. Maakestad won the Heat 2 prelims in 41.85 to place second-fastest overall.

The Section 2AA Meet opens Friday in Waconia with the boys high jump, girls pole vault, boys long jump, girls triple jump, boys discus and girls shot put at 10 a.m., while the girls’ 4×800-meter relay kicks off track action also at 10 a.m.

Friday’s final sectional event — the boys’ 4×400-meter relay — is scheduled to start at 1:35 p.m.