STATE CHAMP — Fairmont thrower Sawyer Tordsen spins before unleashing his first-place discus toss during Saturday’s Class AA state track & field meet at the St. Michael-Albertville campus in St. Michael. (Photo by Greg Abel)

ST. MICHAEL — Sawyer Tordsen waited patiently for the first flight of throwers to hurl the discus during Saturday’s preliminary round of the Class AA state track & field meet at the St. Michael-Albertville High School athletic facility.

Fairmont’s 6-foot-7, 280-pound junior then stepped into the circle and unleashed the first of his three first-round throws.

Foul!

“I thought, ‘It can’t get any worse than this, to scratch on my first throw at state. I’m just going to let it (second throw) fly,'” said Tordsen.

And fly, the discus did … to a state-winning distance of 156 feet, 9 inches — 2 feet, 8 inches better than Plainview-Elgin-Millville sophomore Ashton Kisch’s runner-up throw.

“It’s a great feeling to win the state championship. Surprising though,” said Tordsen. “It didn’t feel that good coming out of my hand, and I wasn’t very quick with my spin, which is something I need to work on. And it was low.

“After the official announced the distance, I looked right at (Fairmont throws coach Brad) Johnson and he had a big smile on his face.”

Ironically, Tordsen finished the preliminaries with a 137-4, before marking at 149-1 and 141-1 on each side of another foul in the finals.

Tordsen eclipsed Fairmont’s No. 2 all-time discus distance of 155-1 — which, ironically, he just set during the Section 2 Meet on June 3 in Waconia. Steve Ring still holds the Cardinals’ best all-time mark of 164-11 set in 1966.

Ellie Hernes, Hudson Artz, Corene Moeller and Fairmont’s 4×400-meter relay quartet of Moeller, Laura Thompson, Macy Hanson and Carissa Saxton all joined Tordsen in earning Class AA all-state honors on Saturday.

“That’s a fitting way — earning a spot on the medals stand — for those seniors to close out their outstanding high school track & field careers,” Fairmont head coach Bob Bonk said in reference to Hernes, Artz, Thompson and Saxton.

Hernes — who captured a fourth-place medal in the long jump 24 hours earlier in St. Michael — hopped, skipped and jumped her way to a bronze-medal distance of 37-9 1/4 in Saturday’s triple jump competition. Hernes garnered a silver medal by spraying the sand at 38-0 1/4 during the Class A state triple jump event a year ago.

Rockford senior Cassia Cady generated a first-place distance of 38-4 1/2 to take home the gold medal in the field event.

Moeller, Thompson, Hanson and Saxton exchanged the baton en route to crossing the finish line in 4:07.5 to pocket sixth-place all-state accolades in the 4×400 relay race. Providence Academy’s Emma Kelly, Abby Daugherty, Maddyn Greenway — daughter of former Viking linebacker Chad Greenway — and Kylie Hartel combined handoffs to post a gold-medal time of 4:00.52.

Hudson Artz capped his stellar three-sport prep career by claiming a seventh-place medal in the 400-meter dash with a time of 50.29. De La Salle senior Gus Langford collected first-place honors with a time of 48.64.

Moeller continued to lower her personal-best time in the open 400 by turning in a Mercurial time of 1:00.04 to garner an eighth-place state medal on Saturday. St. Paul Highland Park freshman Ellie Moore won the state crown with a blistering time of 57.61.

Nelson Remington captured first place in the Class AA wheelchair division’s 100 meters (18.75), while placing third in both the 200 (37.27) and 800 (2:41.82) for Fairmont.

In Friday’s Class A state competition, Blue Earth Area’s Luke Norman captured a ninth-place medal by hurling the discus to a mark of 139-9.