Ryan Koberoski

ST. MICHAEL — Junior sprinter Ryan Koberoski will proudly represent every town in the Madelia/Truman/Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Martin Luther Jayhawks’ track and field program during today’s Class A state 400-meter dash finals in St. Michael.

The fleet-footed Koberoski crossed the finish line in 50.7 seconds during the second heat of the open 400 preliminaries on Thursday to place third overall on the St. Michael-Albertville campus.

Zumbrota-Mazeppa’s RJ Sylak broke the tape in 50.12 to generate the quarter-mile race’s fastest qualifying time of the nine finalists.

Koberoski and Sylak will join Cromwell-Wright County’s Roma Jacques (50.16), St. Croix Lutheran’s Will Olson (50.72), Winona Cotter’s Luke Gardner (50.84), Luverne’s Lucky Dara (50.98), Minnewaska Area’s Maeson Tank (51.03), Barnesville’s Braeden Bredman (51.14) and Deer River/Northland’s Dylan Schwarz (51.33) in returning to the starting blocks at 6:06 p.m. tonight to compete for the 400-meter’s gold medal and the esteemed title of Class A state champion.

Josiah DeMaris, Koberoski’s teammate from MTGHECML, finished in 16th place in Thursday’s Class A 3,200-meter run in St. Michael. DeMaris crossed the finish line in a time of 10:36.66.

DeMaris’ best 400-meter split was a 1:11.41 during the initial stage of the 2-mile race.

Perham’s Bjorn Anderson captured the Class A 3,200-meter state championship by covering the distance in a winning time of 9:22.44.

Blue Earth Area’s 4×100-meter relay team of Nick Nelson, Gage Barker, Jack Norman and Jacob Grandgenett placed 16th by trading handoffs for a time of 45.08 to miss qualifying for today’s finals.

Minneapolis North’s Zelaun Black, Navier Jiles, J’Marion Sanders and Jaivon Hill exchanged the baton to the fastest 4×100 qualifying time of 42.84.

Minneapolis North and the other eight finalists will race for the 4×100 state crown at 11:13 a.m. today back at the St. Michael-Albertville campus.