Grace Drietz leads girls into sections

The wind has nothing on Grace Drietz.
The 800-meter (half mile) and 1600-meter (mile) Canby-Minneota runner runs like the wind — and proved it again Thursday during the hot, muggy, sometimes windy afternoon in Montevideo.
Drietz ran a very solid 2:26 in the 800 run, leaving her best opponent, Isabel Schirm of LqPV-DB almost four seconds behind.
She came in with a seed time of 2:25.9, so the Northwest Sub-Section time she ran was a pretty solid representative of her abilities.
She also strapped on the run twice as long, the 1600-meters, and ran most of the race herself in 5:23.04, just 13 and a half seconds behind her seed time.
Drietz finished in 5:23:04, with her nearest competitor, Colette Duininck of Central MN Christian at 5:5.7.39.
The Sub-Sections, which are broken up into three groups, the Northwest at Montevideo; the Southwest at Luverne and the east at Redwood Falls, is a qualifer to get into Section 3A competition.
The top four in each event from each section advance to next Thursday’s 2 p.m. Section 3A showdown at Montevideo.
Compared to the winners of the other two sections, Drietz has a solid chance to win the 800-meter run. Jessica Christoff of Jackson Co. Central ran a 2:27.9 and Annika Brand of Southwest MN Christian/Edgerton won her sub-section in 2:29.2.
But in the 1600-meter run, the main thorn in the side of Drietz all year has been Morgan Gehl of Heron Lake/Okabena/Fulda — whose 5:16.95 run was seven seconds better than Drietz.
The Canby eighth grader is already a veteran of the state tournament and the state cross country meet — so she likely won’t take much of a back seat when it comes to tournament competition.
Drietz also helped her 4x400-meter relay team win top honors in 4:20.6. Other team members are RyAnnHansen, Kameron King and Makenzie Hemish.
And she led the Canby-Minneota squad to a Northwest Sub-Section Championship with 172.5 points — 73 points ahead of second place BOLD/Buffalo Lake-Hector.

CANBY-MINNEOTA also got a championship from their 4x200-meter relay team composed of Delaney Houseman; Makenzie Hemish; Kalli Jelen and Lizzy Gillingham. They ran at 1:52.55 to edged Montevideo at the wire.
Lizzy Gillingham long jumped to 16:05 3/4 to claim the top prize. She bested Montevideo’s Molly Reeves by over a foot and a half.
Norah King came through with her usual wins in the discus and shot put, throwing the shot 36-1 and the discus 123-8 1/2.
Here are the Minneota-Canby qualifers for the Section 3A meet (along with the winner of each event).

100-METER DASH: 1. Molly Reeves, Monte, :13.1; 4. Lizzy Gillingham, C-M, :13.7.
200-METER DASH: 1. Molly Reeves, Monte, :26.9; 3. RyAnn Hansen, C-M, :28.7.
400-METER DASH: 1. Ellie Thien, MACCRAY-RCW, 1:02; 2. RyAnn Hansen, C-M, 1:02.3.
800-METER RUN: 1. Grace Drietz, C-M, 2:26; 4. Abby Rost, C-M, 2:37.5.
1600-METER RUN: 1. Grace Drietz, C-M, 5:23.
300-METER HURDLES: 1. Molly Reeves, Montevideo; :48.2; 2. Kalli Jelen, C-M, :49.3; 4. Kameron King, C-M, :51.3.
4x100-METER RELAY: 1. BOLD-BLH, :52; 3. Canby-Minneota (Delaney Houseman, Makenzie Hemish, Kalli Jelen, Lizzy Gillingham), :53.04.
4x200-METER RELAY: 1. Canby-Minneota (Houseman, Hemish, Jelen, Gillingham), 1:52.6.
4x400-METER RELAY: 1. Canby-Minneota (Hansen, King, Hemish, Drietz), 4:20.6.
4x800-METER RELAY: 1. LqPV-DB, 10:23.6; 2. Canby-Minneota (Rost, Faith Traen, McKenzie Ruether, Hannah Jelen), 10:54.4.
HIGH JUMP: 1. Sierra Plotz, Lakeview, 5-2.
POLE VAULT: 1. Autumn Montgomery, BOLD-BLH, 8-11.
LONG JUMP: 1. Lizzy Gillingham, C-M, 16-5 3/4.
TRIPLE JUMP: 1. Meeghen Dahlager, YME, 34-10; 4. Maya Wente, C-M, 31-8.
SHOT PUT: 1. Norah King, C-M, 36-1.
DISCUS: 1. Norah King, C-M, 123-8 1/2.
FINAL TEAM SCORES: 1. Canby-Minneota 172.5; 2. LqPV-DB 134.5; 3. BOLD-BLH 99.5; 4. Montevideo 97; 5. Lakeview 96.5; 6. Central MN Christian 33; 7. MACCRAY/RCW 31; 8. Yellow Medicine East, 29.