Hermantown opened its boys and girls track and field seasons March 21 at the College of St. Scholastica indoor meet, with the Hawks boys turning in a strong early showing highlighted by five event victories.
Martin Sleen set the tone for Hermantown, delivering a dominant performance in the sprints. He captured the 60-meter dash in 7.07 seconds, returned to win the 200 meters in 23.81 — nearly a full second clear of the field — and ran a leg on the Hawks’ winning 4x200-meter relay.
Zach Wunner won first place in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.77 seconds.
Tanner Homstad led a one-two finish for the Hawks in the long jump, winning the event with a mark of 20 feet, 11 inches. Sleen placed second.
Team scores were not kept, but Hermantown’s collection of victories and top finishes in both boys and girls provided an encouraging start to the indoor season.
Hermantown’s boys and girls teams resume competition April 9 at Cambridge-Isanti, where the boys will compete in a varsity meet and the girls in an invitational. Both squads return April 10 to Wisconsin-Superior for indoor competition, with the boys facing Superior and the girls competing in a multi-team invitational.
The schedule continues April 17 at North Branch with invitational meets for both teams, followed by April 21 at Rock Ridge, where the boys and girls will compete in meets against multiple schools.
Hermantown travels to Esko on April 23 for another set of invitationals, then to Cloquet on April 28 for a boys varsity meet and a girls triangular meet.
The calendar turns to May with the Doc Savage Invitational on May 2 in Hibbing and the True Team Section meet May 5 at Chisago Lakes, both featuring boys and girls competition.
On May 7, the boys compete in the OJ Belluzzo Invitational at Chisholm while the girls are entered in the John Tingstad Invitational at Hibbing. Both teams return to action May 8 at Duluth Denfeld.
The regular season continues May 12 with the conference meet at Cloquet and May 16 at the Steve Kerzie Invitational at Rock Ridge, followed by a May 19 meet at Centricity Stadium.
Postseason competition begins May 27 with the Section preliminaries at Rock Ridge, with the boys and girls returning there May 30 for the Section finals.