Century's Jensen rights the ship in winning a state discus championship
Jun. 8—ST. MICHAEL — Elise Jensen wasn't feeling too good about her prospects a couple of days ago.
Jensen is a Century senior who entered the state track-and-field meet on Thursday at St. Michael-Albertville with the top discus mark among all qualifying Class AAA athletes. She'd thrown it 142-feet-2 in her Section One meet on Thursday at Lakeville South.
That was great. But what came in the days after had Jensen doubting herself.
"I had a rough few practices (after the section meet)," said Jensen, also a star volleyball player. "I was not feeling confident in myself and my skills then. The discus had been coming off my hand poorly, kind of sliding off."
Jensen found a way to nicely settle herself when things mattered most. That was Thursday, with her competing for the first time in a state meet.
That "sliding" went away. Except for her first real throw of the competition, almost all of her attempts were solid. It was her third one that was best, the discus sailing a personal-record 149-8.
That was more than enough to land her a state championship. Second-place thrower Alysha Onwuneme of Eagan sent her throw 147-7. The next best effort was 140-0 by Rosemount's Jordan Hecht.
Jensen, who'd dedicated herself to this event for years, had achieved her dream. She'd also vastly outdone what she believed was coming.
"I was guessing that I'd throw it in the high 130's, maybe 140," Jensen said. "But I surpassed that by 9 feet (and 8 inches). When I threw that (winning toss), it really felt good out of my hand and my chest was up and high. When I found out it was (149-8), I was smiling and super happy."
Century coach Kris Allen considered Jensen's achievement the result of years of her staying on task in the discus.
"I am thrilled for her," Allen said. "She has worked so hard for this, staying after practices and working hard the last two years. She is not someone who just got lucky, throwing a (one-time) bomb. Elise has worked at it."
Besides hoping to somehow, some way win a state title, Jensen was also gunning for something else. This had to do with family bragging rights. A few years ago, older brother Carter Jensen sent the discus 144 feet. Elise had been eyeing that mark ever since.
"I wanted to beat him today," she said.
She got that done and a whole lot more.
With the exception of three girls field events being run as finals, as well as the 3,200, the rest of Thursday's action was preliminaries.
Among Rochester athletes, the only other girl besides Jensen to compete in a final was Mayo's Farah Salama. The senior finished 14th in the long jump, going 17-feet-1/4.
In the preliminaries, Mayo star Hannah Hanson advanced to the finals in the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles, finishing fourth and third, respectively. The Century 4x200 relay team of Favor Omoijuanfo, Clara Gerhard, Madison Habberstad and Megan Lund were third in their preliminary race with a school-record 1:42.54 time. It was that same group of four that had hoped to defend its state championship in the 4x100 but was disqualified from the race in its Section One meet on a technicality.
Century's Sophia Comfere qualified for finals in the 400 and the Mayo relay team of Hanson, Kendra Horsman, Shannon Chen and Sofia Haakenson made it in the 4x400 relay.
Thursday's individual results:
https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/516328/results/all
