Century's Nathan Nelson vaults himself into the state track-and-field record book

Jun. 8—ST. MICHAEL — Jarod White set the state-meet record in the pole vault last year, his senior season at Pine Island. White cleared 16 feet.

One year later, a guy from about 10 miles down the road from White has broken that mark. Century senior Nathan Nelson did that on Thursday in the Class AAA meet at St. Michael-Albertville. He went 16-1, or 7 inches higher than he'd ever gone before.

Nelson said he could see this coming. At least sort of.

"I had a good practice the day before the meet, the weather was great today — sunny, a good temperature, a slight wind — and everything seemed perfect for a personal record," Nelson said. "Plus, there was a great vaulting community here today. We were all supporting each other. It was amazing to see all of them."

Turned out that everything was just right not for only a PR, but a state-meet record.

It made sense that Nelson was the one to do it. He'd been climbing, climbing, climbing the past few years. As a sophomore he finished third at state with a 14-3 mark, then was second as a junior, going 15 feet.

"It was after I went 14-3 as a sophomore that I realized that I could go a lot higher," said Nelson, also a Century sprinter.

He sure did that, just as he got more serious with his weight training and other summer workouts.

This year, Nelson upped his personal best to 15-7 and had just missed at 15-8 in this past Saturday's section meet.

Everything was coming together for a guy who in the fall will compete at the University of Wisconsin. That especially included his technique.

"Nathan had gotten a piece of advice on Tuesday to let go of his pole faster," Century longtime pole vault coach Ray Ashworth said. "He'd been holding on to it a little too long in the end. But he took that advice and he used it. It made a real difference in his final few vaults."

Now that Nelson has done it, gotten a state championship and a state record to boot, he said it was time to do some celebrating. But he was doing it Nelson style, low-keying it.

"I'll celebrate by going home and probably eating some good food," he said.

JM's Bryant pulls up lame

There was some heartbreak for John Marshall sprinter Keondre Bryant on Thursday.

Bryant entered the state meet with the top state-qualifying time in Class AAA, 10.86. He did that this past Saturday in the Section 1AAA meet at Lakeville South.

It was one of the few races that Bryant had run this season due to a lingering left hamstring injury. But he got through it Saturday and hoped better health would stick with him throughout the state meet.

Well, it didn't. Bryant pulled up lame about 30 meters into his 100 preliminary race on Thursday morning, then had to gimp to the finish line. It means he's not qualified for Saturday's finals.

Bryant has been through a lot in his life. That includes him losing his father a few years ago to cancer.

So, with those tougher experiences in mind, he says he'll certainly get through this one.

"Things happen in life," said Bryant, who will play football and run track this coming school year at Minnesota State University, Mankato. "This won't break me. I'll get through it."

JM sprints coach Brandon Stanek went away extremely proud of Bryant.

"It's a hard way to end, that is for sure," Stanek said. "But to come here on the biggest stage and be the No. 1 seed coming in, he worked his butt off to get to that point. I am really proud of the work he put in. I couldn't be more proud of the progress he made through the year. He did everything we asked. He was really receptive to coaching and was pulling out all the stops."

Thursday's other results

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. Finals are Saturday.

Mayo's Ryan Gwaltney was the only Rochester runner to participate in the 3,200. The senior finished 13th in a personal-record 9:33.44. The winner, Robbinsdale Armstrong senior Noah Breker, won the race in a meet-record 8:51.44. Second place would have also been a meet record, Minneapolis Washburn's Aidan Jones finishing in 8:54.48. The previous mark was 8:57.07.

In the triple jump, Century's Shaun Wysocki was 14th (42-feet-8 1/4) and John Marshall's Zach Ladu 15th (42-5 3/4). Both are juniors.

Century's Mile Prochnow was 14th in the shot put with a heave of 46-7. Hayden Bills of Rosemount set a state-meet record in the event with a throw of 66-7 1/2. The old mark was 65-4 1/4.

In a pair of preliminary races, Mayo star Carter Holcomb qualified for finals in the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles. He was fourth and sixth in those, respectively.

Individual results:

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/516328/results/all