East Ridge boys track & field: Roese breaks 400-meter dash record at Elite Meet

The Hamline Elite Meet, “elite” because only athletes with the best times, heights and distances so far this season are invited to participate, has a new 400-meter dash record.

East Ridge High School junior Nate Roese set the new record last Friday, finishing in 48.72 seconds. The old record of 48.79 was set in 2007 by Quinn Evans of Mounds View.

Ironic for Raptors’ coach Shannon Rainey, who, before coaching at East Ridge, coached Evans at Mounds View.

“That was amazing for him to break that record,” said Rainey, citing Roese’s off-season conditioning and hard work as factors in this season’s success.

Roese joined Dayo Ogundepo, Val Huerta and Jarred Morris for the school’s 800-meter relay team, which also qualified for the meet. The tetrad took fourth place in 1:31.51. Wayzata won with 1:29.97.

“I was very pleased with that,” Rainey said. “It was a little bit windy and a little bit of rain, but I was pleased with their time.”

The Hamline Elite Meet was only one of two venues at which Raptors performed last Friday, as the remainder of the team competed at the University of St. Thomas. Though the divided venues meant the Raptors did not perform with a full staff, East Ridge still recorded notable performances: Junior Willie Neuenfeldt threw a personal best 48 feet, 1 inch in the shot put for second place, while junior Allen Swenson tied his PR in the pole vault with 12-6 to earn fourth place. Eighth-grader Kjetil Cline recorded a PR in the long jump, finishing in 18-7.75 for seventh place. Both Ogundepo and Emilio Huerta qualified for the 100 finals, Ogundepo finishing fifth with 11.96 and Emilio Huerta taking sixth with 12.08.

White Bear Lake won the meet with 129 points, while East Ridge was sixth out of nine teams with 27 points.

The previous day at the Spartan Invite in Richfield, East Ridge came in seventh as a team with 39.5 points. Hastings won with 170.5 points, followed by host Richfield, with 134.33. Junior Drew Del Toro earned fourth in the 110 hurdles and fifth in the 300 hurdles with times of 19.02 and 46.35, respectively. Sophomore Brad Bolton and junior Mitch Gable tied for third in the high jump, clearing 5-3.

The Raptors were scheduled to travel to Mounds View yesterday after the Bulletin went to press. The team will also compete at the Edina Invite on Friday. The meet will be the Raptors’ final competition before True Team Section on Thursday, May 10, in Stillwater.

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