The dominance by the Rochester Mayo girls in the All-City meet had to end sometime, right. Well, Thursday it did.
Mayo had won seven straight All-City championships but Century ended that in spectacular fashion, rolling up 191 points, enough even to beat John Marshall (64.5), Mayo (59.5), Lourdes (43) and Schaeffer Academy (10) combined.
"This meet is not our primary focus,'' said Century coach Kris Allen, "but, yes, it is nice to win. "Our program is not set up to run our best times now. We're set up to run our best in June.''
How dominant was Century? The Panthers won three of four relays, six field events and five of eight on the track.
"We lost a lot from last year,'' said Mayo coach Brett Carroll, "and are real young. It reminds me of the team we had four years ago. I like to think that we are rebuilding and will only get better.''
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Winning two events each for Century were Andi Jacobs (low, high hurdles), Jenny Guibert (200, 400), Shannon Brakke (long jump, triple jump) and Bethany Schultz (discus, polel vault).
And this is not a one-shot deal. "We are a junior-dominated team,'' said Allen. "When these girls were eighth graders, I told them to just stick it out. You'll see, you will get better.
"And here we are.''
Members of the winning 800 relay for JM were Cassandra Jacobson, Skky Martin, Allyson Sherden and Tori Thompson.
• The boys meet was much closer, but Mayo won its fourth straight championship with 128 points. Century was second with 109.5 followed by Lourdes (79.5) and John Marshall (53).
And Mayo was not at full strength. The Spartans are sending eight to tonight's Hamline Elite Meet at Hamline University where only the top athletes in the state based on times and distances are invited.
The Spartans' best runner, for example, Riley Macon will run in the Elite 3200 tonight. Thursday, he skipped both the open 1500 and 3200 and ran just a leg on the winning 3200 relay.
Senior Nate Tolliver also qualified to run in the Elite meet in the 300 hurdles, and he warmed up by winning both the 110 and 300 hurdles in the All-City.
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Mayo will also send its 1600 relay (Eric Karsten, Toliver, Ben Cole and Luke Meyer) and 3200 relay (Kruger, Cole, Steve Schimmel and Ryan Pewowaruk) to the Elite meet.
For Mayo, the Elite will be its fourth meet in seven days.
Century and Lourdes each won six events, Mayo 4 and JM 2. Senior Josh Frei captured the 1500 and senior Malcolm Wallaker the shot put.
For Lourdes it was a giant step forward. The Eagles have been at or near the bottom of this meet for years.
"It's been awhile, but it's fun to be in the hunt,'' said Jerome Garry, in his third year as head coach. "Like the old saying, success breeds success. It's been awhile since the kids are wearing track and field gear around school.''
The Eagles dominated the sprints. Brian Williamson and Adam Wade were 1-2 in the 100, Kane Carstens won the 200 and his twin brother McKay Carstens the 400.
• The Lourdes boys "won'' but were later disqualified in the 800 relay for being out of the exchange zone.
• Winners of the Kevin Langlie Scholarship Award were Courtney Stevens of Century and Ryan Brandt of Lourdes. Stevens plans on attending BYU and Brandt the University of Minnesota.
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The scholarship is in honor of former JM runner Kevin Langlie, who died after a hiking accident.
