A number of US Olympic and national cross country ski team members have excelled at Minnesota state track and field and cross country meets: Todd Boonstra (Burnsville), Barb Jones (St. Paul Central), Ian Torchia (Rochester Lourdes), Ben Husaby (Eden Prairie), Kevin Brochman and Todd Kampainen are premier examples.
Three-time Olympian Todd Boonstra (pictured below winning a race in 1980) placed 3rd in the 1979 state cross country meet and Kevin Brochman (pictured below as the nordic ski coach at St. Olaf College) and Todd Kempainen were members of Stillwater and Hopkins’ vaunted cross country teams respectively which have competed regularly at the state meet. Ian Torchia also placed 3rd in the state cross country meet (2013) and 4th in the 1,600-meter run at the state track and field meet in 2014 (behind Class A record-setting winner Shane Streich of Waseca).
Olympian (2002) Barb Jones (pictured below, now a physician in Utah) was runner-up four times at Minnesota state track meets. Examine the list of notable runners she came behind: Carrie Tollefson (Dawson-Boyd and Lac qui Parle Valley), Kara Wheeler (Duluth East), Heather Anderson (Osseo) and JoAnna Deeter (Eden Prairie). Both Carrie Tollefson and Kara Wheeler became NCAA cross country champions and Olympians in middle- and long-distance running.
Ben Husaby is another cross country ski Olympian who was a runner-up at the state track meet to another Olympian: Bob Kempainen. In a photo finish, Kempainen nipped Husaby by .01 second in the memorable 1984 3,200-meter race with a time of 9:16.95.
Remember Mary Jo Miller, the phenomenal three-sport athlete from Milroy? She accepted a basketball scholarship to Kansas State and set a long-standing career record in assists for the Wildcats. In track, she placed in the state meet from 7th grade through her junior year in the 100-meter dash or long jump every year from 1984-88. Three of those years she was defeated to a Windom speedster named Heather Van Norman, later a track star at LSU and the mother of NFL football wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr.
Jed Reisetter brought the name of Travion Clark, a rugby player one rung below the national team level to our attention. He was runner-up in the 2013 200-meter dash and ran collegiately at University of Arkansas—Little Rock.
And Patrick D. Lanin knows sports history! He listed Clarence “Biggie” Munn as a state track champion in the shot put. Yes, in 1927, Biggie, of Minneapolis North, heaved the shot 48-5-3/4 and placed second in the discus and javelin, then repeated his title in 1928 along with claiming the javelin crown and again placing as runner-up in the discus. Munn gained notoriety as the Michigan State football coach in the 1950s.
Interested in another article on this topic? Please keep the nominations coming.
Minnesota Athletes 