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Anikan Larson finished his high school track and field career at the Minnesota State Track & Field meet held at St. Michael-Albertsville on June 10th and 11th. Normally, sixteen entrants qualify for the state meet in each event as the top two finishers from each of the eight sections automatically advance. Athletes can also qualify by meeting a performance standard. This year eleven runners met that standard to bring the total number of 400 meter dash runners to twenty seven.
Anikan was joined by his coach Tim Bobeldyk and teammate Andrew Holm at the state meet. He was slated to run at 5:30 Tuesday night but arrived early enough to get a warm up on the track and watch the earlier competitions. As the meet went on, he focused his attention on preparing himself for his race. By his section performance time, Anikan was assigned to lane seven in the first heat. Unfortunately, that would mean he would be the out most runner with all other runners inside of him, limiting his view of the other competitors.
Going into the race, Anikan knew he would have to have a great start to get a time that would be in the top nine and qualify him for finals. As the gun went off, Anikan went for it and started off strong. Most runners kept an even stagger for the first 200 meters. As they rounded the curve at the 300 mark, a few of the runners pulled ahead. Anikan held on right behind them fighting to the end. As they crossed the finish line, his supporters waited to see his fourth place finish pop up on the display board. From there, it would be a wait to see how the times in the other three heats compared to his. Although his time was just three tenths from his personal best, it wouldn’t be enough to advance him on to the finals on day two. He would end up with an 18th place finish out of the 27 runners.
In all, Anikan was proud of his performance and the experience he had at the state meet as was his coach, teammate, parents and other family members in attendance. As his days of donning a purple and black track uniform are over, he will substitute the purple for yellow as he plans on running at Gustavus Adolphus College next year.
