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True-team track - sponsored by the Minnesota State Track and Field Coaches Association - tries to gauge team strength and depth by having each team enter two participants in individual events and one relay and awarding team points for all places.

Normally, meets award points only to the top six or top eight placers. True-team track rewards teams whose next finisher might run ninth, instead of 12th or 14th. At the true-team section meet, first place got 14 points, second 13, etc., until 1 point for 14th place.

Paynesville, which is short on numbers this year for the boys' varsity, placed sixth, about where coach Todd Spanier expected. The Dogs trailed St. John's Prep by ten points. Spanier said he hoped that the team could finish fifth and noted that some athletes really stepped it up at the meet.

The Dogs' best event was the pole vault, where junior Aaron Bachman placed first and eighth grader Nathan Friederichs placed fifth, earning 25 team points for the Dogs. "The pole vault was a great event for us," said Spanier. "Aaron won with his best vault of the year (11' 6"). Nathan had a personal best vault of 10'."

Friederichs, Spanier noted, is trying to break Bachman's eighth-grade record in the pole vault, 10' 6".

Other strong events for the Dogs were the 3,200-meter run (19 team points), 110-meter hurdles (16 team points), shot put (16 team points), and 100-meter dash (15 team points). (At a seven-team true-team meet, 15 points is the average, what a team can expect if it finishes first and 14th or seventh and eighth.)

In the 3,200-meter run, junior Dugan Flanders ran second, and eighth grader Jamison Wall was ninth. Flanders doubled in the 1,600-meter run and the 3,200-meter run, and Wall ran the 3,200-meter run for the first time this year, noted Spanier.

In the 110-meter hurdles, sophomore Travis Flannigan was sixth and Bachman was eighth. Flannigan recorded three top ten finishes for the Dogs in the meet.

In the shot put, senior Josh Binsfeld was sixth, and sophomore Cole Kampsen was eighth.

And, in the 100-meter dash, sophomore Bryce Fischbach was seventh, and senior Eric Hansen was eighth.

The Dogs, added Spanier, needed their athletes to carry heavy loads at the true-team meet just to field a complete team. Ninth grader Alex Svejkovsky, for example, ran two 800s and a 400 last week.

This week, the Dogs will compete for All Conference honors at the WCC North meet at Melrose on Thursday, May 19.

Team Scores

Holdingford--	370
Atwater-Cosmos-GroveCity--	309
Yellow Medicine East--	278
Morris--	251
St. John's Prep--	202
Paynesville--	192
Osakis--	161

Individual Results
110-meter hurdles: Travis Flannigan, sixth, 18.22; Aaron Bachman, eighth, 19.26;
300-meter hurdles: Curt Forster, eighth, 46.91; Bachman, ninth, 47.14;
100-meter dash: Bryce Fischbach, seventh, 11.98; Eric Hansen, eighth, 12.01;
200-meter dash: Hansen, ninth, 25.29; Fischbach, 11th, 25.57;
400-meter dash: Hansen, 12th, 1:00.35; Fischbach, 13th, 1:00.37;
800-meter run: Nathan Friederichs, 10th, 2:33.02; Alex Svejkofsky, 13th, 2:42.73;
1,600-meter run: Dugan Flanders, sixth, 5:14.69; Kody Nehowig, 13th, 5:38.77;
3,200-meter run: Flanders, second, 11:28.97; Jamison Wall, ninth, 11:58.43;
400-meter relay: Paynesville, fifth, 50.05;
800-meter relay: Paynesville, seventh, 1:48.07;
1,600-meter relay: Paynesville, seventh, 4:11.37;
3,200-meter relay: Paynesville, fifth, 10:06.20;
Discus: Cole Kampsen, ninth, 100' 7"; Josh Binsfeld, 11th, 99' 10";
Shot put: Binsfeld, sixth, 37' 1/2"; Kampsen, eighth, 36' 5 1/2";
High jump: Flannigan, seventh, 5' 4";
Long jump: Fischbach, eighth, 17' 6"; Hansen, 12th, 16' 1 1/2";
Triple jump: Flannigan, ninth, 36'; Mike Houske, 14th, 30' 2 1/4";
Pole vault: Bachman, first, 11' 6"; Friederichs, fifth, 10'.