“I just have to be grateful, and happy to be here even though it wasn’t my best race,” Onyejekwe said. “It def helped get out my first state meet jitters. I just feel like this meet, this environment helped me adapt to this pressure. It was an amazing experience.”

Hauser set a PR in the 1600m, and one junior placed ahead of him.

Knights junior Henry Hauser races in the 1600m at the state meet.“I was pretty happy. I came in tired because we had just run the trials and it was very fast. I definitely had to wok really hard for that last 400,” Hauser said. “I’m very excited also for what it could mean for next year especially since there are very few juniors, and I’m excited to get after that, and have a good cross country season, too.”

The Knights 4x800 of juniors Joseph Hurd and Oliver Olbekson, senior Amay Srinivasan and Hauser won gold with a meet-record at the section championships. Jack Harman and Tolliver Bates served as alternates. Menlo was ninth in 7:50.67.

“We were all grateful and happy to get here and to be able to compete,” said Srinivasan, who, with Hauser, picked off a few runners at the end to move up to ninth. “I just wanted to be able to give Henry the baton in a good spot. I knew we had it in us to compete and get back to the podium and I think we just trusted our training. I really want to leave it all out there for them, especially since it was my last race. I’m just thankful for these four years.”