Austin freshman sprinter Carolyn Hackel has had a fantastic season so far.

She won Section 1AA and Big Nine titles in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and she set the school record in the 100 three times this season.

But she’s not done yet.

Hackel will compete in the Class ‘AA’ state preliminaries at Hamline University in St. Paul, and she may have to run a little faster than she has if she wants to reach Saturday’s finals.

“I’m not one of the top seeded times, but it’ll push me to go faster and do better than I have all season,” Hackel said.

Hackel, who will be the first Packer girl to compete in two events at state since 2007, is seeded ninth in the 100-meter dash and 15th in the 200-meter dash, where she was a quarter of a second from setting a school record in that event at the Section 1AA meet.

Hackel would love to set that record at state and she’d love to be one of the nine runners who advance to the finals in both events.

“Making it to state is huge, but if I broke the (200-meter) record at state, that would be a double whammy,” she said. “I want to get to the finals so bad. I think my family’s making t-shirts, so they might as well wear them twice.”

Hackel has seen her speed increase over the past few weeks as she’s spent a lot of practice time running with the boys team. She said that’s given her a huge lift when she competes against other girls.

“I don’t like losing and running in practice with the boys helped a lot,” she said. “Even though I lost every time because they’re so fast, it pushed me to do better and it paid off.”

Hackel has already competed in two state meets as a gymnast, but she’s ready to see what the state track and field meet is all about.

“Since I’ve been in gymnastics so long, making it to state is something that I just expect to do,” she said. “Making it in track, especially my freshman year, is just huge and it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished so much.”

While Hackel is making her first trip to state, Austin junior Omot Okello is making his second career trip to the state track and field meet.

Okello, competed in the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles while running for Worthington at the Class ‘A’ meet last season. But he’ll be against some tougher competition this year as he enters the ‘AA’ field where he will be seeded 20th in the 110-meter hurdles.

Okello didn’t run his best time of the season at sections, but his mark of 15.13 seconds was below the state standard time.

“Hopefully I can do a little better at state,” Okello said. “I’m pretty excited and I’m going to go up there and see what I can do.”

Okello’s been fighting off a quad injury for the past couple of weeks and he still isn’t 100 percent healthy. But there’s no way he isn’t going to give it his all at state.

“The problem is I can’t sprint for a very long,” he said. “It still hurts, but during a race I don’t think about it. I’ll take care of my leg after the race.”

Hackel is scheduled to run the 100-meter dash Friday at 10:05 a.m. and the 200-meter dash is scheduled to start at 12:15 p.m.

Okello is scheduled to run in the 110-meter hurdles Friday at 9:52 a.m.

AREA SEEDINGS

Class ‘AA’

BOYS

Austin junior Omot Okello is seeded 20th out of 25 runners in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.13 seconds.

Apple Valley’s Kevin Davis has the fastest qualifying time (14.43 seconds) in the field.

GIRLS

Austin freshman Carolyn Hackel is seeded ninth out of 16 runners in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.45 seconds. Hackel is seeded 15th out of 17 runners in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.92 seconds.

Osseo’s Anuli Oknowo is the fastest seeded runner in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25 seconds, while Alexandria’s Wensia Johnson and St. Paul Johnson’s Natasha Moore are tied for the best qualifying time (12.14 seconds) in the 100-meter dash.

Class ‘A’

BOYS

Blooming Prairie senior Gabe Kartes is seeded eighth out of 16 athletes in the triple jump, which will be held Friday at 3 p.m.

Kartes’ best jump of his career is 43-2.25 and Eric Miklausich of Marshall-Duluth is the top-seed with a distance of 44-4.50.

GIRLS

The Grand Meadow-LeRoy-Ostrander-Southland 4 x 200-meter relay team of Sydney Bendtsen, Elizabeth May, Addison Tapp and Betsy Oswald has the seventh best qualifying time (1:47.18) out of 16 teams.

A team from Chatfield has the fastest qualifying time (1:45.58).

GMLOS freshman McKenzie Kirtz has the 10th best qualifying time (5:16.90) in the 1600-meter run.

Emi Trost of Cannon Falls has the fastest qualifying time (4:59.40)

May, a junior, is seeded seventh in the 400-meter dash out of 16 runners with a qualifying time of 59.71 seconds.

Sauk Centre’s Elizabeth Hemsworth has the fastest qualifying time at 56.99 seconds.

GMLOS junior Danielle Hanson has the eighth fastest qualifying time (46.78 seconds) in the 300-meter hurdles out of 16 runners.

Jaelin Beachy of Staples-Motley has the fastest qualfying time at 46.12 seconds.

The GMLOS 4 x 400-meter relay team of Bendtsen, Hanson, Oswald, and May is seeded fourth out of 16 teams with a time of 4:05.37.

A team from Osakis has the fastest qualifying time (3:59.02)

GMLOS’s Morgan Schmitz is seeded 17th out of 18 throwers with a distance of 101-5 in the discus.

Ashley Thooft of St. Clair has the best qualifying throw (137-4).