Here is a roundup of area standouts at the Class 2A state track and field meet Saturday at St. Michael-Albertville High School:

Naomi Moore, Simley

The junior took home the title in the 100-meter dash after falling short the two years prior, and she set a new class record of 14.49 seconds. She credits her team and support system for getting over the hump this time around.

“I’ve been pushing really hard to get first this year, and it feels really good achieving that,” Moore said. “My main head coach was the one who helped me start hurdling; she really inspired me to keep going… (All my coaches) have really kept me motivated to keep going.”

Thomas Lamkin, Red Wing

Thomas, a senior and Boston University commit in track field, won the 100-meter dash in 10.76 seconds for his second consecutive title. He was unsure whether he’d even compete in the section meet as he dealt with nagging injuries that worsened throughout the season.

“I honestly just thought my season was over,” Lamkin said of his injuries. “I told my coach, ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a good season like I did last year.’ But I managed to get second in both (the 100 and 200) somehow and qualified.”

“My senior year has really just been plagued with injuries. … I strained my groin, my hamstring, and it just kept on moving. Champions season was coming up and you just got to go regardless, healthy or not, because they’re not going to give you a free pass to state. You got to go qualify for it,” he added.

Lamkin placed third in the 200 (22.12), which was won by Parker Peterson of Hutchinson in 21.68.

Carter Reckelberg, Becker

The junior has been involved with track and field since he was 8 years old competing in summer competitions for USATF and in AAU meets. The years of work paid off after he secured the long jump state title. His winning jump of 23 feet, 3/4 inches was over a foot longer than the next best jumper. Four of his six jumps either tied for or surpassed the second-place jump.

“I’ve done track all the way up until now,” Reckelberg said. “It’s my ninth year… It feels good with all the hard work and preparation I’ve put in the offseason, working with Antoine Holly from Minnesota Triathlete, just a lot of jumping.”

Brooke Hohenecker, Providence Academy

A varsity track athlete since the seventh grade, the senior capped off her high school career with a sweep in the 100 (12.07), 200 (24.52), and 400 (56.35). The University of St. Thomas commit recently came across a journal from when she was little, and one of the goals written in it was to win three events at state by the end of her high school career.

“It’s been a part of my life since forever,” Hohenecker said. “It’s just been such a fun ride with all my coaches and stuff, supporting me and pushing me to be the best version of myself.

“I’ve always had the goal in mind to make it to state and hopefully win all my events, and I feel very proud to say that I’ve been able to do that. It’s just an unreal feeling.”

Lorenzo Hampton III, Fridley

Hampton became a standout hurdler after one of his coaches recommended he give it a try as an eighth-grade varsity athlete. Three years later, he was the only sophomore competing against a field of juniors and seniors in the 300-meter final, and he won in 37.66 seconds, edging Alexandria’s Otto Anderson by .34 seconds.

In last year’s prelims, Hampton fell coming off the curve and finished eighth. He said the incident was “devastating” but knew he’d be back.

“I try not to think about it too much because being there in the ninth grade, it was really, really scary,” Hampton said of his mindset coming into this year’s state race. “It’s a huge comeback. … It makes me feel way better, and as a sophomore, it’s a dream. It’s only up from here.”

Grazina Troup, Minnehaha Academy

Troup, a junior, went through a phase of trying many different events in hopes of finding the right one for her. She eventually found peace in the triple jump last season. Now, she’s a state champion in just her second year competing in the event, with a winning jump of 38-5 1/4. Ayisat Adebayo of Simley was runner-up at 38-4 1/2.

“I didn’t know what I was going to be best at,” Troup said. “I tried a bunch of different running events. Eventually, I was about to find an event that suits me the best, and I feel like triple jump and jumping in general has been my best spot. … I’m very proud of myself.”

Parker Peterson, Hutchinson

The senior began running track just three years ago and instantly fell in love with it. Through all the training he puts into his craft in the summer, along with pushing through injuries he sustained during football season, he capped off his short career with a state title in the 200 (21.68), edging Mound-Westonka’s Jack Markstrom by .22 seconds.

“I’ve just been fighting to increase my times and to get better,” Peterson said. “I trained all summer. Every day I was running just to get that high speed, and it takes a lot but it’s worth it.”

“I suffered an ankle injury during football that I’ve been kind of ignoring. I was really worried about being able to maintain and increase my times, but it’s been a fight, and I’m happy with how it turned out.”

Austin Rivers couldn’t believe what he was watching.

Dallas reserve guard Jaden Hardy had the ball at the top of the floor in the final 10 seconds of the third quarter of Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals. Hardy was being guarded by Kyle Anderson.

And Dallas ran a ball screen to get Anthony Edwards switched onto Hardy.

“They were looking for Ant on switches,” Rivers said last week on The Ryen Russillo Podcast. “And I had to (sit) back in my seat like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, there’s no way they’re calling Ant up for a pick-and-roll switch. He’s one of the best defenders in the league on the ball.’”

It took Hardy all of a couple dribbles to get past Edwards and to the basket for a layup.

“They knew he was tired and gassed and trying to hide, and they called him up,” said Rivers, who was a teammate of Edwards a year ago and now is an NBA commenter. “There’s no way they should ever be picking on Ant on defense. Should never happen. He’s too good of a defender, and I saw that multiple times (in Game 4). And we’re not even talking about Kyrie (Irving) and Luka (Doncic). We’re talking about like their fourth guard, trying to find Ant on a switch to go by him. That can’t happen.”

A day after Minnesota was eliminated from the West finals by Dallas in five games, Anderson was speaking to his father, who told him it looked like the Wolves simply “hit a wall.” The forward concurred.

“Just felt like we didn’t have the same juice that we had in the Denver and Phoenix series, and sometimes you don’t even realize it,” Anderson said. “You try to stay away from that, think I got energy or I’m ready to go. We just didn’t have that same pop on both sides of the ball as a unit too in the Dallas series, as we did in Denver and as we did all season, as we did in Phoenix. Tough.”

That starts with Edwards, Minnesota’s best player and barometer for success. When he’s playing with a certain vigor, the Timberwolves are awfully tough to stop. But he just didn’t seem to have it throughout the West finals.

After lighting the NBA world on fire through his first six postseason bouts this spring, Edwards’ gas tank started to wane. At points in the Dallas series, he appeared to be teetering toward “E.”

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch noted after the series that the value of fitness was a lesson learned for Minnesota in its playoff run.

“Mentally, physical fatigue becomes a real thing the deeper you go. The number of minutes you’re playing, the load, the intensity. Everything goes up,” Finch said. “I think, over time, it probably took its toll on us a bit more.”

It’s a challenge, for sure. It’s not easy to outlast the defending champions in a seven-game series — with four of the contests played at altitude — and then turn around 72 hours later and play another top-tier team.

“That doesn’t mean that you can’t be in better shape or frame of mind for it,” Finch said. “Yeah, every step you go it gets harder and harder. That’s what makes it so special. Your level of detail, execution and all that stuff has to continue to go up.”

On Thursday, Finch told Paul Allen on KFXN-FM 100.3 that Edwards now knows what deep postseason runs are going to look like.

“I think the physical and the mental fatigue that he needs to overcome as the series go on and on,” Finch told Allen. “The playoffs, in many ways, are kind of a war of attrition — whether it be injuries or stamina.”

Edwards is asked to carry a heavy load for Minnesota. He often has to take on a difficult defensive assignment while also supplying the bulk of the offense. That’s a lot, but it’s his reality. And if the Wolves are to push for a title, he has to be able to deliver night in and night out for two straight months.

Immediately after the Game 5 loss to Dallas, Edwards acknowledged exactly that.

“I’ve never played this deep into a basketball season. So now I know, like, OK, in order for me to be dominant in the third round and if we get past this and finally go to the Finals, I’ve got to train like I’m going to go to the playoffs,” he said. “So I can’t be missing training days, I can’t take days off, you know what I mean? I’ve got to be ready.”

Edwards said he didn’t train the previous offseason as though he was going to make a deep run with Minnesota. He plans to train this summer in the same way he did when he was entering his freshman year at Georgia, which he said was “the best shape of my life.” That period of time included different types of training that made him uncomfortable.

That’s all well and good, but perhaps what’s more valuable than the work done  in July to prepare for 11 months from now is the work done in January and February. There’s no better way to brace your body to go at a high intensity every other day during the playoffs than to do so in the regular season.

That’s something Edwards hasn’t done to date. Certainly, he always makes himself available. The guard — who will turn 23 in August — played 79 games in each of the past two regular seasons. But he does give some contests far more of his attention than others. You can circle games on the calendar when the schedule comes out that Edwards will likely downshift for.

For much of the past two seasons, Edwards simply wouldn’t compete at full throttle against cellar dwellers. He admitted as much late in the regular season.

“Usually these games I come out and don’t have no energy and look like I don’t want to be here, and Finchy been gettin’ on my (butt) about that the last couple games,” Edwards said during the regular season.

To his credit, Edwards turned it around in such contests, including a 51-point outing against Washington in the final week of the regular season. But those types of efforts — not outputs, but efforts — may need to become more of the norm if Edwards is to properly prepare his body for what’s to come when the season is on the line.

For the best teams, the regular season is about building habits that can carry them through the playoffs. Over his first six healthy NBA seasons, Michael Jordan scored below 15 points on just three occasions. Edwards did it 10 times this season alone on nights he was available for the whole game.

Scoring output isn’t always an indicator of anything, but for Edwards it often speaks to his mindset. Jordan may be too high of a bar for anyone else to be held to, but his nightly approach is one to which all — including Edwards — should aspire.

“I say this with respect, because I know (he was) in the conference finals — one (series win) away from the finals, and I know he has a lot on his shoulders — I think there’s a different level of stamina Ant can reach,” Rivers said to Russillo. “We had those comparisons to Mike and Kobe (Bryant)  and some of these guys that we’ve already thrown at Ant, and those are some heavy names. The one thing that we knew about those two guys is they did not get tired consistently. Their stamina was at an all-time high, whether that’s because of mental toughness, whether that’s because they lived in the gym. … There’s a different level of stamina with Ant.”

And, if he can find it within himself to reach it, look out.

“I know what it takes,” Edwards said, “and I’ll be ready.”

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Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb

The business of giving financial advice has changed dramatically over the past 30 to 40 years. When we started, the relationship was mostly transactional: Investors came to you to help them pick stocks and manage portfolios. At most firms, the emphasis was on “beating the market” and finding the next “hot stock.” Financial planning was nowhere to be found.

Most advisers today offer a new, distinctly different model for client engagement — one that consolidates every piece of an investor’s financial life into one place so that it can be managed more holistically.

The evolution

It may help to understand how far the industry has come since the 1970s and 1980s.

Older investors may have worked with stockbrokers in the past to help manage their money. This was a very different world. In the old days, the emphasis at most brokerage firms was on salesmanship and returns. Goals were very much directed to a future point in time — setting retirement at 65, for example, and gearing a portfolio around accumulation. Wall Street relied on armies of analysts who performed technical research into stocks, and often the process was rife with conflicts as the analysts supported the firm’s investment banking business. Overall, the process was transactional and performance-driven.

Since then, most practitioners have moved away from selling stocks or funds to an advisory model that is oriented toward helping investors achieve their goals. It views wealth not as an end point but as a fluid journey, guided by a unified, holistic, comprehensive plan that’s tailored to each client’s individual situation. To address their clients’ more complex wealth management challenges, today’s advisers draw not so much on individual technical training and processes but rather on the collective wisdom and perspective of small adviser teams who focus on addressing clients’ individual needs.

How advisers add value

We’ve found that forming a relationship with each client is a unique experience. No two clients are alike, so it’s important that there’s the right fit between what clients need and the adviser’s range of services.

People usually decide to hire an adviser when they settle into a career, start a family, or experience some other major life event. With busy lives, many find they don’t have the time or inclination to manage their finances themselves.

It’s not all about investment returns. The greatest value that an adviser can add is in seven areas of financial planning:

1. Budgeting

You shouldn’t be investing until you’re confident you can stick to a monthly budget and manage debt. A good adviser will help you construct a manageable budget, let you know when your spending exceeds your means, and advise you when you need to dial it back. Holding you accountable to your vision of the life you want is a major benefit of working with an adviser.

2. Investment Access

Larger advisory firms may be able to offer you investment options at a lower cost than you might get on your own, as well as access to difficult, highly rated, hard-to-access managers that may be closed to new investors. If an adviser is charging you 1% of your assets each year to manage your money, all in, you may recoup as much as half of that amount in terms of lower total costs.

3. Asset allocation strategy

An adviser’s fee should include creating an asset allocation strategy tailored to your individual goals and risk tolerance. You receive value when the adviser monitors your account and manages any future adjustments to keep that allocation strategy on target — either quarterly or annually. This can save you valuable time.

4. Retirement planning

Many investors don’t understand the different ways that various retirement-focused accounts can be used in income planning: 401(k)/403(b), traditional IRA, Roth IRA, income ladders, annuities, or taxable accounts. When an adviser helps you diversify your tax exposure, you may be better positioned to make your money last longer in retirement.

5. Asset protection

Once you have accumulated financial and other types of assets, you need to manage risk. An adviser can help you purchase various types of insurance, including property and casualty, life, liability/umbrella, and special policies or riders to cover valuable art or collectibles.

6. Cohesive tax strategy

Many investors don’t understand the different tax treatments that apply to 401(k), traditional or Roth IRAs, or taxable accounts — or how to diversify their tax exposure. Advisers can help you decide when to take Social Security benefits or required minimum distributions (RMDs) — which can be surprisingly complicated, depending on your situation.

7. Estate and gift planning

A full-service advisory firm should be able to quarterback the creation of your legacy planning and gifting strategy — with input from your attorney and tax professional. This includes the creation of trusts to pass your wealth efficiently to future generations or to distribute gifts of cash or securities to your loved ones or favorite causes in a tax-smart way.

What you should expect

Today’s financial advisers are able to offer much more than simply recommending a basket of stocks or mutual funds and seeing which way the market takes you. The adviser who ultimately earns your trust and business should carefully and thoughtfully review your situation to make sure you are fully supported in expressing your values, gaining investment access, developing a resilient asset allocation strategy, fine-tuning a cohesive tax strategy, and carrying out legacy wishes with estate and gift planning.

Perhaps most importantly, your adviser should work with you to re-establish goals and reinforce the importance of structure and sticking to your plan — especially when markets get choppy, or life throws you curveballs.

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Your Money: Timely milestones on your retirement journey

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. There is no guarantee that asset allocation or diversification will enhance overall returns, outperform a non-diversified portfolio, nor ensure a profit or protect against a loss. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal.

Bruce Helmer and Peg Webb are financial advisers at Wealth Enhancement Group and co-hosts of “Your Money” on WCCO 830 AM on Sunday mornings. Email Bruce and Peg at yourmoney@wealthenhancement.com. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Wealth Enhancement Group and Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services are separate entities from LPL Financial.

 

NEAR ISLE ROYALE — The Michipicoten, a 689-foot laker, has taken on water after a collision with something under water on Lake Superior, 35 miles southwest of Isle Royale.

The U.S. Coast Guard, sharing the information on its USCG Great Lakes account on the social media platform X, said the incident happened at 6:53 a.m. Saturday and that 22 people were on board.

The Coast Guard also said a helicopter from Traverse City, Michigan and boat crews from Bayfield were on their way to the scene.

In updates on X, the Coast Guard said pumps operating on the Michipicoten have reduced the listing of the vessel from the initial report of 15 degrees to 5 degrees and that the ship is carrying taconite.

There are pumps on the ship to displace some water and there are currently no signs of spillage, according to the Coast Guard. The Edwin H. Gott is also on its way to the Michipicoten.

No injuries have been reported.

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