Grand Forks Central's Paul Shafer noted one difference between this season and his freshman year of track and field.
Speed.
It's turned the specialized distance runner into a versatile all-around track standout.
Shafer reached the North Dakota Class A state-qualifying standard in his fifth event Monday afternoon and narrowly missed out on his sixth as local athletes competed at the Last Chance meet at Cushman Field.
"Last year, I was strictly long distance," said Shafer, who eclipsed the qualifying time in the 400 on Monday with a first-place time of 52.05 seconds. "My speed has increased a lot from last year. It's allowed me to run things like the 400 that much better. My 800 has dropped quite a bit, too. Even in the triple jump, speed has probably helped there."
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Shafer, who entered the meet already qualified for state in the 800, mile, 4x800 relay and 4x400 relay, nearly qualified for the triple jump.
Shafer, in his first year of the event, had a jump of 39 feet, 6 inches. State qualifying is 41-5.
"I might do (triple jump) at EDC," Shafer said. "I'm full of events to do at state, though. I would just qualify for fun."
Just a sophomore, Shafer is Central's top scorer this season.
"Paul has had an outstanding year," Central coach Sean Allan said. "He helps us out in a lot of events. You don't often see an 800 runner that's also a triple jumper."
Shafer also ran the 200 meters on Monday for the first time this season.
"It was his first time using blocks," Allan said.
Shafer still managed to finish fifth in 24.52 seconds.
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Shafer led the Knights to a second-place team finish. Central finished with 184 points, 93 points behind winner Grand Forks Red River. The meet featured 10 teams.
Central had five other first-place winners. Ger Schmidt won the 300 hurdles, Casey Ford won the 100, Shane Harlow took the 3,200, Marshall Deem won the pole vault and Josh Satterfield won the triple jump.
Red River had six individual winners. Jimmy Evers won the 110 hurdles, Matt Loehr won the 200, Johnny Rosales won the 800, Brian Bjerk won the discus, Habimana Francios won the mile and Elby Pope won the long jump.
Bjerk, a sophomore, had a personal-record throw of 157 feet, 11 inches -- about 19 feet farther than his previous best toss.
On the girls side, Grand Forks Red River ran away with the team title. The Roughriders finished with 308½ points, followed by Grand Forks Central with 138½, Park River/Fordville-Lankin with 57½ and Hillsboro with 57.
Red River had eight first-place finishes. Hadley Steffen was the lone double winner with victories in the 200 and long jump. Ashley Weiland won the 100 hurdles, Rachel Todhunter won the 300 hurdles, Carolyn Shabb won the 100, Erin Wysocki won the 400, Ashley Zeitvogel won the pole vault and Brianna Dufault won the triple jump.
Central had three first-place finishes. Jessica Lindsay won the 800, Jaclyn Sand won the 3,200 and Kayla Simpson won the shot put.
