Athlete of the Week - Tyler Gunnarson, St. Charles Track & Field

ST. CHARLES, Minn. (KTTC) – In track you need a good start.

“When they say set you bring your shoulders up on the gun you drop your shoulders and your arms as fast as you can,” Tyler Gunnarson said.

The St. Charles Sophomore used a good start and more to break an all-time Minnesota state record in the 100-meter wheelchair dash at 15.91, the first wheeler in history to break 16.

“I didn’t really know it until after the race that I got the record so, felt even better after that,” Gunnarson said.

He then followed that up with another state record in the 400-meter leaving Coach Eric Klein speechless.

“This is the first time we’ve unleashed him outdoors so looks pretty good for the first meet,” St. Charles Head Coach Eric Klein said.

“I don’t know that I anticipated it this soon which is super exciting, but this is just a product of everything that Tyler has been doing.”

The kicker, the previous marks were set by Tyler’s brother Peyton who had some words for little bro.

“He told me to me to get off the dope,” Gunnarson said.

All jokes aside.

“I’ve always had a brother to chase so I mean eventually I thought I would be able to, but I guess not this soon,” Gunnarson.

It’s a credit to Tyler’s work ethic and talent.

“You could just see the power, like there was this new power that we hadn’t had a year ago,” Klein said.

But most of all.

“He has this gift and he’s so humble. And the product of that is the results that you saw on Friday and everything that has yet to come,” Klein said.

“The product is him coming from injuries and coming back from them with the right mindset.”

As for the other records.

“He’s such a nice guy he left his brother’s 200 record for another week,” Klein said.

“I’m definitely going for them,” Gunnarson said.

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