Goals set beyond running for Hackenmiller
By Kristi Nixon
ST. ANSGAR — Goal-setting for Saint senior Bradley Hackenmiller is so much more than what he aims to do on the track.
Certainly, he wants to follow in the footsteps of certain former Saint Ansgar stand-outs who recently graduated, but he also wants to honor the memory of his father, Eric.
“My goal, one, is to live up to last year’s seniors,” Hackenmiller said. “Braden Powers and Ryan Cole, living up to their legacy, being able to compete in multiple events and do good in all of those events, which is what we want to do.
“Secondly, to commemorate my dad’s memory. Just do as good as I can since this is my last year. He never was able to see me run track; that is one of my biggest motivators.”
His father, while driving his pickup, was struck by a semi-trailer that had run a stop sign on Dec. 8, 2020, and passed away 10 days later.
“He didn’t see it coming,” Bradley said. “He got hit by a semi and passed away. He tried as much as he could to come to every event (I competed in). I know he is watching. He took days off of work just to come watch me play football and baseball and everything. He was quite the supporter.”
A heavy thing indeed for a high school athlete to face, Hackenmiller sets his face with a determination when he talked about his father and competing.
He, like three-time 2022 Drake Relays qualifier Riley Witt, won all four events they ran on Monday, April 11 as the Saint boys won their portion of the co-ed home meet, scoring 154.4 to out-distance second-place Forest City (87.4). The duo ran the final two legs of the victorious 4×400 relay, which finished just four seconds off of the then-current Drake Relays cut-off. Also running the event were Drew Powers and Lorne Isler.
Along with his goals, that was one of the things he had his sights set on as the Blue Standard deadline approaching on April 21.
“I definitely thought of qualifying for Drake,” Hackenmiller said…
The full story appears in the April 20 issue of the Enterprise Journal.
