Perham freshmen compete at Nike Outdoor Nationals in Oregon
Julianna Scraper, Brody Freeland and Ethan Johnson took Perham to Hayward Field, where the freshmen measured themselves against the nation’s best and carried a state-title program behind them.
Three Perham freshmen raced on one of track and field’s biggest stages when Julianna Scraper, Brody Freeland and Ethan Johnson represented the Yellowjackets at Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, Oregon. The meet ran June 18-22 at Hayward Field, giving the trio a chance to line up against some of the best ninth-graders in the country.
For a school listed by the Minnesota State High School League as a Class 8AA program with an enrollment of 473, getting three freshmen to a national meet was notable in itself. It also came after a spring that already had Perham producing results on the state level, including a boys 4x800 relay that repeated as champion at the June 5-6 MSHSL Class AA meet at St. Michael-Albertville High School.
Freeland and Johnson were part of that relay strength all season. Freeland’s freshman outdoor marks on Athletic.net were 4:38.98 in the 1600 meters and 9:43.33 in the 3200 meters, and he also ran on Perham’s 4x400 and 4x800 relay teams. Johnson posted even faster freshman bests, with 4:37.50 in the 1600 and 9:41.62 in the 3200, while also contributing to relay lineups that kept Perham competitive through the spring.
Scraper’s freshman season showed the same steady pattern. Her outdoor marks were 5:29.97 in the 1600 and 11:46.17 in the 3200, along with relay appearances that kept her in the middle of Perham’s distance depth. Taken together, the three bios show athletes who did not arrive in Eugene on one breakthrough race, but on months of progress across individual events and relays.
That is what makes the trip to Oregon matter for Otter Tail County. Perham did not just send runners to a national meet. It sent three freshmen from the same small program, to the same venue that has hosted generations of elite performances, and asked them to measure their place against the country’s best. For the Yellowjackets, the next season will be shaped by what those freshmen bring back from Hayward Field, and by how a state-title program turns national experience into its next round of results.
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