John's Journal: First-Team All-State In Two Sports At The Same Time

Keira Friedrich has had a pretty good autumn season … or more accurately – and more plurally -- seasons. The junior at St. Peter High School completed her impressive fall at Saturday’s state cross-country meet, where she placed eighth in Class 2A.

She also plays on the Saints soccer team, and all she did in that sport was set a school record for goals in a season with 25. And to top it all off, she is a first- team All-State selection in both sports.

What she accomplished is almost unheard of. Two sports at once, two All-State first-team nods? That’s unreal.

“Honestly, I can't imagine not playing soccer but I really just love running, too,” Keira said in explaining why she does both.

She’s also an accomplished runner in the spring. At the 2024 state track meet, Keira finished fifth in the Class 2A 800 meters and fourth at 1,600 meters.

In recent weeks, she won the Big South Conference cross-country title with a school-record time in leading the Saints to the team title. The team also won the Section 2A team championship, with Friedrich placing second among individuals, and the Saints ran at the state meet Saturday as a team for the first time since 1997.

Keira’s sister Brielle, a seventh-grader, placed eighth at the Section 2A championships and was 48th at state on Saturday. Saints ninth-grader Lucia Penner was third in the section meet and 28th at state. Also running at state for St. Peter was junior Robin Hibscher, freshman Grace Penner, sophomore Kady Thoms and junior Addison Maxfield. As a team, St. Peter finished sixth in 2A.

Keira Friedrich finished 21^st at the state cross-country meet as a ninth-grader and 10^th last year. It’s a pretty safe bet that she will be back at state a year from now as a senior.

St. Peter allows athletes to compete in two sports at the same time as long as they declare one sport as their priority. Soccer is Keira’s main sport, so she is not a regular at cross-country practice. But the amount of running required in soccer works well with the conditioning needed for cross-country. The cross-country team works out together early on Friday mornings, and that’s often the only time Keira practices with the other runners.

“For most of the season I just see her Friday mornings, and then an occasional morning on a day when they may not have a soccer match,” said 33-year Saints cross-country coach Jeff Portugue.

“You want what's going to work for both teams, and it didn't make sense to me to have her go to a soccer practice and then go to a cross-country workout. I know Bre (girls soccer coach Bre Landsteiner) is working their tails off, so I'm not concerned about Kiera. She does a lot on her own, she does a lot of weekends and Sundays on her own.”

Communication is key in this type of situation, and Keira is very good about that. Landsteiner chuckled while talking about Keira’s impressive attention to detail.

“She’ll remind me or send me calendars and I’m like, ‘I have so many other things going on, maybe tell me a week or two ahead of time if you’ll be gone.’ I appreciate her being so organized. It works for her.”

On the soccer field, Keira plays center midfielder. That vital position allows her to push forward on offense and fall back on defense, relying on her many strengths.

“One thing that makes her so talented is her endurance and speed,” said Landsteiner, who has been the Saints head soccer coach for nine years. “That allows her to get around players and last the entire 80 minutes of a game. And we can rely on her in different situations and positions. She’s normally a center mid and she likes to get forward, so we can always throw her in that forward position if we need her to score. We had a defender go down in the middle of very a competitive game, so we threw her in on defense because we needed someone who is fast.

“Another thing that makes her a good soccer player, she is so coachable. You tell her something to do and she says OK and does it.”

Keira began playing soccer when she was three or four years old. Her first exposure to cross-country came two years ago.

“The miles I run in the summer are important but soccer pairs really well with cross-country,” she said. “I run up and down the field a lot, so you're running intervals constantly. I think those things kind of cross over to each other.”

Keira broke the school record in cross-country when she won the Big South Conference meet. A week earlier, she had broken the school record for soccer goals.

Two school records in two sports. Back-to-back top 10 finishes at state in cross-country. All-State honors in soccer and cross-country. So yes, it’s been a memorable fall for the dual-sport star.

One more thing: a few weeks ago Keira was inducted into St. Peter’s National Honor Society.

--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Threads at johnmilleamn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]