Photo by Ari Selvey: Minneota running back Ryan Meagher, 20, runs through a tackler during the Class A Prep Bowl against Springfield on Friday at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The Minneota Vikings defeated Springfield 70-20 to claim their third consecutive state football championship.

MINNEOTA — When it came to running back play at the Class A level, Minneota’s Ryan Meagher has set the standard. The senior tailback became Minneota’s all-time leading rusher with 4,834 yards and scored 90 touchdowns on the ground. He also capped off his career by setting a Prep Bowl record with six rushing touchdowns in the Vikings’ win over Springfield for Minneota’s third consecutive Class A title and fourth consecutive championship game appearance. His consistent role at the helm of Minneota’s success over the past few seasons earned him the title of Independent Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. 

Coming off a monster season in 2023, expectations were high for Meagher and the Vikings heading into his senior season. He ran for 2,224 yards with 40 touchdowns and just one fumble. He also had nine catches for 154 yards and a pair of touchdowns en route to Minneota’s second consecutive state title. 

As such, he tried to keep everything the same over the offseason, whether it was showing up to practices or lifts three times each week throughout the summer, or getting together with teammates in smaller groups to run routes.

The only additional part of his offseason was his decision to join the Minneota wrestling team in the winter. 

“I think it absolutely helped [with football], just trying something different for one, and then two, wrestling is an intense sport,” Meagher said. “It helps with everything physically, mentally, and it just helps with life.”

Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said he felt Meagher developed a little bit more patience behind his blocks heading into his senior season, but that even Meagher’s patience was at a pretty high level the year prior. 

When it comes to adding or changing something about his game, Meagher’s past performance set a high bar for improvement, but Johnston said he felt that his selflessness in the locker room also made him valuable to the team beyond the numbers.

It’s hard to have a good run game without a quality offensive line paving the path. For the Vikings, Parker Bradley, Noah Gorecki, Kyler Lozinski, Kyson Arndt and Tom DeSmet led the team in the trenches. Meagher said that he’s close with all of the offensive linemen, giving them a good relationship on the field.

“It’s easy to run behind those guys because even if something minor happens, they’re always coming back and asking what they did wrong and how they can fix it,” Meagher said. “Most of the time, it’s not even what they did wrong, it’s what I did wrong. I missed a hole, misread a hole, but they’re a lot of fun to work with.”

Meagher’s humility and accountability show on the field. Even when racking up record-setting numbers, he’s not one to showboat. It also shows in the way he tries to hold himself accountable, even when he doesn’t have to.

“There’s always something you can do better, so that’s how I think about it,” Meagher said of his self-accountability. “Even if somebody on the line did mess up, there’s always something that I could do better to fix the mistake.”

After Minneota’s 2023 state title run in which Meagher tied the Prep Bowl rushing touchdown record of five, Johnston said that those accolades and records aren’t something Meagher ever worries about. “He doesn’t even want to talk, that’s why I make him come up [to the postgame press conference],” Johnston said of Meagher. 

While the numbers aren’t something Meagher likes to highlight, he added to an impressive postseason resume to finish his prep career with 562 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns in three prep bowl appearances. He averaged over 9 yards per carry to get those numbers.

Meagher fell shy of 100 yards only once in 13 games in 2024, the outlier being 95 yards and three touchdowns on 10 carries in a 62-0 win against Canby. 

He was also at his most impactful when it mattered most; his three highest rushing totals of the season came on a 206-yard outing against BOLD in the regular season, a 213-yard performance against BOLD in the section finals to claim Minneota’s fifth consecutive Section 5A title, and a 290-yard performance against Springfield in the state championship game. 

That last one wasn’t a typo. 290 yards on 13.2 yards per carry as the Vikings tied the Prep Bowl scoring record with 70 points. His efficiency also left him just shy of Cromwell’s Jordan Suhonen’s Prep Bowl record for yards per carry, at 13.4.

“It means a lot about him as an individual and about this team that he’s gotten to play with the last few years because we’ve got an experienced line up front doing good things for him and everything else, but he’s been a part of something for four years now,” Johnston said of Meagher’s lengthy list of accolades, adding that Meagher also got more experience than most players do in the program after earning varsity playing time as a freshman and significant time as a sophomore before dealing with some injuries. 

“It’s everything you want in a kid in your program as far as being a good leader, being humble, and just working his butt off. Again, great kid, we’re going to miss him, there’s no doubt about it. Happy to have an opportunity to coach a kid like that.”

While Meagher has had some offers to play in college, this may still be it for his playing career. His top priority is making sure that whatever school he chooses offers his preferred major — mechanical engineering — and that the community feels like a good fit for him.

“I’ll miss [playing] for sure, but you’ve got to move on at some point,” Meagher said of the possibility that he’s taken his last snaps. “I think I’ll look back on it every single day. I’ve talked about it a lot since it ended already, something to be proud of. Like coach talked about, there’s only one other team that had a threepeat in Minneota history, so I’m part of a special group.”