After a disappointing O-K Gold Conference meet Friday, both the Wayland boys’ and girls’ track teams roared to dual meet victories over a Grand Rapids Christian team that finished ahead of them.
It was particularly striking for the boys’ outfit because they finished the regular season with a dual meet record of 6-0, but because they finished third in the league meet, they’ll have to settle for being runner-up while Christian takes home the trophy.
The Wildcat boys recorded a 77-60 triumph in a makeup postponed by bad weather May 1. The Lady Wildcats evened their dual meet record in the Gold to 3-3 with a 75-58 triumph.
The middle distance runners scored heavily for Wayland boys. Caleb Wolf and Devin Jakey went 1-2 in the 200-meter dash, Josh Butler won the 400.
Sophomore Austin Reeder came up with a career-best 16.88 time in the 110-meter high hurdles and Devin Westfahl and Tryston Sloan were right behind him for a sweep. Westfahl, Sloan and Reeder, in that order, swept the 300-meter hurdles.
Wayland coach Marty Howard shuffled the deck for the relays and the gamble paid off in three of the four races. Devin Jakey, Ian Thompson, Wolf and Seth Sevenski-Popma won the 400 relay by about a half second; Thompson, Reeder, Justin Holtz and Wolf took the 800 relay by about a half second, and the old reliable 1600-meter relay quartet of Butler, Ashton Ordway, Alessandro Porta and Caleb Pletcher made it 3-for-4.
Senior Colby Jenkins had his best day ever in the throws, winning the discus and finishing third behind teammate Robert Bausick in the shot.
Jakey added a first in the long jump, as usual, and Bryce Mulder turned in a third.
Lady Wildcat junior standout Corrina Courser was at it again her team with lots of top-notch performance. Courser won the 200 and Mackenzie Wolf was second, she breezed past all comers in 100-meter hurdles and anchored the winning 800 relay with Wolf, Khylea Wells and Madelyn Probst. For the piece de resistance, Courser ran the first leg of the winning 1600 relay, leading off for Wolf, Wells and Probst.
Another junior, Rylee Cronkright, scored heavily by winning both the 1600-meter and 3200-meter runs.
The Lady Wildcats won the 400 relay with Wolf, Jazmyn Santos, Vanessa Brown and Khylea Wells.
Junior Jessica Hortman won both of the throws, the shot and discus.
Probst beat everybody in the stadium (there were two other teams present) in the high jump by clearing a personal best 4-11.
And Kennedy Thlen claimed her first-ever first by taking the top spot in the long jump.
