Someone once said records are made to be broken.
Such is the case for Martin junior cross-country runner Veyda Conley, who broke her own 5K cross school record with an outstanding time of 19:11.6 Saturday in the Portage Invitational, Michigan’s largest meet during the regular season. Conley’s effort enabled her to finish third among 140 Division 4 runners in the meet.
Conley this fall has finished faster than 20 minutes in the 5K more often than not.
The Clippers as a team finished tied for eighth place with Onekema, racking up 184 team points on finishes of third, 32nd, 43rd, 52nd and 54th.
Conley accounted for the three points, followed by Allison Rodgers, DuRae Sage, Sara Schipper and Riley Bender.
Whitmore Lake won the meet with 82 team points and SAC rival Gobles was third with 127.
The Martin boys’ team checked in 13th with 368 points.
Jadon Dettmann finished 59th in 18:54.2, Hunter Hayes crossed the finish line in 72nd at 19:12.1, Jeremiah VanHouten was 90th, Xander Ruiter 151st and Gavin Keeler 181st.
In the Division 2 boys’ meet, Hopkins placed 40th among 51 teams and the girls came in 24th. Otsego won the girls’ race, in which Emma Hoffman was the individual medalist in 16:50.8.
Lillian Dewey finished 161st, Lachlan Merren 171st, Grace Schumacher 173rd, Izabelle Jordan 180th and Allison Breining 205th.
The Hopkins boys were led by Kash Moored, 54th in 17:05, Jack Estelle 114th in 17:56.6, Gavin Schans 305th, Grady Johnston 358th and Cole VerStrate 369th.
