The Portage Invitational every year is billed as the “pre-state meet” in which huge numbers of teams runners participate. Indeed, there were 50 teams in Division 2, and the Wayland girls finished 21^st and Hopkins was 45^th. For the boys, Hopkins was 44^th and Wayland 47^th.

Hopkins customarily has competed in Division 3, but this year was moved up to Division 2.

The best individual performance for the two schools on the day was Wildcat sophomore Rylee Cronkright’s second straight sub-20-minute outing. She crossed the finish line in 19:50, good for 14^th place and a medal and she finished ahead of all competitors in the O-K Gold Conference again. Senior Maggie Whitney was 79^th in 21:09, sophomore foreign exchange student Mie Tornbjerg was 171st in 22:33, followed by freshman Naomi Oosterhouse in 177^th, junior Zoe Antel in 195^th, senior Abbie Hasse in 215^th and junior Sydney Heilkema in 266^th.

Wayland finished the day with 636 team points. Dearborn Divine Child was the winner with 169 and O-K Gold Conference rival Grand Rapids Christian was second with 185.

Junior Jasmine Fisher led Hopkins with a 33^rd-place finish in 20:17. Sophomore Gracie DeZeeuw was 231^st, Alyssa Beilby was 237^th, freshman Emilee Schumaker 309^th and junior Hannah Crouch 311^th.

Two of the Lady Vikings’ top runners, Laura Velderman and Emma Helder, did not compete.

Lansing Catholic won the boys’ race with 103 team points and Chelsea was runner-up with 115.

Sophomore Todd Henley once again was the top racer for the Viking boys, checking in 30^th, followed by Dan Rausch 88^th, Jake Pastoor 294^th, Joe Ludlam 311^th and Jonathan Beckwith 319^th.

Ethan Killips again led the Wildcats boys in 19:35, 211^th place, and Elijah Gamelin was 215^{th in 19:38}, followed by Gabe Attruia 252^nd, Ian Russell 257^th and Jacob Jelsema 275^th.

There were almost 400 runners in the boys’ competition and almost 350 girls.