Five Wayland boys took the science of bunching very seriously Friday, taking the 11th through 15th places consecutively and capturing second place in the annual All-County meet at U.S.-131 Motorsports Park near Martin.
The five guys all were named all-county, as was Lady Wildcat harrier Olivia Barabas.
The Wayland boys compiled 65 team points, as Otsego captured the Allegan County team championship with 21. Hopkins was seventh with 179 points and Martin fielded only three runners and therefore did not register a score.
Devin Weaver returned to his customary top spot for the Wildcats individually, checking in 11th in 17:35.44 over the five-kilometer course. He was followed closely by Isaac Dyer, 12th in in 17:40.92; Dylan Pallett 13th in 17:44.67; Travis Koon 14th in 17:45.73, and Henry Oudbier 15th in 17:53.44.
So all five of the Wayland scorers finished the 5K race in less than 18 minutes, a first perhaps even in school cross-country history.
Adam Ball led Hopkins again, finishing 21st in 18:30.03. Caleb Beilby was 46th, Nathan Onderline 50th, Ryan Williams 53rd and Kenyon Katje 54th.
For Martin, Eli Dykstra was 27th in 18:47.33 and Alex Morin broke the 20-minute barrier in 19:55.
Wayland’s Olivia Barabas failed to break 20 minutes, but Emily Tuinstra 34th and her time of 20:00.99 was good enough for third place and all-county accolades. Hopkins Helena Kerber was 11th in 20:50.3 and teammate Kambria Moored was 12th in 21:19.44, as both also were named all-county.
Hopkins captured third place with 113 points and Wayland has 123 in fourth. Martin was eighth with 169.
Rounding out the Lady Vikes’ scoring were Neveah Helderop 20th, Jaeden Harshberger 33rd and Abigail Zalis 41st.
For Wayland, Elliot Antel took 17th, Hannah Smith 26th and Emma Thayer 55th.
Mercedes Morin again led the Clippers again, in 19th place with a time of 21:45.63, Elliana Young was 29th, Samantha Stone 38th, Zoie Tuinstra 39th and Elly Blackburn 61st.
