The Hopkins girls’ varsity cross-country team captured the O-K Silver Conference championship Wednesday by winning the league meet at Belding’s home course.
The Lady Vikings were in a dogfight with Sparta and Belding before the conference meet, and had to hold off the Spartans and Black Knights to eventually claim the crown. Not only did Hopkins come in first, but so did senior Jaeden Harshberger, who was individual medalist in 19:02.7 for the five-kilometer race.
The Vikings boys, meanwhile, tied for third place with Belding in the Silver meet.
Harshberger was five seconds faster than Sparta freshman Mia May. Teammates Kambria Moored Allison Breining backed up her performance well by cracking the top 10. Moored crossed the finish line fourth in 20:16.4 and Breining was 10th in 21:09.7.
Finishing the job were freshman Lillian Dewey, 14th in 21:44.9, and freshman Sutton Collier, 22nd in 22:53.8.
So the Lady Vikings checked in with a team score of 51, Sparta had 54 and Belding 58.
Sparta easily won the guys’ meet with a score of 31, NorthPointe Christian was second with 81 and Belding and Hopkins both had 96.
Sophomore Jack Estelle was the top Hopkins harrier for the day with a time of 16:42.9. Kenyon Katje was 18th in 18:15.9, freshman Derek Zapolnik 28th in 19:18.3, sophomore Johnathon Buskirk 30th in 19:40.7 and sophomore Brennan Vilella 32nd 32nd in 19:56.09.
Sophomore Vijay DeZeeuw bested Gelding’s No. 6 runner to propel the Vikings into third, breaking the tie.
