It was déjà vu all over again for the
Hopkins girls’ cross-country team and ace harrier Laura Velderman. Actually, it was even better this time around.
The Lady Vikings Saturday qualified for the Division 3 state meet for the fifth year in a row. But last year they finished third to qualify, this year second in the regional meet at Allendale.
And Velderman won the individual regional championship again, but this time ran five seconds faster (19:08.51) than in 2015 and was more than 32 seconds faster than worthy challengers Lauren Freeland of Kent City and Kayce Rypma of Calvin Christian. The performance was particularly satisfying for Velderman because she barely edged Freeland a year ago in this same meet and she barely edged Rypma in an O-K Silver Conference jamboree earlier this month.
Hopkins was runner-up in the team scoring with 100 points. Calvin Christian, to no one’s surprise, was the team regional champion with 51.
The Viking boys finished seventh in the regionals and two of the team’s harriers, sophomore Dan Rausch and junior Ethan Nagel, finished 12th and 13th, respectively, in 17:10.29 and 17:15.99. They both will be running in the state meet as a result.
For the Lady Vikings, sophomore Jasmine Fisher took eighth place in 20:14, sophomore Emma Helder was 15th in 20:37.10, senior Madison Snoeyink 24th in 21:28.06 and freshman Grace Beckwith 53rd in 23:30.21.
The Hopkins boys scored 166 points while Holland Black River won it with 62 and North Musekeon was runner-up with 78. There were 13 teams in both the boys’ and girls’ races.
Rounding out the Viking guys’ scoring were freshman Todd Henley, 26th in 17:44.79, freshman Zach Nutter 53rd in 18:49.03 and senior Nick Belka, in his last high school race, checked in at 19:23.8.
PHOTO: The Hopkins girls’ cross-country team is going back to the Michigan International Speedway near Brooklyn for the Division 3 state meet next Saturday. Five of the seven girls who will run are (from left) Madison Snoeyink, Jasmine Fisher, Hannah Crouch, Emma Helder and regional champion Laura Velderman.
This is our 5th year in a row qualifying for the state meet as a team. We had 3 Regional Championships at Portage prior to our Allendale run last year.
Thanks for the great write up!:)