The Hopkins girls’ track team apparently is back and better than ever, but don’t count out the boys’ squad.

The Lady Vikings Tuesday captured first place in the Bridgman Invitational, accumulating a whopping 196.5 team points, more than 100 better than the runner-up host school.

Meanwhile, the guys came within three points of winning the invitational championship, copping 126 points to Eau Claire’s 129 in a nine-team field.

The Hopkins girls piled it on, as usual, in the relays, sweeping firsts in the 400-, 800-, 1600- and 3200-meter races. Meghan Schulz, fresh from her impressive efforts at the Grand Valley State University Laker Challenge Friday, won both the discus and shot put.

The winning relay quartets featured:

• 400 — Brittney Houseman, Anna Washburn, Natsja Terpstra and Savannah Emaus, 58.38 seconds.
• 800 — Houseman, Madeline Krcatovich, Cassidy Finney and Terpstra, 2:02.48.
• 1600 — Laura Velderman, Emma Helder, Finney and Krcatovich, 4:55.38.
• 3200 — Gracie DeZeeuw, Jasmine Fisher, Helder and Verlderman, 11:45.

Schulz tossed the shot 32-02 and blew away the competition in the discus at 97-00. Her closest discus competitor was sophomore teammate Shannon Henshaw at 70-11.

Helder, only a sophomore, also won the 800-meter run in 2:42 and Fisher, also a sophomore, was the only competitor to break six minutes in the 166-meter run with a time of 5:53.46.

Scoring runner-up finishes for the Lady Vikings were Alyssa Rausch in the 300-meter hurdles, sophomore Savannah Emaus in the long jump, Velderman in the 400 meters, and junior sprinter Houseman was second in both the 100 and 200.

The Vikings boys turned in strong performances in the sprints. They 400-meter relay team with Michael McKenzie, Carson Timm, Logan Blank and Cole Bergman took first with a time of 47.96 seconds. McKenzie was runner-up in the 100 meters and the 800 relay team with McKenzie, Cyrus Miner, Hunter Lewellyn and Timm was second. Sophomore Dan Rausch also was second in the open 800.

The only other first for the day was Blank in the 110-meter high hurdles, in 16.61 seconds.

But the Vikings piled up a lot of points with thirds, fourth and fifths to overwhelm everybody but Eau Claire.

Thirds were registered by Cole Bergman in the 100, Tim in the 200, Blank in the 300 hurdles, the 1600 relay with Nick Belka, Brandon DeGroot, Adria Serrano and Rausch, the 3200 relay with Belka, Jacob Pastoor, freshman Todd Henley and Rausch, and Lewellyn and Elliot Fair went 3-4 in the high jump, as did Blank and freshman Trey Collins in the long jump.

PHOTO: The Lady Vikings always seem to dominate in the relays, as they did last May in the Division 3 regional championships. Holding the regional trophy from last spring are (from left) Hannah Crouch, Laura Velderman, Jasmine Fisher and Emma Helder.(File photo)