The Hopkins girls’ track team, took fifth place with 59 points at the Division 2 regionals at Allendale High School Saturday. The Wayland girls were eighth with 33.
One of the highlights was the new rule that allows those who have already turned in qualifying times, heights or distances do not have to finish among the top performers in regionals. So Wayland junior Evie Mathis elected not to compete in the pole vault because her 12-6 school record already was state worthy.
But Hopkins had a pretty big day as well.
Sprint race sensation junior Riley Homrich continued her winning ways with the 100-meter dash, taking first in 12.73 seconds. Wayland’s Megan Brogger, a sophomore, captured fifth in the 200 and she was sixth in the 400 Homrich had the second fastest time in the 200 prelims, but had to scratch for the finals.
Viking Kambria Moored was regional runner-up in the 100-meter high hurdles with a time of 15.74 seconds, only eighteen-hundredths of a second away from first. Moored also was second in the 300-meter hurdles with a clocking of 49:06. Teammate Andrea Brower was seventh.
The Hopkins 400-meter sprint relay foursome finished second with a time of 50.9 seconds. The group included Annika Ford, Moored, Ellarie Baugh and Homrich.
Wayland made a strong showing in the 800-meter relay, with Ella Edwards, Quinn Reeder, Megan Brogger and Laney Wolf checking in third in 1:49.76, just four seconds out of runner-up. The Vikings finished fourth in that race with Ford, Ava VanderVeen, Navaya Ingle and Homrich.
Brogger, Wolf, Ryleigh Haveman and Taylor Hoogewind hooked up to finish fifth in the 2600 relay and Hopkins was seventh with Moored, Brower, VanderVeen and Ingle.
Wayland junior Makenzie Kositzky, perhaps better known for softball, captured fifth place in the shot put with a toss of 31-9.
Keilah Bonga had a disappointing, out of the money finish in the shot, but rebounding in a bog way for Hopkins by copping first in the discus at 122-1.
Wayland’s Addyson Moyle sneaked in to the top five in the high jump for Wayland with a leap of 4-11.
Wildcat freshman Bre Hoogewind claimed seventh in the pole vault.
Ellarie Baugh of Hopkins finished third in the long jump and Evie Mathis, despite passing on the police vault, captured seventh in that event.
The state meet will be Saturday, May 31, at Hamilton High School’s athletic stadium.
