The Hopkins girls’ varsity track team took third place among 13 teams in the regional meet at Saugatuck and the boys were ninth.
The Lady Vikings scored 84 team points. Saugatuck ran away with the meet with 168 points and Grand Rapids West Catholic was runner-up with 96. The boys scored 33 points in the field of 14 teams. Saugatuck won that competition handily as well with 146 points.
Junior sprinter Brittney Houseman had the greatest individual success for the day, winning both the 100- and 200-meter dashes in 13.13 seconds and a personal best 27.43 seconds, respectively, and running the first leg of the 800-meter relay team that finished second. The only other first was captured, as expected, by junior Meghan Schulz in the shot put at 36-5 and she was second in the discus at 110 feet, three inches.
The 800 relay quartet included Houseman, Madeline Krcatovich, Laura Velderman and Savannah Emaus in 1:51.81.
Capturing third places were Emaus in the long jump at 14-10; Jasmine Fisher, third in the 1600 at 5:28.77, and Velderman in the 400 at 1:02.29.
Perhaps the most astonishing development in the meet was the performance of Saugatuck’s 3200-meter relay quartet, which finishing in a blistering 9:47.18, almost a minute faster than the customarily quick Hopkins foursome, which was fourth.
Not much went well for the Viking boys Friday. The best individual placing was a third by freshman Trey Collins, who leaped 19-3 in the long jump, and he was fourth in the high jump. The 1600 relay was fourth with Hunter Lewellyn, Nick Belka, Brandon DeGroot and Dan Rausch; the 400 relay was fifth with Michael McKenzie, Carson Timm, Logan Blank and Cole Bergman, and Rauch was fifth in the 400.
