Hopkins being elevated from Division 3 to Division 2 in this year’s Michigan Track & Field Regionals was costly, keeping the Lady Vikings from another trip to the state meet Saturday, June 2.
The news from Friday’s competition at Houseman Field in Grand Rapids wasn’t all bad, however, as Wayland continued its dominance in the middle distances by winning the regional championship in the 1600-meter relay and taking second, third and sixth in the open 400.
The Hopkins girls, fresh from their seventh straight O-K Silver Conference titl, finished fourth among the 15 teams with 65.5 points. Forest Hills Eastern won the regional crown with 114 and the Lady Viking were less than eight points behind third-place Grand Rapids Christian.
Wayland surprised some by capturing fifth place with 45 points.
Among the boys, Wayland settled for seventh place with 44.5 points and Hopkins had 11 points to finish 13th.
The Wildcats’ championship effort in the 1600 relay was turned in by Ashton Ordway, Josh Butler, Seth Sevenski-Popma and Caleb Wolf with a time of 3:29.11, three seconds faster than all competitors. Wolf was regional runner-up in the open 400 with his personal best time of 50.88 seconds, just a shade slower, 15-hundredths of a second, than the regional champ. Sevenski-Popma checked in at 51:51 for third and Ordway was sixth in 52.61 seconds.
Other scoring performances for the Wildcats were turned in by Devin Westfahl, sixth in the 300-meter hurdles; Robert Bausick, sixth in the shot put; Devin Jakey, seventh in the 100-meter dash.
Though he scored, sophomore Trey Collins of Hopkins had to be disappointed with his seventh in the pole vault at 11-3 after going 12 feet in the league meet.
Nathan Roberts took a sixth in the discus, Todd Henley was sixth in the 1600 at 4:43.98 and in the 3200 at 10:11.02, both personal best times.
Hopkins senior sprinter Brittney Houseman and Wayland sophomore hurdler Corrina Courser fit into the “close but no cigar” category in their events. Houseman was runner-up in the 100-meter dash and finished third in the 200, despite a personal best 26.39 seconds, only six-hundredths of a second from second and about three-tenths of a second away from regional champion Muriel Bruxvoort of South Christian.
Courser broke her own school record in the 100 hurdles at 16.03 seconds, but still was nearly a second slower than Bruxvoort. Her excellent time qualified her for the Division 2 state finals June 2 at Zeelan. Courser later in the day came back to take a third in the 300 hurdles.
Senior Meghan Shulz was runner-up in the shot put with her season best of 37-04.5 and she took third in the discus at 107-10.
Emaus surprised the field by earning a third-place tie in the pole vault and she took the runner-up slot in the long jump at 16-01.25.
Other Hopkins girls’ scoring was accounted for by Emma Helder, a personal best 2:23.76 in the 800; Jasmine Fisher, sixth place in the 1600 and eighth in the 3200; the 400 and 800 relay quartets of Houseman, Savannah Emaus, Anna Washburn and Laura Velderman, fourth and fifth, respectively; the 1600 foursome of Gracie DeZeeuw, Cassidy Finney, Lauren Brown and Emma Helder, sixth; the 3200 relay with Fisher, DeZeeuw, Alyssa Beilby and Helder, sixth.
Also breaking into the scoring column for Wayland was the 800 relay team of Audrey Lepper, Kylea Wells, Madelyn Probst and Courser, fourth; the 1600 relay team of freshman Sierra Greer, Wells, Probst and Courser, fifth; Maggie Whitney, seventh in the 800; Jessica Hortman, eighth in the shot, and Probst, only a freshman, tied for fifth in the high jump.