The Hopkins girls’ varsity track te
am was rated seventh in the final Michigan Interscholastic High School Track Coaches Association power. And Hopkins finished seventh Saturday in the prestigious Division 3 state team track meet.
Host Clare won the competition with 952.5 points, Adrian Madison was runner-up and Ithaca third. The Lady Vikings finished with 602.5 points, one more than eighth-place Reese.
There was one individual champion for Hopkins in the meet, as senior Bailey Ballard tossed the discus 126-09, more than two feet further than the runner-up. Meghan Schulz was seventh in the event and Shelby Henshaw 11th.
Senior Julia Forbes picked up a couple of third-place finishes, in the 200-meter dash in 27.66 seconds and the l
ong jump at 16-00.5. She also was fifth in the 100-meter dash at 13.27 seconds.
Freshman Laura Velderman also copped a fifth, in the 400-meter run with a time of 1:00.65.
The relays, where the Lady Vikings ran away from all opponents during the season, didn’t turn out as well as they hoped. The best quartet for the day was the 800, which took fifth at 1:52.84 with Forbes, Josie Freybler, Velderman and Brittney Houseman. Next best was the 400, with Savannah Emaus, Hannah Crouch, Velderman and Houseman hooking up for seventh with a time of 54.49 seconds.
Schulz finished ninth in the shot at 31-05 and Ballard was 10th at 30-06.5.
It was the fourth time Hopkins has competed in the MITCA team state championships in the last five years. The Lady Vikings were fifth, sixth and eighth in previous outings.
The Viking boys’ squad qualified for the MITCA meet in 2015.
The scoring for the meet is inclusive for as many as three team members for each individual event, with 30 points going to first place, 29 for second and so on.
PHOTOS: The Lady Vikings participate in the traditional Parade of Champions at the start of the MITCA meet. (Photo courtesy of Renae Murphy Velderman)
Bailey Ballard was the MITCA meet champion in the discus.
