The Hopkins girls’ cross-country Tuesday bounced back to take second in the O-K Silver Conference meet at the Ironwood Golf Course in Byron Center and regained the runner-up slot in the final league standings.
The Viking boys, however, slipped a notch to third in the league meet, being edged by Belding.
While Calvin Christian cruised to the league title with just 20 points, the Lady Vikings had 56 to Belding’s 57. One of the biggest reasons Hopkins regained its chops was the third-place individual performance of junior Laura Velderman, who ran her first sub-20-minute 5K of the season with a time of 19:52.88. Junior Jasmine Fisher checked in 10th with a time of 20:30.44.
Emma Helder gamely took 15th, Gracie DeZeeuw 18th and Alyssa Bielby was 21st.
For the boys, sophomore Todd Henley and junior Dan Rausch took third and fourth, respectively, with times of 16:56.7 and 17:17.85. It was the first time Henley broke the 17-minute barrier, a milestone for many male harriers.
Jake Pastoor was 21st in 19:03.66, Zack Nutter 29th in 19:49.11 and Christopher Tortorelli 32nd in 20:03.67.
Calvin Christian won the boys’ competition with 27 team points, Belding was second with 69 and Hopkins had 73.
