The Michigan Track Coaches A
ssociation state team championship will have a Hopkins team taking part for the fifth straight year this Saturday.
The Lady Vikings last Friday won the Division 3 regional championship and are seventh in the latest state-wide MITCA power ratings. They went to Kent City to be part of the competition in 2012, 2013 and 2014, finishing sixth, fifth and eighth, respectively.
Adding to the streak was the boys’ squad, which last year qualified for the state MITCA meet. So a Hopkins team has spent the last Saturday in May, during Memorial Day weekend, at Kent City, for the last five years in a row.
The Lady Vikings astonishingly made it look easy last Friday night at regionals, which ironically, were held at Kent City as well. They nearly doubled the point total of the runner-up, Grand Rapids West Catholic.
Senior Julia Forbes will enter the competition as regional champion in the long jump and 100- and 200-meter dashes.
The Lady Vikings took first in three of the four relays. The regional champion quartets were:
- Laura Velderman, Savannah Emaus, Bailey Ballard and Brittany Houseman in the 400-meter relay with a time of 52.87 seconds.
- Forbes, Josie Freybler, Houseman and Emaus at 1:51.09 in the 800 relay.
- Madeline Krcatovich, Emma Helder, Freybler and Velderman in the 1600 re
lay, at 4:19.10.
lay, at 4:19.10.Sophomore Megan Schulz was the regional champion in the shot put with a toss of 33-03.
There also were many runner-up performances by the 3200 relay foursome of Jasmine Fisher, Freybler, Madison Snoeyink and Helder in 10:08.21; Ballard was runner-up in three individual events, in the discus at 113-07, in the 100-meter high hurdles in 17.22 seconds and the 300 low hurdles at 51.09 seconds; Helder in the open 800 (2:24.67), and Velderman in the open 400 (1:01.41).
I wrote in Townbroadcast four years ago:
“I’ve attended several MITCA meets and I have to say it’s a real hoot. Sometimes I think it’s the way all high school sports oughta be.
“Hopkins is slated to be one of 16 teams in the competition, and I want to stress team. In this meet, you can have a few superstars and go just so far, but if you don’t have a quality supporting cast, you won’t win this competition.
“The MITCA team state meet gives the highest point total to the first-place winners, but the tally continues all the way down to 30th place, which is worth one point for the team. So you can get 30 for taking first, but you can pick up 20 for 11th. And you can get 10 points for 21st.
“The emphasis on team in this meet is excellent. It makes all team members feel like they have a stake in the outcome. The bench-sitters and also-rans suddenly have value, and suddenly the big stars are out on the track encouraging teammates they’ve hardly known because their outcomes affect the final team scores. It’s the way amateur sports oughta be…
“The MITCA meet was started some years ago because the current scoring for the MHSAA state meet enables “one-man shows” to take the trophy home. Back during the 1990s, an Ann Arbor track team that didn’t win even one dual meet won the state championship because superstar Tyrone Wheatley, later a U of M football player, grabbed four first places to score 32 points and hand his team the championship. It wasn’t a team, it was a man.”
PHOTO: Throw Back Thursday — The Hopkins girls track team taking part in the opening ceremonies Parade of Champions in 2013 at Kent City.
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