The Wayland girls’ track team had a reasonably successful evening Friday at the Hastings Relays, capturing fifth place among the 13 teams competing.
The Lady Wildcats tallied 1,012 total team points in the MITCA-style scoring that emphasizes total team performances. They were one of five teams to score more than 1,000 points in the meet and they were 100 points ahead of sixth-place Lansing Waverly.
Hamilton won the competition with 1,306.5 points and Kalamazoo Loy Noy Norrix was runner-up with 1,289.
Wayland started the evening with a victory in the 4 x 800-meter relay. Grace Hasse, Abigail Hasse, Rylee Cronkright, and Maggie Whitney worked their way through the ranks to take the lead in the final lap to win with a time of 10:55.75.
Corrina Courser, the freshman who burst onto the scene earlier this month, took a third in the 100-meter hurdles (17.67 seconds), second in the 300 hurdles (51.27), sixth in the 200 (28.54) and finished third in the 4 x 400 relay in 4:37.18 with teammates Hannah Rybiski, Abigail Hasse, and Maggie Whitney.
Another freshman rising star, Rylee Cronkright, checked in third in the 1600 meters (5:54) and fifth in the 3200, “which took place around 10:30 p.m. Not many freshmen in high school get a chance to run 3200 meters that late at night,” said coach Ray Antel. “That’s an hour amd a half past bed time!”
The coach added that Maggie Whitney continues to prove that off-season training pays off with a fourth place finish in the 400 and a fifth in the 800 while anchoring the 4 x 400 and 4 x 800.
Other notables of the evening for Wayland Union were Jessica Hortman in the shot put (28’11”), Asiia Sok in the pole vault (6’6″), Ella Martin in the 400, Hannah Rybiski in the 4 x 400 (70.7 split) and Hannah Damveld in the 400.
The Wildcat boys’ team did not fare as well Friday evening, taking eighth place among the 13 teams with 846.5 points.
The best performances were turned in by Devn Jakey, fourth in the long jump, 19-8.5; Lee Anderson, fifth in the 110-meter hurdles, 16:23, and in the 300 hurdles, 42.68; the 800 relay team of Jakey, Anthony Muscarella, Seth Sevenski-Popma and Caleb Wolf, fifth in 1:36.6; the 1600 relay team of Wolf, Anderson, Muscarella and Sevenski-Popma, fifth in 3:50.54, and Cody Clewell in the discus, sixth, 106-7.
PHOTO: Freshman Corrina Courser (right) crosses the finish line first against Grand Rapids Christian. (Photo courtesy of Terry Ellis)
