EDITOR’S NOTE: This story erroneously published the notion that the Hopkins girls’ track team was going to try to win back the league title from Calvin Christian. It has been pointed out that the Lady Vikings have won the O-K Silver crown the last three seasons consecutively and are shooting for their fourth in a row on Friday, May 8.
It was a big day for both the Hopkins boys’ and girls’ track teams Tuesday, as they won all three contests in a triple dual meet at Calvin Christian. The victories lifted both squads to 5-0 records, vaulting both into first place in the O-K Silver Conference standings.
The girls’ 71-66 victory over Calvin Christian was particularly sweet because the host Squires are the Hopkins girls’ chief rivals.
For the Lady Vikings, it all came down to the last event, the 1600-meter relay, where they prevailed with a time of 4:25. The 3200- and 800-meter relays also wound up in the win column for Hopkins.
Julia Forbes came up big in individual events, taking firsts in the 100-meter dash in 12.9 seconds and going just over 15 feet in the long jump. Other individual victories were claimed by Nicole Pavlak in the high jump at 4-6, Kennedy Miedema in the 300-meter hurdles in 53.0 seconds and Rachael Weber in the open 3200 in 12:24.4.
Emma Doorn of Calvin won four individual events,, the open 400, the 200, 800 and 1600.
The Lady Vikings also defeated Wyoming Lee 116-19 and North Pointe Christian 91-46.
The boys defeated Calvin Christian by a more substantial margin, 85-52. Hopkins also bested Lee 115-12 and North Pointe, 102.5 to 25.5.
Two of the relay teams emerged victorious, with the 800 relay team winning at 1:35.5 by seven seconds and the 1600 relay quartet of Isaac Kukulies, Lennart Balderich, Hayden Graczyk and Jared Coad checking in at 3:42.9.
Michael Francis won the 110-meter high hurdles in 16.7 seconds. Spencer Timm won the 100 in 11.4 seconds and Anthony Steffens won the 200 in 23.1, Zack Blank took the discus at 115-9 and Wyatt Frank tossed the shot at 38-8 for first.
Quincy Collings won two individual events, getting back in the groove with a 6-2 performance in the high jump and leaping 19-0 in the long jump. Collings is the defending Division 3 state champion from a year ago, when he cleared 6-9.
Hopkins will be host for the Viking Invitational Saturday and the O-K Silver Conference meet Friday, May 8.
The Lady Vikings have been OK Silver Conference Champions consecutively for 2012, 2013, and 2014. Calvin Christian did not win the championship last year.
I regret the error. A correction is placed at the stop of the story.