For the Hopkins girls’ varsity track team, an O-K Silver Conference championship was business as usual, but for the Viking guys, achieving the same feat was special
The girls won their fourth consecutive league crown Monday night by finishing first in the conference meet with 162 points, almost 18 better than Calvin Christian and almost 75 more than third-place Northpointe Christian. The Lady Vikings had gone 5-0 in league dual meets this spring, so there’s debate about just who is the champion.
The boys’ squad hadn’t won the Silver Crown for a spell, so this was special to coach Jamie Kiss, who took over the reins only several years ago. Hopkins accumulated 171 team points, Kelloggsville was runner-up at 124 and Calvin Christian third at 114. The boys also had been 5-0 in league dual meets this season, so the title is uncontested as well.
Individual and relay quartet champions abounded for the Vikings, particularly in the four relays, where they made it a sweep.
For the boys:
- Isaac Kukulies, Dakota Miller, Lennart Baldreich and Jared Coad in the 3200-meter relay, 8:31.79, more than five seconds faster than all comers.
- Spencer Timm, Grant Stevens, Hayden Graczyk and Anthony Steffens in the 800 relay, 1:34.05.
- Timm, Wyatt Stegeman, Nick Schoonveld and Steffens in the 400 relay, 44.95 seconds.
- Kukulies, Coad, Baldreich and Graczyk in the 1600 relay, 3:42.18.
- Quincy Collings in the high jump, for which he is the defending state champion, 6-7 and he went 21-0 to win the long jump.
- Steffens, who turned on the jets to win the 200-meter dash in 23.43 seconds.
The Lady Vikings also had champions, but they really piled up the points with seconds and thirds.
The champs included:
- Julia Forbes in the 100-meter dash at 13.22 seconds and with a leap of 16-03 in the long jump.
- Kennedy Miedema in the 300-meter hurdles, with a time of 51.04.
- Miedema, Josie Freybler, Forbes and Nicole Pavlak in the 1600-meter relay, in 4:18.59.
- Bailey Ballard in the discus at 11-05.75, the only thrower to exceed 100 feet.
But Hopkins scored heavily in several events without winning them.
In relays they didn’t win, they were runners-up, with Miedema, Megan Heft, Frebler and Rachael Weber in the 3200; Ellen Bregg, Allie DeBoer, Freybler and Pavlak in the 800, and Bregg, Bailey Ballard, Freybler and Pavlak in the 400.
Other seconds were scored by Ballard in the 100-meter hurdles, Weber in the 800 and 3200, Forbes in the 200, Shelby Henshaw and Nicole Opolski, who went 2-3 in the shot put.
Scoring heavily in support roles for the Vikings guys were Michael Francis and Logan Blank, who went 2-3 in the 110 hurdles; Timm, Steffens and Schoonveld, who finished 2-3-5 in the 100; Baldreich and Kukilies went 3-4 in the 400; Cyrus Miner, Sid VanderTuin and Blank, 3-4-5 in the 300 hurdles, Coad, runner-up in the 800; and Timm a third to back up Steffens in the 200.
The meet was started Friday afternoon, but had to be halted at the Hopkins field Friday evening because of an approaching thunderstorm.
