Wayland was the host
school for the latest of the series of O-K Gold Conference jamborees Wednesday, finishing sixth among the seven schools competing.
Grand Rapids Christian won the race as a team with 24 points and East Grand Rapids was second. The Wildcats had 148, just behind South Christian.
The Wildcats girls also finished sixth and Grand Rapids Christian won that race as well.
Boys’ coach Raymond Antel III said, “The greatest compliment of the night came from one of the other coaches, who said, ‘We really enjoyed running on a true cross-country course!’
“The first quarter mile is up hill and can take the wind out of your sails if you’re not prepared to ‘recover’ on the fly.”
Freshman, Mitchell Hooker had a break-out night and put himself in the mix near the front and finished first for Wayland in a time of 18:20. Hot on his heels was Captain senior Jonathan Zuiderveen. He finished with 20 points in a time of 18:28. Ethan Killips, captain, ran a time of 19:37. Sophomore Jarod Geerligs finished with a time of 20:50. A tight pack of Ian Russell, Garret Kloska, Jacob Jelsema and Gabe Atrruia finished within 14 seconds of each other.
“It was an exciting day to race, especially after the clouds let loose with a downpour,” Antel commented. “The rainbow over the finish line was a nice touch!”
Senior Emily Gray was the top runner for the Lady Wildcats, taking 21st in 21:26.6. Sophomore Zoe Antel was 32nd, junior Kaityln Paul was 43rd, freshman Rylee Cronkright was 48th and senior Emily Isenhoff 63rd.
The Portage Invitational is next for the lads and ladies on Saturday.
