It was a bad and costly day for the Wayland boys at the O-K Gold Conference track meet Friday at Forest Hills Eastern.
The Wildcats were entertaining hopes of a league title on the strength of a 5-0 dual meet record thus far, but they only managed to take third in Gold meet. Grand Rapids Christian, the only team Wayland hasn’t faced in a dual this spring, won the derby with 148.5 team points and East Grand Rapids, which the ‘Cats edged 71-65 last month, was second with 109. Wayland had 102.
The girls’ team finished fourth among the seven teams with 74 points and East Grand Rapids was a runaway first with 204.
The Wildcat boys did not perform as well in the sprints as they anticipated, failing to win the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Senior Seth Sevenski-Popma turned the trick in the 400 with a time of 51.69 seconds and Caleb Wolf was second at 52-flat.
They didn’t do what they had hoped in the 1600 and 3200, despite personal best efforts from senior Caleb Pletcher, who was seventh in both races. Tryston Sloan did the same in both hurdles, taking fifth in the 300-meter race.
Even the usually victorious 1600 relay with Wolf, Devin Jakey, Josh Butler and Sevenski-Popma was touched out by seven-hundredths of a second at 3:29.35. Making matters worse, the 800 relay quartet was disqualified.
Robert Bausick and Devin Jakey pulled off the other individual firsts, in the shot put with a toss of 46-5 and he was third in the discus, and Jakey with a career best 21-foot leap in the long jump.
The Lady Wildcats did as well as they did thanks to strong individual performances by junior Corrina Courser, who brought home three first-place conference medals.
Courser won the open 200-meter dash with a 26.94-second clocking and turned in a career-best 15.35 to take the 100-meter hurdles. She captured the 300-meter hurdles in 47.28 seconds.
Rylee Cronkright was fourth in the 3200 and seventh in both the 800 and 1600.
The 800 relay foursome of Mackenzie Wolf, Khylea Wells, Madelyn Probst and Courser took third.
Probst, only a sophomore cleared 4-10 to claim a second in the high jump.
Jessica Hortman finished fourth in the shot put at 31-01.5 and she finished third in the discus.
Both Wildcat boys’ and girls’ will have a makeup dual with Grand Rapids Christian Monday. Unless the Wayland guys can beat Christian, they have no further hopes of a league championship.
COVER PHOTO: Wayland junior Corrina Courser dazzled the fans with conference championship performances in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles and the open 200-meter dash.
