It was an extraordinary week for female athletes from Hopkins and Wayland High Schools, and it happened over just two days.
No fewer than four young ladies, two from Wayland and two from Hopkins, emerged as regional champions in their individual athletic specialties.
Considered for your approval:
- Elena Campon, Wayland High School foreign exchange student, claimed the Division 2 regional No. 1 singles championship Thursday at Battle Creek Harper Creek. Campon, a native of Spain, was
so good coming in she took over at No. 1 singles from a seasoned and quality group of singles players in the Bolinger sisters, Rose and Lily, and Noelle Oman. - Maggie Whitney, a junior, consistently showed promise as a distance runner and improved quietly and steadily over her three years of running cross country and track. But on Friday in the Division 2 regionals at Houseman Field, she took all the marbles in the 800-meter run in a school-record time of 2:17.99, nearly three seconds faster than the old school record set by Jessica Armstrong 11 years ago.
- Meghan Schulz, a junior at Hopkins, in perhaps the least surprising of the four amazing feats, captured the regional title in the shot put, but her 36-5 toss wasn’t her best yet. She rarely has been out thrown this season and hopes to record a personal best at state early next month.
- Brittney Houseman, a junior at Hopkins, about as surprising as Whitney in that she has shown she is a good sprinter, but rose above the rest on Friday in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She has recorded a personal best of 12.9 seconds in the 100 and she crossed the line in 27.43 in the 200. She’s peaking at the right time.
so good coming in she took ove
r at No. 1 singles from a seasoned and quality group of singles players in the Bolinger sisters, Rose and Lily, and Noelle Oman.
a good sprinter, but rose above the rest on Friday in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She has recorded a personal best of 12.9 seconds in the 100 and she crossed the line in 27.43 in the 200. She’s peaking at the right time.All four of these regional champions join Hopkins’ Laura Velderman for the academic year. Velderman won the Division 3 regional cross country title last fall for the second year in a row. So that makes five regional champions in one year.
Wayland has built a reputation for some time in churning out first-class female athletes, such as the Merchant girls, Jessica and Brittni, in softball, Presley Hudson in basketball, and Armstrong in cross country and track.
Hopkins apparently has joined the dance and in Wayland the tradition continues.
PHOTOS: Brittney Houseman Elena Campon
Maggie Whitney Meghan Schulz
Laura Velderman
