LocalSportsJournal.com
Area track teams battled cool, windy and rainy conditions on Saturday to compete in the Michigan High School Athletic Association state finals at various sites.
The Spring Lake girls finished in a tie for third place in the Division 2 girls meet with 26 points. Gabriella LeRoux and Carlyn Arteaga led Spring Lake with state titles in the pole vault and 800-meter, respectively.
In Division 1 girls, Reeths-Puffer scored five points and finished 37th in Division 1. No area boys teams scored any points in Division 1.
In Division 2, Ludington finished in a tie for 16th with 13 points to follow Spring Lake’s third-place finish. In the boys meet, Fremont and Fruitport each earned four points while Orchard View gained one point.
Among the Division 3 girls teams in the area, Hart finished with 12 points, Mason County Central had eight points and Montague finished with six.
Also in Division 3, the Hesperia boys finished in seventh place with 23 points, followed by Ravenna with 12 and Kent City with six. Hesperia was led by state champion Nate McKeown in the high jump at 6-foot-7.
Spring Lake’s LeRoux won the pole vault with a height of 11-8 while Arteaga finished first in the 800 with a time of 2:14.93.
Spring Lake also earned points when its 400-meter relay team finished third. That team included Sydney DeCator, Kiara Stevenson, Paige Rubleski and LeRoux.
Ludington gained its 13 points when Brandy Thomas finished second in the shot put (42-7¼) and fourth in the discus (119-9).
Fruitport earned its four points when Nic Kramer finished eighth in the discus with an effort of 156-2 and Noah Hendricks was sixth in the 800 with a time of 1:57.24.
Fremont’s Matt Zerfas finished fifth in the 1600 with a time of 4:25.63 and Orchard View’s Matias Keyes was eighth in the 300 hurdles with a time of 40.03.
In Division 3, Hart was led by Jennie Gottardo with a third-place finish in the 400 with a time of 59.12. Other Pirates to score points included Sierra Albus, who finished fourth in the 3200 run in 11:12.97 and Alayna Ackley, who finished eighth in that race with a time of 11:33.67.
Montague’s Abby Christmas finished fifth in the long jump at 16-5½ and came back later with a seventh-place finish in the 200 dash in 26.62.
Mason County’s Kylie Mount accounted for her team’s eight points with a third-place finish in the 100 hurdles (15.68) and seventh in the long jump (15-11¼).
Hesperia finished seventh in the boys meet on the strength of McKeown’s state title in the high jump and a fifth-place finish in the long jump (20-9). Other Panthers to score points included Damien Halverson with a third-place finish in the 1600 and the 3200 relay team that finished sixth.
Ravenna finished in 19th place with a second-place finish by Korson Mundinger in the 100 (11.25) and Cameron Schullo, who finished fifth in the pole vault (13-0).
Kent City picked up its six points in the shot put when Ben Wildeboer finished third with a distance of 54.0.
