By Ron Rop
LocalSportsJournal.com

NORTON SHORES — Some local track and field historian may have to look deep into the record books to find a bigger rout than Friday night in the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association boys track meet.

Yes, it was that bad as the Whitehall Vikings steamrolled the competition by 114 points over second-place Montague. It was the Vikings’ second straight city title after winning last year’s meet by “only” 79 points.

Veteran coach Kirk Mikkelsen’s team led from start to finish and amassed 188 points in winning their second straight GMAA title.

Montague finished second with 74 points, followed by Reeths-Puffer with 68, Mona Shores with 51 and Muskegon rounded out the top five with 37 points. The remaining team scores included Fruitport (36), Orchard View (24), Oakridge (19), North Muskegon (15), Western Michigan Christian (8) and Ravenna (6).

Whitehall’s Nate Bolley files to a first place in the long jump at 21’ 5”. Photo/Eric Sturr

“I’ve been telling people ever since last year this potentially could be my best team ever,” said Mikkelsen, who is in his 29th year of coaching. “We’re deep and we’re good at everything.”

That success is not going unnoticed as the Vikings are No. 1 in the state in the power rankings and it appears, based on this season’s results, the MHSAA state title could be within reach. Of course, the Vikings need to perform up to their potential and stay injury free.

“Our power rankings sort out the points by categories and our jumps are outstanding,” Mikkelsen said. “But our distance is awesome, our sprints are awesome and our relays are awesome. This is a lot of fun.”

No matter where you looked on Friday night’s result sheet, you found plenty of Viking names. There were eight individual champions and three relay champions.

It started in the field events with Wesley Russell winning the shot put (51-5), Chase Niezurawski winning the discus (134-8), Nate Bolley taking the long jump (21-5) and pole vaulter David Conrad, whose 15-6 leap set a GMAA record that stood for 11 years.

When the running events started, the Vikings just kept right on dominating. Trannon Aylor won the 400-meter (49.92), Jack Houtteman won the 800-meter (2:04.84), Carter McIlroy won the 1,600-meter (4:38.18) and Andre Richmond took first in the 3200-meter (9:48.24).

Whitehall’s Camden Thompson clears 6’ 6” to split the high jump title with Liam McHugh. Photo/Eric Sturr

The Vikings’ 4 x 200-meter relay (1:29.56), the 4 x 400 relay (3:29.32) and the 4 x 800 relay (8:31.81) all took first place as well.

Muskegon Big Red Michael Piggee, Jr. had a strong night with victories in the 200-meter (22.29) and the 110-meter hurdles (14.88). Reeths-Puffer’s Liam McHugh also was a double winner with victories in the 300-meter hurdles (41.40) and the high jump (6-6).
Muskegon’s O’Mari Hall Brown won the 100-meter in 11.10 and the Big Reds’ 4 x 100-meter relay team finished first (42.89). That time also set a GMAA meet record.

For complete results visit www.athletic.net