By Ron Rop
LocalSportsJournal.com
MONTAGUE – The Whitehall Vikings are starting to make a habit of winning the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association boys’ track title.
On Friday night at Montague, the Vikings racked up another big point total in outdistancing the 13-team field for its third straight title.
Photo/Leo Valdez
Veteran Kirk Mikkelsen was all smiles after watching his team finish off a perfect evening for track with a total of 142 points. Runner-up Mona Shores had 76 and third-place Reeths-Puffer had 56.
The Vikings captured the title on the strength of nine first-place finishes. The city champions featured two-time winners in speedster Malcolm Earvin in the 100- and 200-meter races, and distance runner Stewart Waters, who won the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs. Trannon Aylor won the 400. The Vikings also dominated the field events with four titles in Caden Bowyer in the discus, Camden Thompson, who is just returning from an ankle injury, in the high jump, Ca’Mar Ready in the pole vault and long jump champion Kal Koehler.
For Earvin, his performance of 21.70 in the 200-meter dash is a school record. He lowered the mark of Tony Fountain from 2008.
“Our milers and our discus throwers did a phenomenal job,” Mikkelsen said. “They scored like 20 points and 16 points in those two events and really put a gap for us against Shores, who was making it interesting early on.”
Whitehall finished 1-4-5 in the 1600-meter run and 1-2-5 in the discus.
And now it’s time to look forward to what is ahead for the Vikings.
“We’re always positioning ourselves for the state meet trying to find that second and third guy in every event,” Mikkelsen said. “And getting everything ready for the individual state meet also.”
Runner-up Mona Shores had a city champion in Erik Gould in the shot put. Reeths-Puffer also had a champion in Tate Bradley in the 800-meter run.
Photo/Leo Valdez
The Muskegon Big Reds also had a double winner in hurdler Michael Piggee, Jr., who captured both the 100 and 300 hurdles.
The four relay champions were evenly divided by Muskegon (4 x 100), Mona Shores (4 x 200), Reeths-Puffer (4 x 400) and Fruitport (4 x 800).
And now the Vikings turn their sites to adding to their string of titles. Mikkelsen wants more, much more.
“We just finished the dual season for conference undefeated, which is always our first goal,” Mikkelsen said. “Then it’s let’s get city and then regionals.” And there’s the training and positioning of the team to get ready for the state meets.
“We’re still chasing Chad Brandow from Fruitport, he did six (city titles) in a row,” said Mikkelsen, laughingly.
