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Caledonia locationThornapple Kellogg freshman Amya
Gater races to a personal record time
Saturday in the Division 2 girls’ race
at the Portage Invitational. Photo by
Brett BremerINVITE
Continued from Page 19
in Portage. She placed 17th in 19:22.
in the D2 girls’ race. That competition
included 295 finishers.
The TK girls’ team was 17th on
the day in the D2 girls’ contest that
included 43 teams. The Hastings girls
finished in 40th place.
Zeeland East senior Emma Drenk
pulled away to win the D2 girls’ race
in 18:03.5. Gaylord junior Katie Berk-
shire was the runner-up in 18:12.
and Carleton Airport senior Courtney
Bovair was third in 18:19.1.
The Trojans’ 17th-place finish had
them sixth among the teams that will
be a part of their regional later this
month behind runner-up Grand Rapids
Christian, sixth-place South Christian,
ninth-place East Grand Rapids, the
14th-place Forest Hills Eastern girls
and 16th-place Gull Lake.
Drenk’s Chix won the girls’ meet
with 72 points. Grand Rapids Chris-
tian was second with 109 points ahead
of HollandChristian 161, Lexington
224, Spring Lake 266, South Christian
272, Adrian 320, Unity Christian 338,
East Grand Rapids 342 and Shepherd
349 in the top ten.
Junior Madison Kietzman was the
Trojans’ number two finisher in the
girls’ race Saturday with an 89th-place
time of 21:20.5, a season best time
for her. TK got PRs from the Gater
sisters. Junior Payton placed 151st
in 22:28.3 and freshman Amya was
180th in 22:55.8.
Sophomore Peyton Hardy placed
100th overall for TK in 21:31.1 and
sophomore Alaina McCrumb was
168th in 22:46.5. TK’s top seven also
included sophomore Carmen Reyn-
olds 208th in 23:41.7.
Allendale won the boys’ D2 meet
with 90 points followed by Grand
Rapids Christian 152, Holland Chris-
tian 190, Forest Hills Eastern 228,
Lexington 237, Alma 241, Shepherd
342, Fremont 369 and Pinckney 373
in the top ten.
The Thornapple Kellogg boys
were 34th, one spot better than the
Hastings team they’ll challenge for
a Barry County championship later
this month, in a field 41 full teams inPortage.
Lexington senior Chance Basilone
ran his fastest race yet to win. He came
across the finish line in 15:16.8. Hol-
land Christian junior Will Engbers set
his PR at 15:26.2 to place second and
Parma Western junior Edison Lope-
man was third with a PR of 15:29.4.
Allendale was led to its win by se-
nior Kilian Whalen who ran a PR of
15:38.4 to place seventh.
Thornapple Kellogg’s two through
six runners all finished within a
minute of each other. Senior Hunter
Tietz was the team’s number two. He
placed 184th in 18:37.1. Sophomore
Grady Galaviz was 208th in 19:04.
and sophomore Elijah Frazer 222nd
in 19:18.7. Case Dykhouse closed out
the top five for TK with a 229th-place
time of 19:27.6. Freshman Garrett
Holzhausen was right behind in 230th
with a time of 19:28.2. The TK team
also had Noah Donker come in 264th
with a time of 20:17.5.
“Hunter, Grady, Elijah, Case, Gar-
rett and Noah got out the first mile
well, but I would have preferred them
to be out a little quicker just because
there are so many runners running at
that pace,” coach Reynolds said. “We
discussed prior to the meet about get-
ting out quick and if you can’t you
need to be focused and confident about
continuing to move up and pass people
over the remaining 10-12 minutes of
the race.
“At the half-mile mark the course
was seven runners wide. Hunter,
Grady Elijah and Noah made some
great efforts over the next mile remain-
ing focused on keeping gaps from
runner to runner to a minimum and
looking ahead for runners to chase
down. Hunter, Grady and Noah con-Thornapple Kellogg senior Ava
Crews works her way up the first
big climb of the Portage Invitational
course Saturday at Portage West
Middle School. Photo by Brett Bremertinued to move up in the field passing
a few more runners over the last mile,
and Case found his footing in the last
mile moving up 10 spots.”
The Trojan boys’ coach said some
of his guys were disappointed in not
setting personal bests at the meet, but
overall he felt like it was a great day
of racing for his guys.
“All the boys competed today,”
Reynolds said. “They knew that the
hilly Portage course and the size of the
field would present them with some
challenges, but I felt they did a great
job staying active in the race, not set-
tling on their positions, and moving up
in the field where they could.”