Page 12 — Thursday, May 6, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
Lions fall in final ballgame with
Eagles, first two with Panthers
Olivet swept its three-game Greater
Lansing Activities Conference series with the
Maple Valley varsity softball team last week,
finishing off the series with a 19-2 win at
Maple Valley High School Wednesday.
The Lions found their bats a bit when he
series shifted to Nashville Wednesday.
Bre Short, Kylie VanAlstine, Branna Cruz
and Lexy Booher singled for the Lions in the
19-2 loss. Abeni Hartwell had an RBI and
Gracelynn DePyper and Booher scored the
two Maple Valley runs.
Nadi Martin struck out three Eagles in her
three innings in the circle.
The Eagles managed 12 hits and got a boost
from some shaky defense by the Lions.
“Olivet has some really good hitters and
with those strong bats Olivet will do well in
our league and give any team they play a good
run for the league title,” Lion head coach
Mary Lesage said.
The Lions were back at it in the GLAC
Monday, hosting Stockbridge for two ball-
games. The Panthers took 21-3 and 21-0 vic-
tories over their hosts at Maple Valley High
School.
Emma Pierce and Short had the two Lion
hits in game one. Pierce scored two of the
Lions’ three runs and Short had an RBI in the
four-inning ballgame to start the day.The Lions worked four walks, but didn’t
get a hit in the 21-0 game two loss.
Booher threw all thee innings in game two.
She kept the ball around the plate, walking
four, but Stockbridge banged out 16 hits.
Arin Szumlinski knocked three inside the
park home runs for the Panthers in game two
and teammate McKenzie Noble belted a ball
over the scoreboard in left centerfield for a
home run.
The Panthers had 14 hits in the opener with
11 of them singles.
The two teams were set to finish their
three-game GLAC set in Stockbridge yester-
day.Track team splits wins against Marshall
Valerie Slaughter
Contributing Writer
The Hastings’ varsity rack and field teams
competed in Baum Stadium at Johnson Field
on Tuesday night, against Interstate 8
Conference rival, Marshall. The Saxon varsity
girls’ track and field team once again broke
the 100-point mark in defeating Marshall 109-
37 in Baum Stadium at Johnson Field Tuesday.
The Hatings boys’ team lost a close one,
that came down to the very last relay, 84-78.
Saxon head coach Brian Teed was
impressed with the girls’ outcome, “on a night
I didn’t think was PR weather, they still put up
12 PR’s. That is quite a few for a meet this
late in the season.”
Hastings girls scoring points for the team
with first place finishes were Hailey Graham
in the 100-meter dash, Isabelle Roosien in the
200-meter dash with a PR of 28.69 seconds,
Madison Nino in the 800-meter run with a PR
of 3 minutes 6.7 seconds. Carissa Strouse
finished first in both the 1600-meter run and
the 3200-meter run, and Allison Teed finished
first in all three solo events, taking first in the
100-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles with a
PR of 49.87, and in pole vault.
The Hastings throwers swept the girls’ dis-
cus event with Maddie Miller finishing first,
Maddie McMasters with second, and Daisy
Kerby throwing for third on the night. Kerby
also finished second in the shot put, and
Miller was third in shot put. Saxon jumper
Josey Nickels took first place in high jump
and second place in the long jump, while Nino
jumped 15 feet 1 inch in the long jump for
first place. Other field event placings for the
Saxons were Kali Grimes in second at pole
vault, and Natalee Sanders finished in third in
high jump.
Other top three finishes for the Saxon girls
team were Miller and Sarah Lichvar finishing
second and third, respectively, in the 100-
meter dash. Addey Nickels finished second in
the 200-meter dash, Lauren Arnold took a
second in the 800-meter run, and Lily
Comensoli finished second in the 1600-meter
run and third in the 800-meter run. The
Nickels sisters finished second in the hurdle
events, with Josey taking second in the 100-
meter hurdles and Addey finishing second in
the 300-meter hurdles. The Saxon girls’ relay
teams were on fire for the night winning all
the relays. The Saxons’ girls are now 3-1 in
league standing and 7-5 overall.
The boys’ team had a tougher time with
Marshall. Going into the last relay, the
4x400-meter, the Saxon team was down by
one point. On the third hand off, Kearan
Tolles was behind the Marshall team by quite
a stretch. Tolles pushed around the track to
pull alongside the Marshall runner coming
around the last turn but could not pass the
other runner to pull off the win. The Hastings
boys’ team only had one relay team that took
first for the night, the 4x200-meter team of
Jason Haight, Robby Slaughter, Layton
Eastman and Kirby Beck.
Coach Teed noted, “this is a meet the boys
wish they could do over. Even though our
numbers are still way down, we should have
won the meet. It was a bunch of little things,
like a poor sprint relay hand off, small inju-
ries, lack of focus at times. In spite of all that,
they still put up 25 PR’s, which is a lot. This
is our comeback week. For the next few days,
we will start to get our contact traced and
quarantined boys back.”
Saxons finishing first in their events were
Slaughter, who finished first in both the long
jump and pole vault, Dillon Neal finished first
in the 200-meter dash with a 25.2 PR, andLayton Eastman led the sweep in high jump
with his first place jump. Charles Nickels and
Beck finished second and third to complete
the sweep at the high jump. Beck also finished
second in the pole vault.
Saxons scoring points for the team with
second place finishes for the night were
Eastman who took second in both the 110-
meter and 300-meter hurdles, and Sam
Randall who threw for second place in both
the shot put and discus. Haight finished sec-
ond in the 100-meter dash, Nickels in the 400-
meter run, Tolles in the 800-meter run, Jonah
Teed in the 1600-meter run. Jacob Arens
placed second in the 200-meter dash and fin-
ished in third pace for the 400-meter. Cole
Greenfield received points for third place in
the 3200-meter run, Adam Jacob finished
third in shot put and Tanner Rairigh took third
in the discus for the night.
The loss to Marshall dropped the Saxonboys to a 2-2 league record and a 10-2 record
overall. The team will compete in the I-
again next week Tuesday at Harper Creek.
On Friday, last week, the team traveled to
Harper Creek to compete in the Spirit of the
Wild Coed Relays. The team finished 4th
overall with 84 points, behind Olivet with 136
points, Harper Creek with 94 points, and
Hamilton with 90 points.
The Saxons’ relay teams winning events forthe night were the Long Jump Relay with a
team of Slaughter, Grimes, Caleb Waller and
Nino with a combined jump of 65-0. The Pole
Vault Relay team of Slaughter, Beck, Grimes
and Allison Teed with a combined height of
37-3, and the Shuttle Hurdle Relay team of
Eastman, Waller, Nate Kohmescher, Allison
Teed, Addey Nickels, and Josey Nickels.12
Caleb Waller runs in the shuttle hurdle relay for the Saxons during the Harper Creek
Sprit of the Wild competition Friday in Battle Creek. (Photo by Valerie SlaughterHastings’ Kali Grimes flies through the air above the long jump pit during her team’s
win over visiting Marshall at Hastings High School Tuesday. (Photo by Valerie
Slaughter)Lexy Booher pitches for the Lions during game two of their GLAC doubleheader
against Stockbridge at Maple Valley High School Monday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Maple Valley’s Abeni Hartwell is tagged out by Stockbridge shortstop Arin Szumlinski as she attempts to steal second base during
game two Monday at Maple Valley High School. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Saxons push a few runs across
in doubleheader at Harper Creek
The Harper Creek girls took two from the
Hastings varsity softball team in Battle Creek
Tuesday afternoon.
The Beavers scored 16-6 and 17-7 wins.
Harper Creek scored in each of the five
innings in the 16-6 opener, with the Saxons
putting all six of their runs on the board in the
top of the fourth.
Cassidee Easey, Emma Alexander and
Morgan Deal had RBI singles in the six-run
inning for the Saxons and Kaeli Jo West drove
in the first run with a bases loaded walk.
Elleri Winter, Maddie Parker and Breegan
Woodworth had three hits each for the Beavers
in game one, with teammates Kirsten Kushionand Ally Fountain each batting in three run.
Tandra McKinstry tripled and Deal and
Phoebe Schantz had singles for the Saxons in
game two. Sophia Sunior and Easey had one
RBI each. McKinstry drove in two runs with
her triple and had a third RBI as well.
The Saxons were bested in two non-confer-
ence ballgames with visiting Ionia last
Thursday, 15-0 and 16-1.
The Saxons were held hitless in game one.
In game two, Sunior doubled and scored a run
and Deal and Easey both singled. Easey drove
in Sunior in the top of the fourth for the
Saxons to plate their run.