The Sun and News, Saturday, August 28, 2021/ Page 13New setters team up to
lead Trojan spikers’ attack
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
A pair of sophomore set-
ters will take over running
the offense for the Thornapple
Kellogg varsity volleyball
team this fall.
The duo of Charlotte
Nelson and Jessie Drenten
will be surrounded by a fairly
experience cast of teammates
including senior libero Kiah
Nichols and senior outside
hitter Tristen Cross. Cross
missed half of the 2020 regu-
lar season and still led all the
TK juniors in kills. Nichols
returns as the boss of the
back row for TK.
Also returning are senior
hitter Zoey Thomas who will
see time on both ends of the
net. Head coach Tristen
Cross said that Thomas did
“very well at each position
her team needed to play [last
year] and had a great sea-
son.”
The Trojan team is also
happy to have senior
Augustine Abshagen return-
ing in the middle. She played
on the right side and was key
on the block for the Trojans
before a injury cut her season
short.TK will looking for contri-
butions from junior middle
hitter Alana Compton, soph-
omore middle hitter Kenna
VanElst and right side hitter
Thea Zellmer throughout the
year as well.
“We are a close team and
get along really well,” coach
Cross said. “When you have
good relationships it
makes it easier to play
together.”
The Trojans are hoping
that they can work to keep
points short with strong
serves and with improvement
on the consistency of their
serve receive.
“I am looking forward to
the start of the season,” coach
Cross said. “These girls are
already working hard and
have learned so much in this
short time that I believe we
can really have a competitive
season.”
Being competitive in the
OK Gold Conference takes
some effort. TK and Forest
Hills Eastern each graduated
eight players a year ago, and
many of the top teams in the
conference had strong senior
groups as well.
The Trojans are at the
Battle Creek Harper Creek
Cereal City Invitational
today (Aug. 28) and will
head to Calvin Christian for a
tri on Tuesday. The OK Gold
Conference season starts
when the Trojans travel to
South Christian Sept. 9.Ph (269)
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792-Kiah NicholsFour four-year seniors and
speed sophomore back for TK
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Thornapple Kellogg’s
Camden Reynolds and
Matthew Smith both ran their
fastest varsity cross country
race ever last October as
juniors.
Teammate Lucas Van
Meter ran his fastest race in
November, at the Barry
County Meet, breaking the
18-minute mark for the first
time in a third-place finish in
the final race of his freshmen
campaign. Smith and
Reynolds will be pushing to
get under that 18-minute
mark this fall.
That is the kind of progres-
sion the program likes to see.
Reynolds and Smith are
two of four, four-year varsity
cross country runners back
for their senior season this
fall with the TK varsity boys’
team. The other half of that
foursome includes Benjamin
Trudell and Michael Blair.
TK head coach Josh
Reynolds said many of his
guys got in good miles over
the summer, and he is really
impressed with the effort and
improvement he has seen
from Trudell as he preps for
his final varsity season.
The Trojan coach is look-
ing to Camden Reynolds,
Van Meter and Smith to build
strength and confidence in
the first few weeks of the
season, to test themselves at
big, fast invitationals like the
Otsego Bulldog Invitational
and the Portage Invitational,
and then be ready to really go
when they head back to
Portage for their Division 2
Regional Meet at the end ofOctober.
The experienced runners
aren’t the only ones building
it throughout the fall. A num-
ber of guys will be working
to score in the five, six and
seven spots for the Trojan
team. That group includes
junior Aidan Buist, sopho-
mores Kaden Hamming and
Declan Smith and the fresh-
man foursome of Hunter
Tietz, Aiden Walsh, Case
Dykhouse and Michael
Sager-Wissner.
Coach Reynolds said Tietz
and Walsh certainly could
work their way towards the
scoring pack. All four of
those freshmen ran with the
TK Middle School program
last fall.
“The end of Augustthrough the first few weeks
of September it is just going
to be gaining that experience
for those younger guys and
just gaining that confidence
in their training and believ-
ing in the system so that
when we get to the end of
September [the second OK
Gold jamboree of the season]
that experience will start to
show up a little more and
their confidence in their abil-
ity to manage a race will
begin to show,” coach
Reynolds said.
He said everyone, includ-
ing the freshmen group, had
great energy at the cross
country camp this summer.
The freshmen got pushed and
responded well, and coach
Reynolds said he might have
to bridle their excitement a
little bit in an effort to be
better races.
TK was set to open its sea-
son at the Battle Creek
Harper Creek Optimist
Invitational Saturday (Aug.
28) the Trojans will head to
Caledonia for a dual Sept. 3
and then go to Cedar Springs
for the first OK Gold
Conference jamboree of the
season Sept. 8.
Coach Reynolds expects
Cedar Springs to be one of
the top teams in the confer-
ence this fall, but really sees
South Christian as a front
runner due in large part to the
depth of returning runners on
its roster.
TK will host the annual
Coach B Invitational at Gun
Lake Sept. 13. The is current-
ly the only home meet on the
schedule for the Trojans.Camden ReynoldsWoods, all holdovers from
the 2020 team along with
sophomore Reece Hoeksma.
TK head coach David
Wood liked the work he saw
his guys do in the summerand the preseason, and is
pleased to see the team
chemistry growing.
TK will host a non-confer-
ence match with the West
Michigan Aviation AcademySept. 1 and then return to
conference play at home
against Forest Hills Eastern
Sept. 7.TK SOCCER, continued from previous page
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