Page 14 — Thursday, April 14, 2022 — The Hastings Banner
Guevara
leads DK
golf team at
Eastern Hills
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Delton Kellogg varsity boys’ golf
team got to play its first holes of the season
Tuesday finishing ahead of Constantine at the
jamboree hosted by Parchment at Eastern
Hills.
Hackett Catholic Prep won the day’s meet,
ahead of Parchment, Delton Kellogg and
Constantine.
Javier Guevara led the Delton Kellogg/
Martin Co-op team with a 47. Head coach
Jim Hogoboom said Guevara struck the ball
well, but as is typical early in the season there
is still some work to do around the greens.
Karter Ribble added a 50 to lead the Pan-
thers.
DK is slated to host its own Coach Enyart
Invitational at Mullenhurst today, April 14.Saxons ease into season with
wins over Wellspring Prep
Valerie Slaughter
Contributing Writer
Hastings’ boys and girls varsity track and
field teams competed at home Tuesday night
against Wellspring Prep in their first outdoor
meet of the season.
The Saxon girls outran Wellspring Prep
106-3, while the Saxon boys outscored Well-
spring 141-15.
Saxon head coach, Brian Teed noted it was
“an easy early season win, but that was okay,
because we desperately needed to just get in
a meet where everybody could compete to be
able to see what we were all working with.
We were not disappointed as many athletes
competed well. There were 26 different boys
and 16 different girls who hit a new personal
best. Just looking at the 13 individual events,
there were nine different boys and nine differ-
ent girls who won an event. That shows a
team balance.
“Both the boys and girls rearranged the
depth chart on many events and now we will
be tasked with putting together some new
sprint relays before our big meet on Friday.”
Saxon girls placing first for the team were:
Allison Teed in the 100-meter hurdles and
300-meter low hurdles; Addey Nickels in the
100-meter dash; Carissa Strouse in the 1600-
meter run and the 800-meter run; Isabelle
Roosien in the 200-meter dash. In the field
events the Hastings girls got wins from Kali
Grimes in pole vault, Grace Madden in shot
put, Myah Vincent in high jump, Madison
Nino in long jump, and Maddie Miller in
discuss. The Saxon 4x200-meter relay team
of Nino, Nickels, Roosien and Teed and the
400-meter relay team of Nino, Roosien, Abby
Goodrich and Grimes both finished in first
place.
For the Saxon boys first place performanc-
es were achieved by: Layton Eastman in the
110-meter high hurdles and 300-meter inter-
mediate hurdles; Reuben Solmes in the 100-
meter and 200-meter runs; Brandon Simmons
in the 1600-meter run; Charles Nickels in the
high jump and 400-meter run; Kearan Tolles
in the 800-meter run; Riley Shults in the
3200-meter run; Robby Slaughter in pole
vault; Daniel Weatherly in shot put and dis-
cuss; and Caleb Waller in long jump.
Solmes ran his two fastest sprints ever to
win the 100 in 12.25 seconds and the 200 in
24.69. Every Hastings guy to win an individ-
ual running event, other than the hurdles, set
new personal records. Tolles finished the 800
in 2 minutes 12.71 seconds. Shults won the
32200 in 11:09.19. Charles Nickels took his
400 win in 55.09. Simmons, a freshman, won
the 1600 in 5:05.51.
Waller bested his previous long jump PR
by more than a foot flying 19 feet three inch-
es.
The Saxon boys’ 4x800-meter relay team
of Caleb LaBoe, Charles Nickels, Jonah Teed
and Tolles, finished in first place as did the
4x100-meter relay team of Slaughter, Aiden
SaintAmour, Dillon Neal and Nate Kohmesh-
er. The Saxon 4x400-meter relay team of Jett
Barnum, Charles Nickels, Jonah Teed and
Tolles also finished in first.
The Saxons will compete at home on Fri-
day night at the Hastings Team Invitational,
one of the largest invitationals in the area.
Saxons bounce back
from tough inning
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Saxons learned to bounce back on
day one of the 2022 varsity baseball season.
Plainwell took a 19-1 victory in the open-
ing game of a non-conference doubleheaderin Hastings plating 15 runs in the top of the
fifth inning Tuesday. The Saxons answered
with an 11-2 victory in game two.
“We talked about things [between games]
and said, ‘hey, there are some really good
things that happened and there are some
things that can’t happen again,’” Hastings
head coach Jason Sixberry said.
He talked with his team about staying
positive and making sure guys had each oth-
ers backs when things didn’t go right. They
didn’t go right in that fifth inning of game
one.
“It was a decent game until the wheels
fell off in the fifth inning with some unfor-
tunate errors and hits batsmen and walks,”
Sixberry said.
An RBI single off the bat of Lars Sorensen
plated the Saxons only run in game one. Har-
rison Smalley doubled to center to lead off
the bottom of the second inning and then
scored with one out on Sorensen’s single. The
run pulled Hastings within 2-1 at the time.
That was where the score stayed until the
Plainwell Trojans added two runs in the top
of the fourth and then piled on in the fifth.
Carter Reil threw the first three innings of
the season from the mound for the saxons. He
struck out four and didn’t allow an earned
run.
Hastings led the second game 11-0 scor-
ing three runs in the bottom of the first and
then eight in the second.
The Saxons had five hits in game two and
Sixberry was pleased to see his guys
extremely patient at the plate working walks
and taking advantage of a couple of hit bat-
ters as well.
Matt Thompson singled twice for the Sax-
ons and had an RBI. Patrick Gee had an RBI
double. Reil belted an RBI triple. Smalley
had an RBI single and finished the game
with two RBI.
“Obviously, there was more consistent
pitching in the first game than the second
game for Plainwell, but our guys I think got
some of the jitters out of them and were
starting to be more patient at the plate,” Six-
berry said.
Plainwell managed just one hit and one
earned run in game two.
Mason Denton started and held the Tro-
jans scoreless for two innings from the
mound. Landon Steward took over from
there and struck out four Trojans in his two
innings of work.
Hastings is set to open the Interstate-8 Ath-
letic Conference season at Pennfield this
afternoon, April 14, and will be home for its
annual Barry County Invitational Saturday.Hastings junior Layton Eastman runs to a victory in the 110-meter high hurdles
during his team's dual with Wellspring Prep Tuesday afternoon in Hastings. (Photo by
Valerie Slaughter)The Saxons' Madison Nino flies over the sand in the long jump during her team's
season-opening contest Tuesday inside Baum Stadium at Johnson Field in Hastings.
(Photo by Valerie Slaughter)Saxon senior pitcher Carter Reil hurls the ball towards the plate during game one
against Plainwell Tuesday afternoon at Johnson Field in Hastings. (Photo by Valerie
Slaughter)Hastings shortstop Aiden Benson
moves into position near the bag at sec-
ond during his team's opening ballgame
against visiting Plainwell Tuesday. (Photo
by Valerie Slaughter)Good Friday April 15 – In Person and OnLine
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Worship 8:30 am “Resurrection Testimonies”
Easter Breakfast 9:00 am
Easter Egg Hunt 9:30 am
Worship 10:00 am “Not Enough Words”
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