Page 14 — Thursday, May 12, 2022 — The Hastings Banner
PRs lead to pair of Gold victories for TK girls
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
A couple of senior/freshman duos helped
power the Thornapple Kellogg varsity girls’
track and field team to two more OK Gold
Conference victories Thursday in Middleville.
The TK ladies capped off a 5-2 season of
conference duals by outscoring Kenowa Hills
91-46 and Grand Rapids Catholic Central
107-30.
Senior Trysta Hilton and freshman Brooklyn
Harmon placed first and third respectively in
the 100-meter hurdles and the 300-meter low
hurdles for the Trojan team, while both girls
won a leaping event in the field. The other
outstanding pair was senior Jessica Durkee and
freshman Ava Crews in the distance running
events.
Hilton was a state medalist a year ago, plac-
ing fifth in the 300-meter hurdles at the
MHSAA Division 2 Lower Peninsula Track
and Field Finals. She set her personal record in
the race at the finals finishing in 47.82 seconds.
She bettered that mark in winning the race
Thursday with a new personal record time of
47.66. She also lowered her personal record in
the 100-meter hurdles to 16.56 seconds and set
her personal record in the high jump by clear-
ing the bar at 5 feet 1 inch for the first time.
Hilton matched her former personal recordof 5-0 in the high jump and then finally
improved her PR on the third attempt at 5-1.
She nearly cleared 5-2 on the second of three
attempts, but couldn’t quite reach the new
height she has her sights set on.
“It felt really good,” Hilton said of the high
jump improvement. “I have been working to
get past 5 foot because that is kind of where
you have that mental breakdown. Five foot is
kind of the extreme.”
Previously, her attempts over 5-0 had been
at 5-2. Being the only competitor left Thursday
gave her the chance to move the bar up one
inch instead of two.
Harmon had her own hurdle in a jumping
event to get over Thursday. She set her person-
al record in the long jump at 15-7 in the first
outdoor meet of the season and hadn’t jumped
beyond 15 feet again until flying 15-.25 to win
the event Thursday. She said she lost her steps,
and spent the past couple weeks trying to get
them back.
“I look down at my feet, then I take my first
step, and then once I take my first step I look
up in the distance and see anything but the
board,” Harmon said.
She was happy to have coach Maggie
Wilkinson staying late with her after practice
time and again trying to get her steps down. As
far as the hurdles, Wilkinson said the 300 hur-
dles is pretty much a race that is all about guts.
The Trojans don’t practice the race all-out very
often, if at all. Most of the time when it is time
to work on hurdles, Hilton is the one offering
instruction to the younger girls.
Harmon was third in the 100-meter hurdles
Thursday with a time of 17.57 seconds, about a
half a second slower than her personal record
time in the race. She dropped her PR in the 300
hurdles to 50.56 Thursday.
“She is a beast,” Hilton said of Harmon.
“She is only a freshman and she is crazy. She is
super humble, but I have to remind her that she
is a beast. She’s like, ‘I’ll follow you, I’ll fol-
low you.’ I am like you’re acting like there is
this huge space, but there is really not.”
Less than two weeks ago on a chilly after-
noon at Houseman Field, Hilton who has yet to
be beaten in the 300 hurdles this season fin-
ished just six hundredths of a second ahead of
Harmon.
“I love Brooklyn. It is nice having someone
on your team who you are friends with and you
respect and you love, but also you positively
push each other,” Hilton said.“I always try to keep up with her,” Harmon
said of Hilton, “because I know that if I keep
up with her I am definitely going to PR because
she is ahead. I never knew Trysta before this
season and now we’re pretty close and I wish
she wasn’t leaving.”
TK also had sophomore Joselyn Deboer set
personal records in the hurdles races. She was
fifth in the 100 hurdles in 18.59 and fourth in
the 300 hurdles in 53.34. TK freshman Emma
Dykhouse set her 300 hurdle PR at 57.01 in a
sixth-place finish.
“This team, in general, is one of the most
helpful, the most giving one of the most caring
what can I do for you and how can I help you
teams, and that is how they are in the hurdles
too,” Wilkinson said.
Coach Wilkinson said the big focus for Hil-
ton is staying focused through the length of the
300 hurdles race. Hilton said she pushes herself
as hard as she can for the first 200 meters and
tries to survive the final 100. Wilkinson said
the big thing leading to Harmon’s improve-
ments in the race is growing experience and
confidence.
“You have to know every race you’re just
going to get better and better because you learn
the race a little bit more, and you just have to
attack the hurdles,” Wilkinson said. “No matter
where you are you’re going to jump and you’re
going to trust that you’re going to be fine get-
ting over it.”
Wilkinson expecting a stiff challenge from
Kenowa Hills on the evening pushed Durkee
and Crews, a pair of cross country state quali-
fiers last fall, to the limit. Both girls were a part
of the 4x800-meter relay team to open the
meet, and then both ran in the 1600-meter run,
the 800-meter run and the 3200-meter run.
Catholic Central sophomore Emily Tomes
won those three individual distance races, with
Durkee and Crews placing second and third
behind her. Durkee finished the 1600 in 5:52.
and Crews in 5:52.23. In the 800, Durkee was
second in 2:35.90 and Crews set her PR in the
race with a time of 2:27.32. Crews was the
runner-up in the 3200 with a new PR of
12:18.96 while Durkee finished just behind her
in a season-best time of 12:55.35.
Durkee and Crews teamed with sophomore
Alize Raphael and Lydia Schilthroat were sec-
ond to the Kenowa Hills team in the 4x800-me-
ter relay with a time of 11:17.61.
TK junior Alana Compton, a state qualifier
in the discus last spring, improved her personal
record in that event to 116-1 in a victory. She
also placed third in the shot put with a mark of
31-1.5. Senior teammate Tristen Cross, who is
also a goalkeeper on the TK varsity girls’ soc-
cer team, won the shot put with a mark of
32-10.5.
The Trojans were also thrilled to have soph-
omore TJ Myers win the pole vault by upping
her PR to 8-0 Thursday.
In an effort to prevent Kenowa Hills from
sweeping the four relay races she moved her
regular 4x200-meter relay team into the
4x100-meter relay and the team of Hilton,
senior Anna Benedict, junior Lindsey Velting
and senior Ainsley Oliver won that race in
52.54 seconds, less than half a second better
than the Kenowa Hills foursome in the race.
Wilkinson also mixed things up putting both
Oliver and Velting in the 100-meter dash, hop-
ing for a 1-2 finish, and they accomplished
their goal. Oliver won in 13.61 and Velting was
second in 13.73. Velting later added a third-
place personal record time of 28.20 in the 200-
meter dash.
There were personal records set all over on
one of the nicest afternoons of the spring sea-
son so far. TK sophomore Kenady Smith was
the runner-up in the 400 with a personal record
time of 1:04.74.
In the boys’ meet, the Trojans scored a 78-
win over Catholic Central, but fell 70-67 to
Kenowa Hills.
The TK boys had most of their scoring suc-
cess in the sprints. Sophomore Jaxan Sias
dropped his personal record in the 400-meterdash to 52.32 to win that race. Senior Alex
Harrington set his PR at 24.00 in winning the
200-meter dash with teammate Jonah Schil-
throat the runner-up in 24.08. Schilthroat, a
senior, won the 100-meter dash in 11.96. Har-
rington set his PR with a third-place time of
12.11 in that 100.
TK junior Tyler Bushman set his personal
record in the 800 at 2:09.09 to place third. He
was ahead of every Kenowa Hills runner in
the race.
The TK girls weren’t the only ones to have a
good day in the hurdles. TK senior Jacob Pyko-
sz was the runner-up to Kenowa Hills junior
Andrew Bradley in both the 110-meter high
hurdles and the 300-meter intermediate hur-
dles. Pykosz lowered his PR in the 300 hurdles
with a time of 45.66 and his time of 18.41 in
the 110s was his fastest of the spring.
The TK boys took two relay wins. The Team
of Sias, Schilthroat, Harrington and Gabe
Lajoye won the 4x200-meter relay in 1:34.
and the team of Sias, Matthew Smith, Lajoye
and Bushman won the 4x400-meter relay in
3:40.76.
Kenowa Hills won every field event in the
head-to-head match-up with the TK boys. Tro-
jan senior Quintin Carr set his personal record
in the discus at 114-4 which was good for sec-
ond behind Kenowa Hills sophomore Ansh
Verma’s personal record of 116-4. Sias cleared
5-8 in the high jump to place third. Smith
placed third in the pole vault clearing 10-6 and
senior Hayden Oly was the runner-up in the
long jump with a personal record leap of 19-5.
Kenowa Hills sophomore Alex Andino set
his own PR to win the boys’ long jump at 20-.5.
Catholic Central’s boys controlled the dis-
tance events with senior Brian Langlois win-
ning the 3200 in 10:30.10; freshman Jeb Hil-
lary wining the 1600 in 4:48.89 and senior
Erickson Kunzler winning the 800 in 2:08.14.
The Cougar teammate Tomes in the girls’
meet won the 800 in 2:32.87, the 1600 in
5:47.83 and the 3200 in 11:42.29.
The TK boys close the OK Gold duals with
a record of 3-4.
The Trojans, Knights Cougars and the rest of
the OK Gold Conference will gather at House-
man Field in Grand Rapids Friday, May 13, for
the OK Gold Conference Championship.200 Lafayette St., Middleville MI 49333
200 Lafayette St., Middleville MI 49333
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Thornapple Kellogg sophomore Jaxan Sias gets the baton from senior teammate
Matt Smith during the 4x400-meter relay in Middleville Thursday. (Photo by Brett
Bremer)Thornapple Kellogg senior Trysta Hilton takes off win the baton for her leg of the
4x100-meter relay during the Trojans' OK Gold double dual with Catholic Central and
Kenowa Hills Thursday in Middleville. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
TK junior Alana Compton fires off one
of her final attempts in the shot put during
her team's double dual with Catholic
Central and Kenowa Hills Thursday in
Middleville. (Photo by Brett Bremer)