THE HASTINGS
Thursday, February 8, 2024Hastings and TK cheering
for conference titles
this week
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Trojans and Saxons were set to
cheer for conference championships on
their home mats this week.
Hastings was scheduled to host the
Interstate-8 Athletic Conference’s final
conference competition of the season last
night, Feb. 7. Thornapple Kellogg will
play host to the final OK Gold Confer-
ence jamboree tonight in Middleville.
Both the Saxons and Trojans were unde-
feated in conference jamborees heading
into the week.
Both teams put on a solid showing last
Saturday at Forest Hills Northern’s North-
Star Invitational. The TK ladies were sec-
ond and the Saxons eighth in a 14-team
Division 2 competition.
The Trojans did finish behind OK Gold
Conference rival Cedar Springs at the top
of the standings. The Red Hawks outscoredthe Trojans by 4.1 points in round three to
win 75.7-754.68 at the end of the day. The
Red Hawks put up a score of 307.4 in
round three, besting TK’s total of 303.3.
Plainwell had the highest round three
score of the day at 312.2 and finished third
overall with a score of 751.98.
Mason was fourth with 736.66 points,
ahead of Zeeland West 720.42, Forest
Hills Northern 717.84, Kenowa Hills
696.38, Hastings 677.12, Sparta 652.5 and
Lowell 652.26 in the top ten.
The Hastings girls put up scores of
210.4 in round one, 185.32 in round two
and 281.4 in round three.
Thornapple Kellogg had an outstanding
start with a score of 232.4 in round one
and then added 218.98 points in round
two. Cedar Springs trailed TK by a little
over a point heading into round three after
putting up scores of 228.9 in round one
and 221.4 in round two.TK refocuses on
round three for
another Gold win
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Sometimes a cheerleader needs somebody
to pick her up.
The lifts and motions were better than any
other time this season for the Thornapple
Kellogg varsity competitive cheer team at the
second OK Gold Conference jamboree of the
season, Wednesday at Kenowa Hills High
School.
The Trojans took their second conference
win putting up a score of 753.26 points, beat-
ing runner-up Cedar Springs by a little over
seven points. The were about seven points
behind the Cedar Springs girls heading into
round three then outscored the Red Hawks
309.9 to 295.5 in that final round.
TK will host the final conference jamboree
of the season in Middleville Thursday, Feb. 8.
TK went into last week with a special
emphasis on restoring their round three prow-
ess after a fourth-place finish in the 12-team
Division 2 standings at the Jan. 27 LMCCOA
Scholarship Invitational at Byron Center
High School. TK had an eight point deduc-
tion in round three at Byron Center and fin-
ished with a score of just 269.6 in the round.
Cedar Springs was third in those Division
2 standings more than 20 points ahead of the
Trojans. Plainwell and Mason finished first
and second respectively at that competition.
“We went out there and the whole round
kind of snowballed and they let it get the best
of them,” TK head coach Madelynn Lula
said. “When we came off the mat last Satur-
day the girls were like, ‘coach I never, ever
want to do that again.’”
“We hardly ever watch round three on
film more than once or twice,” Lula added,
“and we watched it several times over andover and over and analyzed our body posi-
tions, hand grips, how we were standing. By
the end of practice Monday, for the first
time all season, every single stunt hit all
three tries.”
She called the round three performance at
Kenowa Hills an “almost perfect round.”
It wasn’t just the disappointment of Satur-
day’s performance that the Trojans were try-
ing to overcome on Wednesday. Coach Lula
said there was also the challenge of keeping
the energy up overall as one of the team’s
leaders, senior all-stater Mali Holland,
cheered through an injury. Holland is front
and center in each round for the Trojans.
“Normally, she is someone you can 100
percent count on,” Lula said. “She didn’t
make a mistake or anything at all. She
worked through the injury like a saint.”
Lula said Holland’s friends and teammates,
seniors Kenady Smith and Anna Smith,
stepped up with her not quite at 100 percent.
“They’re also good team leaders,” Lula
said. “I saw a completely different side of
them Wednesday. They lit up and made sure
everyone was hyped up and ready.”
The prepared Trojans opened the confer-
ence jamboree with a score of 226 in round
one and then added a 217.36 in round two.
Those were the second-best scores of the
day in each of those rounds. Cedar Springs
scored a 228.5 in round one and 221.94 in
round two.
Kenowa Hills was third in the day’s overall
standings with a score of 703.7 ahead of For-
est Hills Eastern 643.5, Wayland 615.6 and
Grand Rapids Catholic Central 532.7.
The Trojans go back to Byron Center Sat-
urday, Feb. 10, for the Byron Center Invita-
tional.New team of Gars
gaining experience
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Thornapple Kellogg junior Nolan Send
spent part of his 2023 summer vacation help-
ing coach youngsters in the Hammerheads
Swim Club in Hastings and taught some
swim lessons for those just getting started in
the water.
Send’s first varsity season with the new
Thornapple Kellogg/Unity Christian/West
Catholic/Hopkins varsity boys’ swimming
and diving team has Send and his fellow TK
junior Hunter Tietz in a little bit of a teaching
role as they try and get faster too.
The team, known as the Grand Rapids
Gars, had nine guys competing in its OK
Rainbow Tier II Conference dual in its
“home” pool at Grandville High School
against visiting Wayland Thursday. Tietz and
Send, both formerly a part of the former
Barry County Barracuda co-op with Delton
Kellogg and Has tings, are the only two guys
on the roster with varsity racing experience.
“It has been a little bit of an effort, but
we’re getting there,” Send said. “We don’t
have numbers to keep up with people [on the
scoreboard], and they’re still learning. Every
meet they’re getting faster.”
The Wayland boys took a 91-65 win over
the Gars, keeping the co-op winless in the
conference so far.
“One is a freshman [Haiden Vruggink]
with some club experience, but the rest of my
team is newbies we taught everything they
know in the last month and a half,” said Gars’
head coach DJ Cochran, who previously
spent a couple seasons leading the Barracuda
co-op in Hastings.
“It was just starting with the basics the first
couple weeks. It’s really just treating it like it
is swim lessons, getting them caught up to
speed.”
The Gars do keep gaining speed. He was
especially happy to see his 200-yard freestyle
relay team with Send, Ethan Magnuson,
Caden Bliek and Tietz turn in a time of 1 min-
ute 46.80 seconds, which cut about two sec-
onds off its previous best time in the race. The
Gars took the first-place points in that race.
Tietz and Send had the first wins of the
meet for the Gars. Tietz won the 50-yard free-
style in 24.49 seconds and Send won the 100-
yard freestyle in 55.92.
Coach Cochran mixed things up in his line-
up a bit Thursday. Send is typically racing in
distance events and the butterfly. He swam
the backstroke in the meet and took the first
place points in that that 100-yard race with a
time of 1:09.13. Tietz took a race turn in the
100-yard breaststroke and earned the first
place points with a time of 1:17.70.
That 200-yard freestyle relay team for the
Gars is powered in part by Magnuson, the
team’s lone diver, who coach Cochran said he
found could swim a solid 50-yard freestyle.
Vruggink, the freshman with some club
experience for the Gars, took the first place
points in the 500-yard freestyle for the Gars
with a time of 6:41.73.
Johnathan Looks, David Ammon, Austin
Ysasi and Ben Wholford all also contributed
point-scoring performances throughout the
evening for the Gars. One of the things Send
said he was most excited to see in the meet
was Wholford performing his flip turn at
every opportunity in the 100-yard freestyle
race.
“We’re all kind of making an effort at mak-
ing our turns better,” Send said. “Even my
turns at the beginning of the year sucked.”
While Send enjoys mentoring where he
can, he said Tietz is the guy to take things
over and help make sure things are running
smoothly. He said Tietz is the guy who will
lead the sets in warm-ups and that type of
thing. Coach Cochran said he is pretty happy
with the way both guys have been leaders.
Being juniors Send and Tietz were set to
just be pool-side to offer support Saturday,
Feb. 3, as the Gars competed in a freshman/
sophomore invitational hosted by the Grand-
ville program, that has so kindly shared its
pool with the new co-op.
Send said he was looking forward to a little
team-building at dinner after the Saturday
meet. With the athletes coming from four
different schools all around the greater Grand
Rapids area and not gathering together for
bus rides, there haven’t been a ton of chances
to build relationships yet.
“The first day we stood in a circle and
kind of introduced ourselves, got to know
everybody a little bit,” Send said. “Then we
did ‘social kicks’ – grab a kick-board and
kick slowly while talking to each other. Thatis always fun. That is how you get to know
people!
“I liked that. That was interesting. It is
definitely interesting, because I have always
been at a public school and they’re all from
private schools. You get to learn all about
their lunches and stuff and how they’re dif-
ferent – they get way better food,” he added
with a smile.
The Gars will see Wayland again when the
OK Rainbow Tier II Conference gathers for
its conference championship meet at Byron
Center High School Feb. 23-24.
Wayland opened the meet Thursday with
the team of Henry Oudbier, Eddie Oudbier,
Josh Rose and Justin VanDyke winning the
200-yard medley relay in 1:50.86.
Eddie Oudbier won the 200-yard freestyle
for the Wildcats in 2:04.93. Justin VanDyke
took the 200-yard individual medley in
2:27.34. Carson Lown won the diving com-
petition with a total of 167.90 points. Jackson
Byers took the 100-yard butterfly for the
Wildcats in 1:16.69.
The Wildcat team also had the foursome of
VanDyke, Alex Hubbard, Evan Barnaby and
Henry Oudbier win the 400-yard freestyle
relay in 3:58.36.The Thornapple Kellogg varsity competitive cheer team celebrates its second OK
Gold Conference win of the season Wednesday at Kenowa Hills High School. The
Trojans will look to close out an undefeated conference season when they play host
to the league tonight, Feb. 8, in Middleville.Grand Rapids Gars' freshman Haiden Vruggink races to a win in the 500-yard freestyle during his team's OK Rainbow Tier II
Conference dual with visiting Wayland at Grandville High School Thursday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)
Grand Rapids Gars' junior Nolan Send competes in the 100-yard backstroke during
his team's OK Rainbow Tier II Conference dual with Wayland at Grandville High
School Thursday. (Photo by Brett Bremer)