Page 8/The Sun and News, Saturday, May 18, 2024TKHS ladies finish off undefeated OK Gold season
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Trojans’ biggest cel-
ebrations trickled in Friday
night at Houseman Field in
downtown Grand Rapids.
First one for a school
record on the boys’ side and
then another as the
Thornapple Kellogg varsity
girls’ track and field team
finished off an undefeated
run through the 2024 OK
Gold Conference season.
The TK ladies were scat-
tered throughout the stadi-
um as the announcer began
ticking off the team scores
finally getting to the
Thornapple Kellogg varsity
girls’ track and field team’s
championship point total of
135 which was 15 points
better than the runners-up
from Ottawa Hills.
Throwing coach Cary
Saxton was there to accept
the conference champion-
ship trophy with seniors
Mali Holland and Joselyn
DeBoer and junior Lilly
McKeown. Mia Hilton, the
Harmon sisters (Ellie and
Brooklyn), Kendra Coe,
Madison Kietzman, Ava
Crews and others, like head
coach Maggie Wilkinson
and assistant Ethan Barnes,
soon found their way to the
party.
“I think it is amazing,”
TK junior Brooklyn
Harmon said of the confer-
ence championship. “Goinginto the season, I was like
oh we have a lot of girls,
but I don’t know how it is
going to work out just
because I have never seen a
lot of these girls run. I am
very proud of us all. We
showed our true colors in
what we do. We really work
together as a team. We’re
always picking each other
up and covering .. we
always have each other’s
backs and I feel like that
helps us work. Even though
track is an individual race,
you still need a team to
encourage you.”
On the track, the TK
ladies capped off their con-
ference championship sea-
son with the team of Coe,
Hilton, Ellie Harmon and
Brooklyn Harmon racing to
a winning time of 4 minutes
10.75 seconds in the
4x400-meter relay. Theycut 5.75 seconds off their
team’s previous best time in
the race from this season
and blew away the top-seed-
ed Catholic Central team by
almost three and a half sec-
onds.
“I think our adrenaline
kind of carried us, because
we were all kind of ner-
vous, but we were trying to
hide it,” Brooklyn said of
the season best 4x400 time.
“Kendra hasn’t run it
before, so we were trying to
keep her calm. The biggest
thing in my mind was I
knew us and Ottawa Hills
were super close.”
Brooklyn, a junior, said
she loves getting the baton
from her younger sisterEllie, a freshman, in the
race. She can tell they’re
always trying to do their
best for each other.
Brooklyn was really
impressed with Ellie’s 400-
meter dash from earlier in
the day. Ellie was the run-
ner-up in that race with a
time of 1:03.37. Brooklyn
added that she continues to
be worried that Hilton is
going to chase her down
one of these days in the
hurdles.
Thornapple Kellogg
senior Lucas VanMeter flew
around the final 200 meters
to a victory in the 800-
meter run and was swarmed
by his teammates as he won
the OK Gold ConferenceChampionship in the race,
outdueling Ottawa Hills
senior Liam Walters. The
swarm soon turned into a
flurry of fingers refreshing
their phone screens waiting
on a time. VanMeter found
his way out of the crowd to
find some water, and then
the celebration found him
again. He wasn’t only the
fastest guy in the 800-meter
dash - he ran the fastest
800-meter race ever by a
Trojan clocking in at
1:56.60.
“I started really running
the 800 last year, with my
friend who is also good at it
(2023 TK grad Tyler
Bushman). I failed to make
it to state last year, but now
I’m running great,”
VanMeter said. “Now I’ve
got Jacob Draaisma to run
with. That helps for prac-
tice. Mentally, it is good to
have someone to run with- a partner I guess.”
He had Walters to run
with in his 800 Friday. The
Bengal leader wound up
with a time of 1:57.86, his
fastest mile of the season.
“He is probably the best
competition I’ve ever run
against, probably the clos-
est competition,” VanMeter
said. “I went the first lap,
just sitting back behind
because I knew they were
going to take off with a fast
lap probably, and then I got
kind of stuck behind some
kids. I saw a gap and I went
around them, and then I saw
[Walter] right in front of me
with about 200 to go and
put the hammer down.”
He ticked under two min-
utes in the race for the first
time at the April 19 Allegan
Invitational and figured he
just needed one more really
good race to be able to
break the school record - State & I-CAR Certified Technicians
- TOUCH Computerized Electronic Measuring System
- Frame Repair
“We go above and beyond your vehicle repairs!”
OPEN: M thru F: 7:30 am - 5:00 pm616.891.0150 http://www.edsbody.com
110 Johnson
StreetEd Pawloski Jr.
OwnerSTATE OF THE ART SYSTEMSSTATE OF THE ART SYSTEMS
See GOLD, next pageThornapple Kellogg senior Lucas VanMeter
picks up the pace as he rounds the final turn in his
leg of the 4x400-meter relay Friday, May 10, during
the OK Gold Conference Championship at
Houseman Field in Grand Rapids. VanMeter broke
the TK boys’ 800-meter race record while winning a
conference championship in that race. (Photo by
Brett Bremer)
Thornapple Kellogg freshman Ellie Harmon leads
a pack around the final turn of their leg in the
4x400-meter relay at the end of the OK Gold
Conference Championship at Houseman Field in
Grand Rapids May 10. (Photo by Brett Bremer)Members of the Thornapple Kellogg varsity girls’ track and field team Ava Crews, head coach
Maggie Wilkinson, Mali Holland, Ellie Harmon, Brooklyn Harmon, Mia Hilton, Elizabeth Middleton,
Joselyn DeBoer, Kendra Coe, coach Cary Saxton, Madison Kietzman and coach Ethan Barnes cele-
brate with their team’s OK Gold Conference championship trophy on the infield at Houseman Field in
Grand Rapids Friday, May 10. The TK ladies were a perfect 7-0 in conference duals and outscored
runner-up Ottawa Hills by 15 points at the conference meet to finish off the undefeated conference
season. (Photo by Brett Bremer)