Page 14/The Sun and News, Saturday, August 28, 2021Conference champs
return for DK/TK/HHS
swim team in 2021
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
A strong senior group
helped power the Delton
Kellogg/Thornapple
Kellogg/Hastings to an OK
Rainbow Tier II Conference
Championship last season.
Newcomers and an out-
standing group of returnees
will try and keep the team on
top of the conference in
2021.
The group of returnees for
head coach Carl Schoessel,
in his 19th season leading the
program based out of the
Community Education and
Recreation Center in
Hastings, is led by seniors
Abby Marcukaitis and Ellen
Shults and juniors Anna
Haywood and Kasey
Kapteyn.
Marcukaitis is one of the
top senior swimmers around.
She placed fourth in the
backstroke at the Division 1
Lower Peninsula State Finals
at the end of last season and
ninth in the 50-yard free-
style. She and Haywood
were both all-conference
swimmers last season. They
were both a part of the con-
ference championship team
in the 200-yard medley relay
and 200-yard freestyle relay.
Marcukaitis also won the
conference title in the
50-yard freestyle and the
backstroke.
The group of underclass-
men in the program is paced
by Sophie Marcukaitis, who
joined Haywood and sister
Abby on the two conference
championship winning relay
teams, and added a confer-
ence title in 2020 individual-
ly in the 100-yard breast-
stroke. She was an all-con-
ference honoree as well.
The DK/TK/HHS girls arecurrently slated to visit Ionia
to open the season Tuesday
and then will host Fremont
for Little Sisters/Swim Club
Night at the CERC pool.
Coach Schoessel said he
expects Wayland and Ottawa
Hills to be the teams most
likely to challenge his team
for a conference champion-
ship this season. The DK/
TK/HHS girls face Ottawa
Hills in Grand Rapids Sept.
30 and will host the annual
Cancer Awareness Meet with
Wayland Oct. 21 in Hastings.Trojan girls’ team has its
top seven runners returning
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Thornapple Kellogg varsi-
ty girls’ cross country coach
Sam Wilkinson, who is start-
ing his sixth season leading
the Trojan program, is look-
ing forward to getting a base-
line for where his team stands
when it opens the season at
the Harper Creek Optimist
Invitational in Battle Creek
today (Aug. 28).
The Trojans won that invi-
tational a year ago and went
on to finish in a tie for sec-
ond in the OK Gold
Conference, capture a Barry
County Meet Championship
and finish fourth at regionals
as a team while sending
Jessica Durkee and Emmie
MacDonald to the Division 2
Lower Peninsula Cross
Country Finals.
Durkee and MacDonald
are just two of the top seven
runners from last year who
are all returning for TK this
fall. Durkee is back for her
senior season along with
Kendall Snyder. The junior
group includes MacDonald,
Maddie Nagel, Lucy
VanDemark and Lindsey
Velting, as well as Emma
Thompson who wasn’t in
that top seven throughout the
year but came on towards the
end. The seventh member of
that front pack from a year
ago is Holly Velting, now a
sophomore.
“We will be welcoming a
handful of new athletes this
season, and I’m optimistic
about the positive potential
they will bring to this team
right away,” coach Wilkinson
said. “There will be no
assumptions about who will
be varsity throughout the
season and this new group of
girls will be challenging forthose spots.”
The Trojans are already
dealing with some injuries
too, so that could change
who is at the font of the pack
at any given moment.
“Our team has a lot of
potential, but to realize this
potential the girls will have
to live up to who they are
when they fully apply them-
selves,” coach Wilkinson
said. “This is a group of
smart, strong, and powerful
young ladies. I have a feeling
we may have a little bit of a
slower start than past years,
but we will build momentum
throughout the season.
“However, this is not what
you want to hear, so I will tell
you that I expect us to con-
tend in our conference for the
top three spots, I expect us to
be in the conversation at the
regional meet, and I believewe once again have a good
shot at being on a bus as a
team heading to the state
meet. However, these goals
are not entirely in our control
and it will take a lot of hard
work and determination to
make these kinds of goals
happen. What I can expect
with certainty is that our
young ladies will represent
TK very well.”
Forest Hills Eastern will
be tough for anyone to beat
in the OK Gold Conference
this fall. The Hawks finished
ninth at the Division 2 Lower
Peninsula Cross Country
Finals a year ago with two
sophomores leading the way.
That FHE team had just two
seniors among its seven run-
ners at the state finals.
“It’s their conference to
lose right now,” coach
Wilkinson said. “With that
being said, there are other
teams that will be very com-
petitive. We are one of those
teams, but we won’t over-
look anyone. Every team we
compete against in our con-
ference has earned our
respect.”
Ottawa Hills placed tenth
at the Division 1 Finals last
fall with a couple freshmen
and a sophomore running at
MIS on the team with three
seniors, so the Bengals will
be a team to watch again as
well.
TK and the rest of the OK
Gold Conference get togeth-
er for the first time this sea-
son when they head to the
jamboree hosted by Cedar
Springs Sept. 8. TK currently
has a dual with Caledonia on
the schedule for Sept. 3 and
will host its own Coach B
Invitational at Gun Lake
Sept. 13.Emmie MacDonaldTK could be in battle for top
four spot in Gold golf standings
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Most of the line-up for the
Thornapple Kellogg varsity
girls’ golf team this fall will
be playing in varsity matches
for the first time.
The top returning golfers
for TK are seniors Lane
Kaminski and Katy Raphael.
Kaminski was an all-con-
ference golfer in the OK
Gold as a junior. She aver-
aged just over 45 strokes per
nine holes and finished in the
top ten in every tournament
she played in. She was sev-
enth at her team’s Division 2
Regional Tournament last
fall, finishing just three
strokes behind the last of the
individual state qualifiers
from the event.
Working towards scoring
in the other spots in the var-
sity line-up throughout the
fall will be freshman Ailana
Leos, senior Paris Hale and
juniors Kendra Coe, Emma
Welton, Carly Postma and
Liberty Hess.
“We are a hard-working
team, so we hope that we can
continue to improve through-
out the season,” TK head
coach Bob Kaminski said.
Coach Kaminski is enter-
ing his 18th season leading
the Trojan program.
“With our inexperience,
we want to continue to
improve throughout the sea-
son.”
The TK girls will once
again face tough competition
in the OK Gold. Coach
Kaminski said he expects
South Christian to be very
good this season, and Forest
Hills Eastern and Catholic
Central to bring teams to the
course ready to battle for topspots in the conference as
well.
“It should be a very com-
petitive year,” coach
Kaminski said.
The TK ladies already
have a handful of competi-
tions in. The conference sea-
son started Wednesday when
Cedar Springs hosted the
first jamboree of the year.
The TK ladies placed fifth
with a team score of 219.
South Christian took the
day’s championship at C
dar Chase with a score of
164, ahead of Catholic
Central 166, Forest Hills
Eastern 171 and Wayland- Kenowa Hills (232) and
Cedar Springs (240) finished
sixth and seventh respective-
ly.
Lane Kaminski led the TK
ladies with a 48. Les shot a
51, Coe a 57 and Hess con-
tributed a 63.
The top 14 golfers at the
meet were from either South
Christian, Forest Hills
Eastern or Catholic Central.
South Christian senior Elle
Bolkema was the individual
champion with a 37. Her
sophomore teammate Ashley
Thomasma and Catholic
Central freshman Ava
Wisinski both shot a 39.
The TK ladies will be back
in action with the rest of the
league Monday at Indian
Trails Golf Course and then
at Orchard Hills Wednesday.
TK hosted its own TK
Invitational at Yankee
Springs Friday (Aug. 27).Lane KaminskiAbby MarcukaitisCALL FOR SUN & NEWS ADS
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