Portagers sweep D again

By DYLAN SAVELA, News Advocate Sports Writer
Published: Thursday, May 13, 2010

BRETHREN — Chuck Schoedel let up — slowed his pace — and coasted through the 3,200-meter run with plenty of points to spare.

Onekama was afforded that sort of luxury Wednesday, as both the Portager boys and girls team cruised to another outright West Michigan D League title at the championship meet in Brethren. But given the nature of track and field, with its emphasis on individual improvement, why did Schoedel, in his senior season of athletics, put on the breaks?

The answer is as simple as it’s been all season for the Portagers: He did it for the team.

“Stay behind me,” Schoedel shouted to his fellow two-milers Jaylee Brown, Elizabeth Schoedel and Bobby Myers halfway through the run.

He not only shielded the trio of Portagers from the heavy head wind, but helped Elizabeth set pace for a personal best time, and when it was time for the boys to break off, led Myers to the finish line for his.

It’s been this sort of selflessness that has helped pace the Portagers to six straight WMD titles.

“The coolest thing tonight was Chucky slowing down in the two-mile to run with the girls — to pace them,” Onekama girls coach Bonnie Brown said. “We’ve got hard work and dedication going for us, but we also do everything together. Nothing is separate. It’s a big happy family.”

The Portagers topped the seven-team field with 195 points for the boys and 174 for the girls. Having already clinched at least a share of the WMD title by winning at least two of three league jamborees (the Portagers won all three), Onekama was crowned outright champions by meet’s end.

“They just work hard — not just necessarily in specific field events or running events, but as a team,” Onekama boys coach Mickey Story reiterated. “We try to mesh 17 individual events together for the best team score, and these kids have known each other for a long time, and for the most part, they’re willing to make sacrifices for the team — forgetting about the ‘me’ type of thing and focus on the team. We’ve talked about what we had to do as a team to achieve this goal, and they’ve been very receptive to that.”

The Portager girls tallied 10 first-place finishes while the boys topped eight events.

 The girls swept all four relays while event winners included freshman Breanna Fink in the 200-meter dash (28.346), Tobi Schoedel in the 800- (2:53.95) and 1,600-meter run (5:49.48, Jaylee Brown in the pole vault (8-9), Ashley Rupert in the high jump (5-1) and Nicole Slater in the long jump (14-7).

The boys took three of four relays, excluding the 1,600-meter, while first-place winners included Chase Calloway in the discus (121-7 1/2), Tyler Fogarty in the pole vault (11-6), Patrick Spalding in the 110- (17.379) and 300-meter hurdles (45.305), and Schoedel in the 3,200-meter run (11:49.17).

Just as they have in all three league jamborees, the Brethren girls squad was knocking on the Portagers’ door as the runner-up with 85 points. “We just didn’t have quite enough to get first this year, and we knew that a while back, but we kept trying,” said Bobcats girls coach Rob Isble. “I’m really happy that the girls stepped up again and did real well.

 

Logan Fogarty Vaults (photo by Dylan Savela)

“I think we were very successful this year. We were consistently second, but it was never a given. We had to work hard for those points.”

Brethren senior Becca Priest took two top spots for the Bobcats in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles in the times of 17.397 and 51.567 respectively.

The girls’ 400-, 800-, and 3,200-meter relay teams took second and Jordin Wilks was a runner-up in the 800-meter run.

The Brethren boys continued to make strides Wednesday as coach Travis Walker cited a plethora of personal bests, a theme that has continued through each meet the young team has competed in this year.

After finishing fourth place in the year’s first pair of league jamborees and second in the last, the Bobcats finished in third in the championship with a season-high 80 points, short of second-place Big Rapids Crossroads Charter Academy’s 125.

“We had a big jump in points,” Walker said. “As a whole, every meet we kept getting better and better as a team. We just focused on getting better, improving our times, and trying to place in a couple more events, and we did that. So this season was definitely a success.”

Nathan Hobart was the top performer for the Bobcats with a second-place time of 56.152 in the 400-meter dash to go along with a third-place finish in the 1,600-meter run (5:05.39). Larry Williams placed second in the pole vault (8-6) while Sanqua Cummings took third in both hurdle events and Josh Marlow took a bronze in the 3,200-meter run.

Rounding out the field for the girls were Mason County Eastern in third with 80 points followed by Walkerville (39), CCA (38), Pentwater (34) and Baldwin (16).

MCE took fourth for the boys with 63 points, followed by Pentwater (20), Baldwin (17) and Walkerville (7).

Trophy Photos
on page 2
 
Boys' results
  • 100-meter dash — 3, Fogarty, OHS, 12.196; 5, Matt Monroe, OHS, 12.664.
  • 110-meter hurdles — 1, Spalding, OHS, 17.379; 2, Danny Brown, OHS, 17.679; 3, Cummings, BHS, 18.797; 4, Lewis Bartlett, OHS, 18.814.
  • 300-meter hurdles — 1, Spalding, OHS, 45.305; 2, Brown, OHS, 47.457; 3, Cummings, BHS, 48.341; Bartlett, OHS, 48.959.
  • 400-meter dash — 2, Hobart, BHS, 56.152; 4, Rease Heiler, OHS, 1:02.575; 5, Aaron Hillsamer, BHS, 1:04.110.
  • 400-meter relay — 1, OHS, Calloway, Monroe, Fogarty, Brown, 48.175; 3, BHS, 59.203.
  • 800-meter run — 4, Schoedel, OHS, 2:14.49; 5, Pienta, OHS, 2:22.15; 6, Hobart, BHS, 2:26.78.
  • 800-meter relay — 1, OHS, Brown, Ryan Pienta, Rease Heiler, Spalding, 1:41.831; 3, BHS, 1:47.103.
  • 1,600-meter run — 2, Schoedel, OHS, 5:01.95; 3, Hobart, BHS, 5:05.39; 4, Myers, OHS, 5:14.53; 6, Parker Sternberger, OHS, 6:04.20.
  • 1,600-meter relay — 2, OHS, Groenwald, Heiler, Pienta, Spalding, 3:51.98; 3, BHS, 4:00.11.
  • 3,200-meter run — 1, Schoedel, OHS, 11:49.17; 2, Myers, OHS, 11:49.61; 3, Marlow, BHS, 13:39.21; 4, Anthony Bence, BHS, 15:45.72; 5, Josh Fairbanks, BHS, 15:47.63.
  • 3,200-meter relay — 1, OHS, Groenwald, Pienta, Heiler, Schoedel, 8:56.03; 4, BHS, 12:06.03.
  • Pole vault — 1, Fogarty, OHS, 11-6; 2, Williams, BHS, 8-6; 3, John Cullar, BHS, 8-6; 4, Tyler Bajtka, OHS, 8-0.
  • Long jump — 2, Monroe, OHS, 19-7; 5, Williams, BHS, 16-4.
  • High jump — 3, Spalding, OHS, 5-6; 6, Cullar, 5-2.
  • Shot put — 2, Raul Torres, OHS, 38-3 1/2; 3, Calloway, OHS, 37-7 1/2; 5, Tyler Bajtka, OHS, 33-1 1/2.
  • Discus — 1, Calloway, OHS, 121-7 1/2; 3, Bajtka, OHS, 95-2; 4, Torres, OHS, 85-6 1/2

May 12, page 2, Trophy Photos

 Girls' results
  • 100-meter hurdles — 1, Priest, BHS, 17.397; 2, Yumi Babinec, OHS, 17.764; 3, Ashleigh Maier, BHS, 19.666.
  • 100-meter dash — 2, Fink, OHS, 13.789; 4, Slater, OHS, 14.140; 5, Karen Lewis, BHS, 14.173.
  • 200-meter dash — 1, Fink, OHS, 28.346; 4, Lewis, BHS, 29.714; 5, Slater, OHS, 29.734.
  • 300-meter hurdles — 1, Priest, BHS, 51.567; 2, Babinec, OHS, 56.872; 3, Danielle Ward, OHS, 58.273.
  • 400-meter dash — 2, Taylor Anderson, OHS, 1:07.558; 3, Tobi Schoedel, OHS, 1:08.609; 5, Maribell Acosta, BHS, 1:10.228.
  • 400-meter relay — 1, OHS, Taylor Hagen, Ward, Babinec, Fink, 55.400; 2, BHS, Michaela Staff, DJ Johnson, Carlee Broughton, Mia Orlandi, 56.602.
  • 800-meter run — 1, Tobi Schoedel, OHS, 2:53.95; 2, Wilks, BHS, 2:57.22; 3, Anderson, OHS, 3:03.67; 4, DJ Johnson, BHS, 3:18.25.
  • 800-meter relay — 1, OHS, Hagen, Rupert, Ward, Fink, 1:57.862; 2, BHS,  Staff, Johnson, Brittannie Wiggins, Orlandi, 1:58.730.
  • 1,600-meter run — 1, Tobi Schoedel, OHS, 5:49.48; 3, Wilks, BHS, 6:26.47; 4, ELizabeth Schoedel, OHS, 6:28.61.
  • 1,600-meter relay — 1, OHS, Tobi Schoedel, Anderson, Hagen, Babinec, 4:47.03; 3, BHS, Maier, Wiggins, Broughton, Orlandi, 5:57.70.
  • Pole vault — 1, Brown, OHS, 8-9; 3, Hagen, OHS, 7-6.
  • Long jump — 1, Slater, OHS, 14-7; 4, Kailani Buckner, OHS, 13-2.
  • High jump — 1, Rupert, OHS, 5-1; 5, Buckner, OHS, 4-0.
  • Shot put — 6, Broughton, BHS, 221-5.
  • Discus  4, Rupert, OHS, 64-1; Broughton, BHS, 62-9 1/2.
  • 3,200-meter run — 3, Elizabeth Schoedel, OHS, 14:18.50; 4, Jaylee Brown, OHS, 14:19.11.
  • 3,200-meter relay — 1, OHS, Elizabeth Schoedel, Tobi Schoedel, Ward, Babinec, 12:03.82; 2, BHS, Wiggins, Jordin Wilks, Johnson, Orlandi, 13:44.89.

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