Brown leads Onekama in D4 finals
Manistee News Advocate
Staff Report
Published: Monday, June 6, 2011
JENISON — Onekama junior Jaylee
Brown won her third-straight Division 4 All-State medal the in
pole vault Saturday at the state finals in Jenison with a
sixth-place vault of 9-foot-6 while the Portagers’ Breanna Fink,
Danielle Ward, Yumi Babinec and Nisha Collins also medaled with
a seventh-place finish in the 400-meter relay.
The relay squad set a new Onekama school record with their time
of 52.43.
“We were all very pleased,” said girls coach Bonnie Brown of
picking up five points on the day. “We were happy to take that
many, and the ones that went gave it their all. I just hate to
see the season end.”
Jaylee Brown, who has finished in fourth place the last two
seasons in pole vault, has been struggling with injuries this
season but still managed to medal in her event. However, she was
replaced in the 400-meter relay by Collins, an Onekama freshman.
"We sent Nisha in her place and they ran their tails off," Brown
said. "They knew they had to run hard to medal and they really
wanted the school record too, and they did both."
Bear Lake senior Tobi Schoedel just missed
medaling in the 1,600-meter run with a 10th-place finish while
Babinec finished 13th in the 300-meter hurdles in the time of 49.89.
“The weather down there was just horrendous. It had to be 90-plus on
that track. If we would have known how bad Yumi was feeling, we
might have scratched her from a few events,” Brown said of the
senior, Babinec, who ran in four events on the day despite feeling
under the weather. “She was just totally exhausted by the end of the
day. She just had a bad cold she couldn’t get rid of. She wanted to
run everything she qualified in. It’s just so sad for us to say
goodbye to Yumi and Tobi.”
Though the 1,600-meter relay team of Babinec, Schoedel, Ward and
Taylor Anderson fell short of medaling, the squad set a team
personal record.
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Onekama’s Tyler Fogarty clears
the bar in the pole vault during the Division 4 state finals on
Saturday in Jenison. (Jeanne Barber/News Advocate)
The Onekama boys sent five to the state
finals, and despite not coming home with medals via a top-eight finish,
pole vaulter Tyler Fogarty and the Portagers’ 3,200-meter relay team
each took 10th place.
“We were ranked 24th, and for us to finish 10th is just a great day,”
boys coach Anthony Torres said of Fogarty, Shane Peterson, Tyler
Groenwald and Ryan Pienta who made up the 3,200-meter squad. “I
definitely saw that they gave me everything they had. And that’s all I
can ask for.”
In his third straight trip to the state finals for pole vault, Fogarty,
a junior, took 10th with a leap of 12-2. “He had great day,” Torres
said. “He was right there in contention for All-State again.”
Raul Torres, in his first state finals as a senior, fell short of
medaling in the shot put.
“He had an off day,” Anthony Torres said. “It was his first time there,
and he wasn’t disappointed at all actually. He was happy just to be at
the state meet for his senior year.” |