HUDSONVILLE —

Onekama’s 400-meter relay team was back to defend its state title on Saturday.

Well, three-quarters of it.

With Breanna Fink lost for the season with a knee injury, Alycia Peterson slid into the anchor position to follow Meredith Hengy, Nisha Collins and Alyson Fink.

“I told the girls ‘this is for Bre, we’ve got to go all out,’” Collins said.

The Portagers did, but fell just short of repeating in the event by taking third in 51.73, behind the winning team from Reading (51.22) and runner-up Detroit Edison Academy (51.31).

“I told the girls with the conditions and the wind, they did a great job passing the baton and I don’t have any complaints,” said Onekama girls coach Nathan Bradford. “We were right there competing for it.”

The squad’s time was just behind last year’s mark of 51.44

“I feel we performed really well today,” Collins said. “We were really happy with what we got.”

That same foursome placed seventh in the 800 relay (1:51.25) and Collins took sixth in the long jump with a leap of 16-foot-3.

“For me, personally, bringing home three medals out of three is just amazing,” Collins said.

The Onekama junior qualified for the state finals in the long jump in her first two seasons as well, but was unable to place.

“I remember my freshman year I looked around and I saw all the girls and all the people and I was so intimidated by it,” Collins recalled. “I didn’t think I had any way of doing anything. My sophomore year, it was good, but I still found some of the girls intimidating and I think that was something I couldn’t get over.

“This morning when I walked in, I told myself ‘you’ve been here before, these girls are on the same playing field as you and you can’t be intimidated by them. You’ve just got to go in and jump your jumps and do what you’ve got to do to place,’ and I feel like my last two years of having that experience really helped me to have that mindset.”

Collins responded quickly with her first jump at 16-3 to take sixth.

Stats from other schools can be found at: http://highschoolsports.mlive.com/  

“I always jumped about 16-something before, and I get to state and only jump 15,” she said. “When I hit 16-3 right at the beginning, I was so pumped and excited for the day.

“Next year I’m going to be working a lot and really hard for this because long jump is one of those things that I’d hope to get some kind of scholarship from. Next year I’m hoping to get top three, if not first.”

As a team, the Onekama girls, who co-op with Bear Lake, finished 17th with 11 points while Traverse City St. Francis won with 66. Individually for Onekama, Peterson (200), Hengy (100 hurdles) and Keena Gilbert (3,200) were unable to place, along with the 3,200 relay (Gilbert, Taylor Anderson, McKaya Groenwald and Kelly Babcock) and the 1,600 relay (Peterson, Anderson, Groenwald and Babcock).

“Having both relays placing and Nisha doing good in the long jump, I’m really pleased and the other kids that participated ran really good,” said Bradford, whose lone senior in the state finals was Anderson. “We’ve got a lot of experience coming back and that’s a plus. We’ve got something to build on.”

John Girven led the Onekama boys with an eighth-place finish in the 3,200 to score a point with a personal-record time of 10:06.05.

“Awesome race,” said Onekama boys coach Tony Shrum. “We figured going in he was going to have to run about a school record, which is a 10:03, to get a medal.

“It’s a great time. He tucked right in and pulled away just at the end of the sixth lap. He was kind of fighting between seventh, eighth and ninth. It was an awesome race, a big accomplishment for him.”

Saugatuck won the boys state title with 58 points.

Onekama also had qualifiers in the 400 relay (Jordan Coe, Justin Solis, Jonas LaMont and Nick Streeter), 800 relay (Coe, Solis, Streeter, Reilly Merrill), 3,200 relay (Girven, Shane Peterson, Jordan Anderson and John Schoedel) and Solis individually in the 100.

“They ran really well,” Shrum said. “They gave everything they had. Overall, I thought they had a great day from top to bottom.”

Streeter, who suffered a knee injury that cost him most of his senior basketball season for Bear Lake, had a strong track season and was the lone senior representing the Onekama boys. Shrum said Streeter had just a partial ligament tear and running strengthened his knee.

“He really provided a big lift,” Shrum said. “It was great for him to finish his senior year the way we wanted to.”

Article and photo posted by Matt Wenzel
Manistee News Advocate