Holland Christian boys defend 4x800 state title, Zeeland East girls finish third in state
Holland Christian kicked off Saturday’s Division 2 state track meet in style, with the Maroons boys defending their 4x800-meter relay state championship successfully.
The Maroons edged out a game relay team from Pinckney, with Landon Culver, Austin Brinks, Parker Fenton and Parker Lambers clocking in 7:54.35, 0.29 seconds ahead of Pinckney’s time in second place. It set the Holland Christian school record in the event.
Fenton was one of two members on the relay squad and the only non-senior, with Lambers and Brinks returning from last year’s state title-winning team. He said he felt some of the pressure, but the whole team came through to shave more than 15 seconds off their regional time for the title.
“It feels great, we worked really hard all season to get here,” Fenton said. “It’s a really great environment, it’s always competitive and it’s nice to win. We knew we had some really good competition. We were looking to break the school record and we did just that, and we won, and it’s great to come out with both.”
Zeeland East’s girls had the highest team finish of the day, scoring 30 points to finish third in the state. Paige Westra was the highest-scoring Chix athlete of the day, finishing second in the shot put with a throw of 40-01.5.
Allison Kuzma was fourth in the 3,200-meter run (10:58.86) and sixth in the 1,600-meter (5:01.65) Hannah Nienhuis took sixth in the pole vault at 10-06. Allie DeLost and Rachel Miller each earned all-state honors with eighth-place finishes. DeLost was eighth in the 100-meter at 12.64 and Miller was eighth in the long jump at 16-09.
The Chix also had two all-state relays. Ily Watson, Miller, Maria Martin and DeLost ran both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays, earning third in the 4x100 (49.94) and sixth in the 4x200 (1:46.41).
“I’m extremely excited,” said Zeeland East girls coach Josh Vork. “We outperformed our seeds in every event, so when you get to this stage of the season, you can’t ask for much more. I noticed it on the bus ride there, everyone was just loose and they were ready to have a good time.”
The Maroons went to finish seventh on the boys side, tallying 26 points at the meet to tie Frankenmuth. The highlight was obviously the state title, capping off another season of hard work in that race for the team.
“Our boys team is so strong and so determined,” said girls coach Megan Lambers, the Maroons’ coach on-site Saturday. “Last year’s success launched this year’s desire to do that again.”
It wasn’t the only highlight, though. Jordan Duncan came in second in the high jump with a height of 06-08, matching Edwardsburg’s Luke Stowasser, but Stowasser earned the win.
Duncan overcame a hamstring injury early in the season and took care of an outdoor high jump personal best.
“I knew I could get 06-08 for sure, that was kind of my goal,” Duncan said. “Could have got the win. Didn’t, not too upset.”
To round out the scoring, Holland Christian’s 4x400 relay team of Brinks, Meta Hoekstra, Brody DeKruyter and Culver finished fourth in 3:26.31. Lambers also earned all-state honors in the 1,600-meter run with a sixth-place finish in 4:20.10.
As for a repeat in the 4x800 next year? Spirits were high at Forest Hills Eastern among the younger Maroons.
“We have a great freshman class that’s coming through, they’re already joking, like, oh, we’re going to get it again next year,” Lambers said.
The Chix boys tallied 12.5 points for 21st place. Caden Meyer kept up the Chix distance running Kuzma started, finishing fourth in the 3,200 with a time of 9:20.66. Parker Williams took fifth place in the shot put with a throw of 49-10.5, and Charlie Drnek earned eighth in both the high jump (06-04) and the pole vault (13-04).
The relay team of Zeke Hutt, Nick Riemersma, Meyer and Gavin Wiersma took seventh in the 4x800 with a time of 8:06.01 for all-state.
“Super ecstatic, out of the six boys we brought to the meet, they were all able to get all-state honors,” said Zeeland East boys coach Ralph Neal. “We kind of knew pointwise there was little chance we were going to be in the top two, so let’s see how many guys we can get all-state.”
Hamilton earned three points with a sixth-place finish by Eagan Tamminga in the shot put. He had a long throw of 49-10 for sixth and all-state of his own.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: HC boys defend 4x800 state title, Chix girls finish third in state
