J-L track and field sweeps D4 regional; St. Michael, Inland Lakes qualify runners

INDIAN RIVER — Every team heads into regionals with a plan of how they’d like the day to turn out.

Of course, for many, that includes hoisting the regional trophy, which is exactly what the Johannesburg-Lewiston track and field teams both did Friday in Indian River, right to plan.

Competing in a Division 4 track and field regional hosted by Inland Lakes, the boys and girls squads for the Cardinals both took top honors, while a host of others out of the area will send players to the state finals.

Petoskey St. Michael Academy put together its best regional in school history, while Inland Lakes, Pellston and Gaylord St. Mary will also each send competitors to the finals.

On the boys side, J-L finished first with 158 points, followed closely by Lincoln Alcona’s 154, while the J-L girls earned a first place finish with 209.5 points to Inland Lakes’ 154.

Inland Lakes was also fourth on the boys side and Petoskey St. Michael took fifth.

“For the second straight year, I’m ecstatic with our performance at the Regional,” St. Michael coach Larry Rudnicki said. “Our ladies will get their first taste of state competition and our guys team qualified every runner in every event that we targeted. We look forward to sending the largest contingent in school history to experience the thrill of the state finals.”

The top two finishers in each event advance to the state finals, along with others meeting a state finals qualifying time or mark.

In boys sprints, Inland lakes’ Sam Mayer qualified in the 100 in second place (11.63), then Blake Fox of J-L and Laith Griffith of Pellston each advance with first (54.26) and second (54.65) place finishes in the 400.

St. Michael’s Sam Paga placed first in the 800 (2:05.17) and teammate Macartan Moore was second (2:06.47), then Paga was first in the 1600 (4:45.62) and Zachary Maendel of St. Michael was second (4:46.91).

In the 3200, Malaki Gascho of J-L placed first (10:12.41), Paga was second (10:21.77) and Maendel also qualified by hitting the time mark in third (10:31.32).

Josiah Hall of J-L also won both the 110 hurdles (15.75) and 300 hurdles (42.47).

A host of area relay teams will also make the trip to the D4 finals, including the Inland Lakes 400 meter relay team (2nd, 47.27), J-L 800 meter relay team (2nd, 1:39.43), 1600 meter relay team of J-L (1st, 3:47.91) and both the J-L 3200 meter relay team (1st, 8:30.99) and St. Michael 3200 team (2nd, 8:31.49).

Ty Thompson of Inland Lakes placed second in the discus (106’10”) then Sam Schoonmaker of the Bulldogs placed second in the high jump (5’11”) to both qualify in field events.

On the girls side, J-L will send a pair of sprinters to the finals after Carlee Campbell placed second in the 100 (13.58) and Natalie Zochowski was second in the 200 (27.99).

Lauren Fenstermaker of Inland Lakes placed first in the 400 (1:03.08), followed by a second place from Zochowski of J-L (1:03.36).

Inland Lakes’ Hannah Robinson will head to the finals after a win in the 800 (2:36.58) and Miriam Murrell of Gaylord St. Mary will join after placing second (2:37.30).

J-L’s Madelyn Agren and Allie Nowak placed first (5:51.25) and second (5:52.85), respectively, in the 1600, then Agren also qualified in the 3200 in first place (13:16.95).

In hurdle events, Mackinaw City’s Larissa Huffman, competing with the Inland Lakes track and field program, will head to states after first place finishes in both the 100 (16:45) and 300 (48.63) meter events. Rosalinda Gascho will also advance after second place finishes in the 100 (16.88) and 300 (49.99) hurdles.

Qualifying girls relay teams include the Inland Lakes 400 meter relay team (1st, 55.88), the 800 meter relay teams of J-L (1st, 1:55.24) and Gaylord St. Mary (2nd, 1:58.26), the 1600 meter relay teams of J-L (1st, 4:24.34) and Inland Lakes (2nd, 4:25.12), then also the 3200 meter relay teams of Petoskey St. Michael (1st, 11:11.37) and Inland Lakes (2nd, 11:21.80).

For St. Michael, it’s the first time girls runners will head to the state finals at the school, with the group including Jane Manthei, Anna Zielinski, Sydney Feagan and Emma O’Neil.

In field events, Natalie Wandrie of Inland Lakes advanced with second place in the shot put (29’11”) and second in the discus (97’8”), then Huffman and Robinson each qualified in the high jump for Inland Lakes in second (5’) and third (4’10”), respectively.

Allie Nowak and Brooklyn Latuszek of J-L each qualified in the pole vault in first (8’9”) and second (7’6”) and Bailey Murrell of St. Mary led in the long jump in first place (15’3”).

The Division 4 track and field state championships will take place at Baldwin Middle School in Hudsonville on Saturday, June 4.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: J-L track and field sweeps D4 regional; St. Michael, Inland Lakes qualify runners