Record breakers, event winners highlight Gaylord, JoBurg track efforts in Harbor Springs
HARBOR SPRINGS ― Apparently, the theme of last week was broken records.
Record-breaking temperatures around Northern Michigan greeted a record number of teams at the Annual Harbor Springs Invite on Friday, April 15, with a Gaylord-area athlete stealing the show with a record-breaking performance.
Johannesburg-Lewiston junior Blake Fox highlighted not just the efforts of area athletes, but of the entire meet in general, setting a new meet record in the boys 800-meter run with his time of 1:59.36, the first sub-two minute time in meet history.
"As a team, it’s cool having somebody breaking the record," JoBurg head coach Brendan Marcum said. "Blake’s an amazing person, so it's nice to see good people get rewarded for long-term hard work."
Fox broke the previous mark of 2:00.09 set in 2019 by Harbor Springs' Jeremy Kloss, a future Division I runner at Michigan State.
"As a coach, it’s really validating because I sold these guys a dream when they were in eighth grade. He, (Malaki Gascho) and a couple of others totally bought in, they’ve been working at this for years now and they’re finally starting to get some of the payoff that I knew was possible but also knew wouldn’t come quickly," said Marcum.
"I’m just really grateful that they trusted in the process and were patient because that’s what it takes to be great."
His effort was one of three new meet records set on Friday, including Boyne City’s Ava Maginity breaking the girls 800-meter record and Inland Lakes's Natalie Wandrie breaking the girls discus record.
He was also one of several event winners from the Gaylord area, with most coming from GHS itself. Freshman distance runner Katie Berkshire had the best overall day, winning the 3200-meter run with a time of 11:35.00 while placing second in the 1600 with a time 5:22.48.
The Blue Devils had the most success in the hurdles, highlighted by a sweep of the 300-meter hurdles with junior Russell Hush placing first on the boys side with a time of 43.44 seconds and sophomore Lauren Rigney taking first on the girls side at 51.58 seconds. The boys 110-meter hurdles also went well for Gaylord, with Hush (18.35 seconds), Aiden Sherbert (19.00) and Chase Allen (19.48) finishing fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.
Gaylord also had a host of top-ten finishers in other events, including sophomore Michael Cheek's second-place finish in the high jump (5 feet, 8 inches), sophomore Ella Moylan's third-place finish in shotput (66 feet, 11 inches combined), senior Ana Fortier's third-place finish in the 100-meter run (13.48 seconds) and senior Kameron Pearce's fourth-place finish in the 400-meter run (55.74 seconds).
Meanwhile, outside of Fox's performance, JoBurg's distance runners had the best day, headlined by three boys finishing in the top ten of the 1600-meter run. Senior Jacob Wartenberg placed sixth (4:38.56), junior Malaki Gascho placed eighth (4:41.62) and sophomore Jeremiah Witt placed tenth (4:51.38). On the girls side, sophomore Madalyn Agren placed fourth in the 3200-meter run with a time of 12:08.06.
Junior Rosalinda Gascho placed third in both the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles with times of 18.11 seconds and 52.67 seconds respectively.
Petoskey won the girls side with 140.5 points, while the Sault Ste. Marie boys won their side with 103 points. The Gaylord girls finished fourth (65.4) and the girls finished fifth (71), while the Johannesburg-Lewiston girls finished tied for eighth (22) and the boys finished eleventh (24).
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Multiple area athletes standout at Harbor Springs Ram Scram
