Whitehall track teams shine in sweep of home tri meet

WHITEHALL — Whitehall's boys track team is always good at a lot of events, but this year the Vikings are proving unusually adept at pole vault, a skill that was on display again at Tuesday's home tri meet.

Four Whitehall vaulters cleared at least 10-6, led by an 11-6 from Graysen Olstrom. Keegan Frees, Isaiah Lewis and Hunter Parsons all got at least 10-6 in the meet as well.

"Heading into the city meet (Friday), I think we're going to have five vaulters qualified for that meet," boys coach Kirk Mikkelson said. "That was really nice to see."

The vaulters racked up a bunch of points, helping the boys rout both Oakridge (100-37) and Orchard View (113-23). The Viking girls also earned a sweep, winning 92-29 over Oakridge and 76-43 over Orchard View.

Another big performance came from senior Mason Mulnix, who despite being in his first year running high school track (he previously played golf) has quickly made waves with his sprinting acumen. Mulnix won all three sprint events Tuesday, highlighted by his 10.89-second performance in the 100-meter dash, a personal best - and, Mikkelson said, only 0.05 seconds away from the school record.

"He's got a chance (to break it)," Mikkelson smiled.

Mulnix also took the win in the 200 (22.52) and the 400 (54.33) and anchored the 1,600 relay team to a win. He joined Jevon Hilliard, Tyler Van Antwerp and Andon Palmer to take the race in a time of 3:47.9.

Stewart Waters and Camden Thompson were also multiple winners. Thompson continued to star in hurdles, winning both events with personal best times (15.06 in the 110 and 41.49 in the 300). His 110 hurdles time was his fourth time setting a PR in it in his last five attempts. He joked, out of breath, after his 300 hurdles win that he wouldn't be running that race again. He also won in discus with a throw of 142-7.

Waters won both long-distance events, with times of 4:44.3 in the 1,600 and 11:50.4 in the 3,200, as well as helping the 3,200 relay team of Hilliard, Drew Boeringa and Rex Pumford to win that race (9:22.3).

Ayden Mendoza won the high jump with a 6-0 mark, and Kal Koehler won the long jump with a leap of 20-4.

Mikkelson said the team is confident going into the GMAA meet, an event dominated by the Vikings in recent years.

"We've got a lot of guys doing a lot of good things, and we're going to score some points and we'll have to see if anybody can generate more than us," Mikkelson said. "We're hoping no, but that's why we have the meets."

Several different athletes had success for Whitehall in the girls' meet, with Adalyn Britton leading the way with two individual wins. Britton set a personal best in the 3,200 (13:21.4) and also won the 1,600 (6:50.0). Fellow distance runner Cami Kraai won the 800 (2:25.8). The duo contributed to distance relay wins, too; both ran with Aryah Lewis and Isabella Izaguirre to win the 1,600 (5:13.98), and Kraai joined Ella Nicholson, Izzy Hesse and Ryleigh Hershey to win the 3,200 (12:50.3).

However, girls coach Jeff Bassett said he was most impressed by his team's versatility and openness to new events.

"I liked our people stepping up to run events they don't normally run and getting a better understanding of what allows the team to win and being more on board for that," Bassett said.

Lewis won the 400 for the Vikings in a time of 1:08.1, and Whitehall also swept the throws. Aaliyah Jamison took a discus win (83-5), and Evelyn Darke won in shot put (32-6). Lexi Poulin continued a strong season with a win in high jump (4-6).

Bassett said his team is in good shape to hopefully send a few athletes to the state meet at the end of the season, even more so if the Vikings can bounce back from some injury concerns.

"Hopefully some girls will come back and we'll be stronger for the conference and city (meets)," Bassett said. "Some of these non-dual meets, if we can have some other schools displace some people, I think we'll fare a lot better. I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do in a bigger setting."