The Whitehall boys track team narrowly fell short of winning its third straight Division 2 regional championship Saturday at Allendale, but there was plenty to celebrate for the Vikings. Whitehall added a few more state qualifications to its ledger Saturday, on top of the athletes who had already secured early qualification.
Whitehall scored 99 points, just 3.75 behind regional champ Allendale, to finish in second place as a team.
The Vikings scored five regional event championships, including two by Mason Mulnix. The senior sprinter earned the top spot in both the 200 and 400-meter dashes, finishing with respective times of 22.77 and 51.10 seconds. He also took third in the 100 with a time of 11.32 seconds. He'd already qualified for state in all three races.
Camden Thompson won the regional title in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.24 seconds, Ayden Mendoza won the high jump at 6-2, and Kal Koehler took the top spot in long jump with a leap of 20-8.75. Thompson was second to Mendoza in high jump, also leaping 6-2 (Mendoza won by tiebreaker).
Thompson and teammate Caden Bowyer earned state qualifications in discus with personal best throws. Bowyer finished fourth in the event with a mark of 151-1.5, and Thompson threw the discus 147-4. Each beat the state qualifying standard to earn a spot at the state meet.
Corde Anderson, who'd already earned an early qualification in the 110 hurdles, finished third in that event Saturday with a time of 15.76 seconds. He was also fourth in the 300 hurdles, with a time of 43.51 seconds.
The Vikings picked up several other medals as well. Keegan Frees finished fourth in pole vault with a mark of 11-8. Whitehall's 1,600 relay team of Andon Palmer, Rex Pumford, Tyler Van Antwerp and Mulnix finished fifth (3:33.9), and the 3,200 team of Pumford, Jevon Hilliard, Van Antwerp and Stewart Waters was sixth (8:39.3). Waters also finished sixth in the 3,200 himself, with a time of 9:58.6.
On the girls' side, senior Cami Kraai extended her career for another couple of weeks by earning state qualification in the 800-meter run. She ran a season best time of 2:22.2 to qualify on time and finish in third place.
Evelyn Darke also finished in third for Whitehall, in shot put, with a mark of 33-6. Adalyn Britton took seventh in the 800 (2:30.3), and Lexi Poulin was seventh in high jump (4-9). The 3,200 relay team of Britton, Kraai, Ella Nicholson and Kassidy Parmley rounded out Whitehall medalists with an eighth-place finish (11:43.0).
