Competing against a field of larger schools, Hart had a lot of
success at Saturday's Byron Center Invitational, with the Pirate boys
finishing in fifth place, just seven points out of third, while the
girls' team took ninth, only four away from sixth place.
Chase
Lorenz had another big day for the boys' Pirates, setting a new
personal best of 22.20 seconds to win the 200-meter dash and taking
second in the 100 with another personal best of 11.13 seconds. As the
Byron Center meet was an early qualification meet for state and Lorenz's
200-meter time topped the EQ standard of 22.6 seconds, he earned a spot
at state with the race as well. He nearly did so in the 100 as well,
falling just 0.03 seconds short.
Lorenz also joined teammates Elon Babbin, Lyric Fielder and Jack Slotman to win the 1,600-meter relay in a time of 3:39.3.
Also
for Hart, Slotman, Grant Ackley, Trevor Vander Kodde and Mason
Opalewski finished second in the 3,200 relay, with a time of 8:52.97.
Silas Ackley placed second in the 3,200 individual race in a time of
10:24.9.
In the girls' meet, Shelbie Choponis won the hammer
throw, normally not an MHSAA event but staged at the Byron Center meet,
by launching it 148-10. Choponis also took second in the discus with a
throw of 110-9.
The Pirates also earned top-3 finishes in two
relays. In the 1,600 spit medley relay, which consisted of two 200 legs,
a 400 leg and an 800 leg, Hart was second, with the team of Lilianna
Camacho, Abigail Salazar, Aurora Virtanen and Kenai Kokx earning a time
of 5:19.3. The traditional 1,600 relay saw Addison Hain, Natalie Rosema,
Joselyn Flores and Ellie Gross place third (4:41.2).








