Whitehall celebrated the 30th anniversary of its 1996 boys track
state championship prior to Tuesday's West Michigan Conference Lakes
dual meet with Fremont, and the current Viking boys marked the occasion
with a 115-22 rout of the Packers.
Also Tuesday, the Viking girls dropped a close
matchup to Fremont, 75-59.
Several members of the 1996 team
were on hand for a pre-meet ceremony honoring their successes. The team
won the title that year with a big win in the 1,600-meter relay and
runner-up finishes by star Jeff DeLong, who later became an All-American
at Central Michigan University, in the 1,600 and 800-meter runs. The
Vikings that year also finished fourth in the 400 and 3,200-meter
relays.
Whitehall won all but one event in the boys'
meet, highlighted by a double personal best from Caden Bowyer in a sweep
of the throws. Bowyer threw the discus 158-10 and the shot put 49-6,
easily winning both events.
Also for Whitehall, Judd Musk
swept the hurdles and recorded a personal best in the 300 meters
(43.74). He won the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 15.99 seconds. Tim
Vieira swept the two sprint events, recording times of 11.75 seconds in
the 100 meters and 23.72 seconds in the 200.
Jevon Hilliard
won the 400 (52.26), Javi LeBlanc took first in the 1,600 (4:33.4), and
Hunter Parsons was first in the 3,200 (10:45.2). In the field, Ayden
Mendoza stayed unbeaten in the high jump with another win (6-0), Isaiah
Lewis won the pole vault (12-0) and Cole Essebaggers won the long jump
(18-7.5).
The Viking girls dominated the field events, winning
all five of them. Aaliyah Jamison swept the throws with marks of 85-9
in the discus and 32-2 in the shot put. Ryleigh Hershey won the pole
vault (7-6), Giselle Burbridge won the long jump (14-5) and Lexi Poulin
won the high jump (4-6).
On the track, Mallory Johnson won the 400-meter dash (1:10.6) and Gabrielle Chevez won the 800-meter run (2:43.4).
