It was yet another record-setting day for Whitehall senior Bobby Jazwinski Saturday at the Portage Invitational, as he broke the meet record with a time of 14:23.3, winning the Division 2 race of nearly 300 runners by over a minute.
Jazwinski's performance not only set the meet record, it did so by a healthy margin. The previous mark of 14:37 was set by Benzie Central's four-time state champion runner Hunter Jones in 2022.
The Viking boys placed 13th out of 44 scoring schools in the meet. Rex Pumford was the next Whitehall runner after Jazwinski to finish, coming in with a 28th-place time of 16:24.2. Ian Dennis finished in 17:40.7, placing 105th, and Scout Freiheit took 130th place in a time of 18:04.1. Alex Winczewski closed the scoring with a 184th-place finish (18:53.3).
Whitehall's girls team could not score in the race. Gabrielle Chevez led the Vikings, placing 76th with a time of 20:57.7. Reese Hesse was 152nd (22:35.1) and Kassie Sapp placed 184th (23:04.6). Ryanne Ellsworth finished 227th and ran a season best time (24:03.8).
Montague competed in the Division 3 race, placing 15th out of 39 scoring teams in the boys' event as four of its five scorers set new personal best times. The Wildcats' top two runners, Nolan Kessler and Wesley Mair, were two of those PR runners. Kessler finished in 13th place (16:13.2) and Mair was 18th (16:19.9) in a field of 431 runners. Jonathan Mueller also set a personal best time and finished in 111th place (18:12.1). Brock Hunter finished 162nd (18:54.6) and Carson Jasick set a personal best time of 19:06.4 to finish 179th.
The Wildcat girls finished 36th as a team, and all five of their finishers set season best times, with the top four earning PRs. Brightyn Minchak led the way, coming in 177th place with a time of 23:58.9. Amelia Liskey was 246th (25:33.7) and Gemma Lorson was 274th (26:15.3). Closing it out for the 'Cats were Peyton Sweet (305th, 27:36.0) and Willa Van Loon (348th, 30:17.8).
