West Holmes girls 2nd, boys 3rd at Knights Invite
The West Holmes girls track and field team placed second at the 10-team Knights Invitational at West Holmes High School on April 8.
West Holmes’ boys and girls track and field teams had a strong showing on their home track at the Knights Invitational on April 8.
The Lady Knights finished second in the team standings with 128 points. Tusky Valley won the 10-team invite with 168 points.
On the boys side, WH placed third with 95 points behind champion Indian Valley (120) and runner-up Waynedale (109).
“Considering this happened to be the West Holmes spring break this week and we had a lot of our athletes on a band and choir trip to Nashville, Tennessee, (our coaching staff) felt like it was a good performance on both sides of the equation,” West Holmes assistant coach Scott Mellor said. “With the girls, we have pretty good depth across all of the events. On the boys side, because of some injuries and spring break this week, we weren’t quite at full capacity.
“Overall, the coaching staff was very happy with the performances by all of our athletes across all of the events.”
Jasmine Giauque, Katherine Kaster and Casey Ogi all won individual titles for the Lady Knights.
Giauque claimed gold in the 100 meters by crossing the finish line in 13.02 seconds. The senior also finished second in the 200 (26.71) and anchored the second-place 4x400 relay (4:27.59).
“(I did) decently good,” Giauque said. “(I) definitely didn’t do as good as last year, but I definitely PR’d a lot today. … I was hoping I’d get first in everything, but not everything goes as planned. There’s always going to be someone faster than you somewhere. I’m just lucky I got as many points as I did for my team.”
Kaster won the 1,600 in 5:32.28 and was a member of the runner-up 4x800 (10:31.20) and 4x400 relays.
“Katherine Kaster beat an all-state runner from Minerva to win in a lean the mile as just a ninth grader,” Mellor said. “That was a significant performance.”
Ogi won the pole vault with a mark of 8-feet-6. Laney Duff also had a strong day for West Holmes, finishing second in the high jump (5-0) and third in the long jump (14-9¾).
Other top finishers for the Lady Knights were Cierra Miller in the 100 hurdles (second, 17.61) and 300 hurdles (fourth), Zaylie Shultz in the discus (third), Noelle Smith in the 1,600 (fourth) and Daphne Alexander in the high jump (fourth).
Kyle Maltarich won the high jump and Tristen Middaugh the pole vault to lead the West Holmes boys. Maltarich cleared 6-2 to snag gold, while Middaugh won with a top mark of 11-6.
“I’m kind of battling a knee injury right now and hadn’t practiced all week, so I came out here and jumped all right,” Maltarich. “I jumped 6-2 and won the meet, but it’s not what I like to see. Every (previous) meet I had jumped 6-4, and this past meet I jumped 6-5, so I would like to see myself maintain those heights.”
Maltarich also ran a leg on the third-place 4x400 relay. Zander Shultz anchored the 4x4 and placed second in the high jump (6-0). The Knights also received a runner-up performance from Macin Miller in the pole vault (11-0).
Other top individual placers for WH were Grant Miller in the discus (third) and shot put (fourth), Landyn Dye in the shot put (third), Jacob Miller in the 3,200 (third) and Quinn Cornwell in the 300 hurdles (fourth) while the 4x800 relay of Zeke Galbraith, Reid Chaney, Braydyn Lemon and Jacob Miller placed third.
“One of the things that hurt us on the boys side is we have not been able to put together relays,” Mellor said. “If you don’t score any points at all in the two sprint relays, it’s really hard to be in the top two at most meets.”
Hiland also competed at the meet. Gabriel Chupp paced the boys team by placing second in the 400 (54.47), fourth in the long jump and running a leg on the sixth-place 4x400 and seventh-place 4x200 relays. Rayauna Lies finished fourth in the 800 to lead the Lady Hawks.