MONTAGUE — Whitehall's perennially successful boys team predictably dominated Wednesday's West Michigan Conference Lakes opening tri meet against Montague and Fremont, but the girls' meet saw a very close battle between the three teams, one of which ended in a tie.
The Viking girls tied Fremont, 82-82, and edged out Montague 87-77. The Wildcats fell to Fremont 89-78. Whitehall's boys rolled to a 114-49 win over Montague and a 110-65 triumph over the Packers, with Montague's boys losing 113-55 to Fremont.
It was an occasionally uneven performance, with relay teams struggling with handoffs at times, but much of that was to be expected in the first outdoor meet for both Whitehall and the Wildcats.
"It revealed a lot of things to work on for us," Whitehall girls coach Jeff Bassett said. "I hope we're close to winning these meets. It's fun to have close meets and have the points matter at the end. It gets exciting. It was pretty good for us overall."
Adalyn Britton was Whitehall's only two-time winner in the girls' meet, picking up victories in the 800 and 1,600-meter runs. Her times were 2:39.3 and 6:08.9.
There was a tie atop the standings in shot put, where both Amanda Cederquist of Montague and Evelyn Darke of Whitehall posted a mark of 32-2; Cederquist's was a personal best. Tiyahna Robinson won the discus (77-10) and Lexi Poulin the high jump (4-8) for the Vikings, and Annelyse Schneider's long jump of 13-11.5 took the top spot in that event for the 'Cats.
"I liked all of our field events," Bassett said. "They have been improving, so that's nice to see early in the season."
On the track, Whitehall's Cami Kraai and Montague's Addison Smith each earned a win and a personal best. Kraai's came somewhat by default as she ran the 400-meter dash for the first time, but her time of 1:04.3 was still better than her only previous timed 400 meters, in a relay race as a sophomore. Smith raced the 200 in a time of 29.52 seconds to earn the first-place/PR double.
Whitehall's boys team, of course, delivered a laundry list of wins. Sprinter Mason Mulnix continued an impressive start to his first track season with wins in both the 100 and 200-meter races, with times of 11.24 and 22.90 seconds, and Andon Palmer was impressive in a win in the 400 with a time of 55.31 seconds.
Camden Thompson was a double winner, taking first in the 110 hurdles (15.71) and the discus (139-9.5), but his most interesting race was a position in the 800 relay, a race he hadn't run before. Handoff struggles kept the Vikes from winning, but the move could pay dividends later in the season as Whitehall tries to fill in the gaps led by graduated stars Malcolm Earvin, Ca'Mar Ready, Trannon Aylor and Kyler Frees.
"Cam is fast," Whitehall boys coach Kirk Mikkelson said. "He's deceptive because he's so long, so his stride covers a lot of ground and it doesn't look like those typical sprinter strides, but he's really fast. We just haven't needed him to do those relays in the past."
Ayden Mendoza led a remarkable high jump board that saw Whitehall put five guys in the top eight, posting a winning height of 6-6. The Vikes also did well in pole vault, where Keegan Frees and Hunter Parsons each went 10-6 to tie for the win; Frees' was a personal best. Whitehall is now up to four vaulters that have proven they can go 10 feet and above. Kal Koehler added a win in long jump (19-4).
"It's going to be a good year," Mikkelson said. "We've got a great coaching staff...They're doing a great job coaching the kids, and we're seeing good results on it."
Montague earned just one win in the boys' meet - Isaac French took the win in shot put with a toss of 42-10.25 - but coach Joe Brunson was pleased with the team's work overall, especially the game effort by his distance runners, several of whom ran all the races - 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters and the 1,600 relay. While the Wildcats didn't run in the 3,200-meter relay, Brunson said they likely will down the line and they hope to take aim at a school record set in 1986.
"I think as we go later in the season, by the nature of our squad, we'll push to prioritize the relays more over the individual events," Brunson said. "I think we'll end up being stronger, relatively speaking, in the relays than the individual events.
"We have a great crew, good attitudes. It's a hard-working group this year. We're young as far as our real ages, but also our experience. I think as the season progresses, they'll make a lot of improvement."
