NORTON SHORES — Whitehall’s boys track and field team winning Friday’s Greater Muskegon Athletic Association meet was not in question.
By how many points would the Vikings win? That was the question.
To be exact, they cleared the rest of the field by 114 points. Using its superior depth, Whitehall ran away from the competition by racking up a whopping 188 points. It’s the second straight year that the Vikings have won the GMAA title.
Montague was runner-up with 74 points, followed by Reeths-Puffer (68), Mona Shores (51) and Muskegon (37) in the top five. Rounding out the team scores were Fruitport (36), Orchard View (24), Oakridge (19), North Muskegon (15), Western Michigan Christian (8) and Ravenna (6).
Nine different individuals won event championships for Whitehall, plus the Vikings took first place in three of the four relays.
Event titlists for Whitehall included junior Trannon Aylor in the 400-meter dash with a season-record time of 49.92; senior Jack Houtteman in the 800 with a personal record of 2:04.84; senior Carter McIlroy in the 1600 (4:38.18); senior Andre Richmond in the 3200 (9:48.24 PR); senior Wesley Russell in shot put (51 feet, 5 inches); senior Chase Niezurawski in discus (134-8 PR); sophomore Camden Thompson in high jump (6-6, tying Reeths-Puffer’s Liam McHugh); senior David Conrad in pole vault (season-best 15-6), and senior Nate Bolley in long jump (season-best 21-5).
Conrad’s mark established a new meet record for the GMAA. His personal record is the 15-7 he cleared at last year’s West Michigan All-Star Invitational at Reeths-Puffer.
Whitehall’s 4×200 relay quartet of Aylor, Bolley, senior Lukas Palmer and junior Malcolm Earvin — which won the MHSAA Division 2 state title in the event last year — broke its own school record with an effort of 1:29.56.
The same foursome capped Friday’s meet by winning the 4×400 relay in 3:29.32. Whitehall’s 4×800 relay team of Houtteman, McIlroy, Richmond and Stewart Waters took first place in a time of 8:31.81.
Whitehall finished 1-2 in discus, as Russell also established a PR (132-3) to finish right behind Niezurawski.
Other event winners from Friday’s GMAA: Mona Shores’ O’Mari Hall-Brown in the 100 (11.10 PR); Muskegon’s Michael Pigee Jr. in the 200 (22.29 PR) and 110 hurdles (14.88); Reeths-Puffer’s McHugh in the 300 hurdles (41.40 PR), and Muskegon’s 4×100 relay (42.89).
Watch the video at the top of this story for highlights and reaction from Whitehall coach Kirk Mikkelson and a few of his athletes, plus check out the photos below:
Photos by Scott DeCamp | CatchMark
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