Whitehall junior Bobby Jazwinski made his Vikings debut in tremendous fashion Friday night at the Grand Rapids South Christian Under the Lights Invitational, breaking the school 5K record and taking first place in the small-school Sunset division.
Jazwinski's arrival was highly anticipated after he was an all-state performer for Hart as a freshman. He sat out last season due to MHSAA transfer rules, but showed no signs of rust in delivering a run of 15:15.1, a personal best for him and easily a record for a Whitehall runner.
The Vikings finished in seventh place as a team behind Jazwinski's effort. Hunter Parsons placed 32nd in a time of 17:27.2 and Rex Pumford was 36th in a time of 17:30.5. Justin Jensen set a new personal best of 18:15.9 to finish 51st, and freshman Ian Dennis was 73rd in a time of 18:56.8.
Whitehall's girls team did not compete at the event.
Reeths-Puffer's girls team placed 13th in the large-school Twilight division, paced by another good run from Jersi Bilek. Bilek was 12th in the race with a time of 19:50.9. Other Rocket scorers were Darcy Keefe (78th, 23:10.6), Kaitlyn Durow (103rd, 24:00.0), Charli Belinger (168th, 27:10.5) and Olivia Yonkman (195th, 29:01.9).
The R-P boys finished in 15th place. Top finisher Dylan Sturr finished 102nd (18:37.0). Other scorers were Gabriel Luna (180th, 20:19.5), Landon Learn (257th, 22:02.0), Kyron Novak (272nd, 22:40.0) and Jonathan Steenhagen (295th, 23:42.8).
