A school record performance by Shelbie Choponis highlighted Hart's
efforts at Tuesday's home quad meet against Mason County Central,
Hesperia and Holton.
Choponis broke Hart's record in the
discus with a throw of 125-7.5, surpassing the mark previously owned by
Shelley Kelly, who set it all the way back in 1985.
The
Pirates swept the quad meet on both the boys' and girls' sides. The boys
team scores were 88-49 over MCC, 127-10 over Hesperia and 123-14 over
Holton, while the girls scores were 84-49 over MCC, 110-20 over Hesperia
and 104-22 over Holton. For the girls' team, the wins continued the
Pirates' streak of never losing a West Michigan Conference Rivers match
since the divisional split for the 2023 season.
As the scores
indicate, Hart won most of the events, including Choponis' school record
effort in discus. Ellie Gross helped the Pirates to wins in all of her
events, two of them relays. She won both hurdles events, with times of
17.56 seconds in the 100 meters and 53.46 in the 300 meters, and also
ran for the victorious 400 and 1,600 relay teams. She joined Emery
Velat, Ashlyn Smith and Lillianna Camacho in the 400 race (56.99) and
ran with Emma Miller, Alaina Schaner and Velat in the 1,600 race
(4:38.9).
Velat in fact ran in all four relay races, all of
which the Pirates won. Velat joined Addison Hain, Joselyn Flores and
Natalie Rosema in the 800 race (1:54.4) and took the baton in a race
with Luisa VanderZwaag, Bryn Riley and Martina Saenz in the 3,200
(11:09.96).
In addition to Hain's work in the 800 relay, she
also swept the two sprint races, posting times of 13.17 seconds in the
100 and 28.16 in the 200. Rosema was a two-time winner, adding the
3,200-meter run title to her win in the 800 relay. She set a personal
best time of 12:43.8 in the 3,200. Lauren Hopkins added another Hart win
in pole vault (8-6).
In the boys' meet, Chase Lorenz
continued to dominate in sprints, taking first in the 100, 200 and
400-meter races. He set a personal best of 48.25 seconds in the 400 and
had times of 11.21 in the 100 and 23.71 in the 200. He also helped Hart
win the 1,600 relay in a time of 3:43.3, joining Jack Slotman, Luke
Slotman and Jaxson Oomen.
The Pirates won the 400 and 3,200
relays as well. Elon Babbin, Pablo Ortega-Rubio, Bryce Vander Kodde and
Jaxson Oomen teamed up in the 400 (46.31), and Trevor Vander Kodde,
Carson Ackley, Silas Ackley and Juan Guardiola-Parra won the 3,200
(9:06.4).
Other individual wins for Hart were Donald Budrew in
the 800 (a personal best 2:12.9), Trevor Vander Kodde in the 1,600 (a
personal best 4:57.5), Carson Ackley in the 3,200 (a personal best
10:31.7), Jose Torres in the shot put (38-0) and Jagger Lenon in the
pole vault (a personal best 12-0).
Emily McCallum and McKenna
Fraser each won one event for Hesperia in the girls' meet. McCallum won
the shot put (32-1) and Fraser took the high jump (5-0). On the boys'
side, Nate Ruhstorfer had the top individual Panther finish, coming in
second in the 110 hurdles (16.92).
