Second No More, the Hornets Boys' Track Team Wins at Regionals

The Saline Hornets track teams had an excellent performance on Friday at the Regional meet. The boys' team won the event for the first time in years after scoring 130 points.  The girls' team had a good showing as well, scoring 124 points and finishing second behind Ann Arbor Huron.

“This team is all about depth.  I’m very proud of these guys,” said boys' head coach Allan Leslie.

As if winning the meet was not good enough, Saline’s boys qualified for the MHSAA State Meet in nine events, and scored seventeen other athletes in their events.  Garrick Roemer qualified for the 200-meter sprint (second place, 22.2) and 400-meter dash (first place, 50.0).  Nick Renberg qualified in the 3,200-meter race after posting a 9:36.7, earning second place. The 3,200-meter relay won with a qualifying time of 7:57.3; the 1,600-meter relay team also won and had a time of 3:25.2, which was also good enough to qualify even if they had not won the event. 

“All day long, things went well for us. When Payton Hardy went down (with a hamstring injury) in the 4-by-200, he still finished the race rather than just calling it a day and they got seventh, which earned two points.  The kids that filled in for him did a wonderful job,” said Leslie.  

Qualifying in the field events were Rocky Shilke in the pole vault (second place, 13’4”) and Steven Bastien (third in the pole vault, 13’4” and second in the long jump at 21’5.5”).

“We were really excited about this meet. It was great to win it here at home,” said Bastien.

The Lady Hornets qualified thirteen athletes for the state meet, while eight others came just short of that goal. Alina Luurtsema qualified in the 100-meters by taking third place with a time of 12.2; Kristen Green took fifth in the 800-meters and qualified with a time of 2:20.2.  Amy Creutz (5:09.1) and Elianna Shwayder (5:11.1) both qualified in the 1,600-meters, earning third and fourth, respectively; they also qualified for the 3,200-meters with Creutz winning the race (11:09.8) and Shwayder in second (11:17.8).  The 400-meter relay (fourth place, 50.2) and the 3,200-meter relay (second place, 9:28.6) also qualified for Saline.

“I think we ran about as well as we possibly can. We got everyone qualified that we thought we could get qualified,” said head coach Mike Smith.

The field events for the Hornets also made a splash. Emily Everett qualified for States in discus after throwing 116’6”, earning third, and Randi Bennett came in fourth and qualified after a 115’4” throw. Bennett also qualified in the shot put after a second place finishing throw of 37’5.5”. Wendy Szuminski won the pole vault and qualified by clearing 10’, and Sam Szuminski took third and will go to States with a height of 9’8”.  Sam Richart won the high jump for Saline with a jump of 5’1”.

“Amy won the two mile and took third in the mile with two all-time bests by a considerable amount.  Wendy Szuminski did a wonderful job winning the pole vault as a freshman,” said Smith.