The Saline Reporter
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Huron win has Hornets ready for stretch run
Hornets dominate Rats, shine in Dayton, look to Regionals
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 8, 2008
Things are just about to get serious for the Saline track teams.
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But before getting to their May 16 Regionals and subsequent Southeastern Conference meet, Saline had to take care of business in dual meets against Bedford April 29 and Ann Arbor Huron Tuesday.
Consider that business taken care of, as the Hornet boys downed the Mules 108-28 and the River Rats by a 97-40 score. The girls won by scores of 104-33 and 101-36, respectively.
"We had PR's (personal records) all over the place today," Saline boys' head coach Leslie said after the Huron meet. "We were happy with how we ran across the board. We're getting healthier. Everything we've done has been pointing to this next week and a half and we feel we're peaking at right time."
"We were fine-tuning a few things today," girls' head coach Mike Smith said. "This was pretty much the lineup we're going to run at Regionals. We definitely saw a lot of positive things."
The Hornet boys were dominant in the field events against the Rats, starting with junior Quinn Dawson's wins in both the shotput (52'2") and discus, the latter coming after a personal best throw of 178'11". Gabe Helmuth (148'1") and Brian Bennyoff (127'4" made it a clean sweep in the discus with Bennyhoff (45'5") taking second in the shot.
Jackson Martin (12') and Shaun Fyall (11'6") finished 1-2 in the pole vault, Phil Goeman (19'5") won the long jump, and Tyler Olsen finished as runner-up in both the long jump (18'2") and the high jump (6').
Saline also took three of four relays, with Sam Burchyett, Goeman, Travis Owens, and Marcus Johnston (1:32.49) winning the 800-meter relay, Drew Jurgenson, Owens, Goeman, and Johnston (44.781) winning the 400, and Burchyett, Brian Hernandez, Johnston, and Tommy Hunt (3:31.600) winning the 1,600.
Burchyett finished the day a double-winner after taking both the 100 dash (11.54) and 200 dash (22.47). Other winners included Blake Johnson (4:19.13) in the 1,600; Jarret Roe (53.57) in the 400 dash; Hunt (1:58.9) in the 800; and Andrew Barnett (10:24) in the 3,200.
"Sam had a big day. Blake showed he could run with the big boys in the mile. Quinn was huge today. We had six guys run under the Regional qualifying time," Leslie said. "We just ran really well across the board."
The Saline girls were just as impressive, winning 15 of 17 events. Corrie Castro and Rachel Nyberg each provided two of those wins, with Castro taking the 100 (12.66) and 200 (25.99) dashes and Nyberg both the long jump (15'8") and the 100 hurdles (16.75).
The Hornets also swept two events, with Alex Leptich (11:19), Lindsey Cummings (11:56), and Christina Gonzalez (13:05) going 1-2-3 in the 3,200 and Kim Turrentine (9'6"), Paige Cederna (9'6"), and Emily Solan (8'6") taking the top three spots in the pole vault.
Other winners included Emily Everett (103'2") in the discus; Solan (4'8") in the high jump; Karen Gallardo (48.13) in the 300 hurdles; Whitney McCloe (63.2) in the 400 dash; Meagan Creutz (2:19) in the 800; Kate Carter (5:11) in the 1,600; Castro, Nyberg, Lauren Zakrasjek, and Taylor Franz (1:46.5) in the 800 relay; Carter, Franz, Leptich, and Samantha Cannell (4:08) in the 1,600 relay; and Cummings, Cannell, Leptich, and Erin Dowling (10:22) in the 3,200 relay.
"Our 4-by-200 is starting to look good and Corrie looked good in both the sprints," Smith said. "With our distance girls, Meagan had her best time in the 800, Kate had her best time in the mile, and Alex had her best time in the two-mile. So those were all real positive points for us."
The Huron meet came on the heels of a successful Saturday in which split Hornet squads competed at both the three-state, 45-team Dayton (Ohio) Invitational and the Ypsilanti Golden Triangle Invite.
Girls' highlights from Dayton included Creutz, Castro, Carter, and Leptich winning the distance medley relay, Creutz, Carter, Leptich, and Cummings taking a narrow second to Mumford (likely the Hornets' closest competitor in the event in the state) in the 3,200 relay, and Cummings placing fifth in the 2,000-meter steeplechase despite having never run the event before. Despite entering only seven events, Saline finished 11th.
In Ypsilanti, Dowling took second in the 3,200 and fourth in the 1,600, Nyberg placed fifth in the 100 hurdles and sixth in the 300 hurdles, and Brooke Pleger, Kaitlyn Kelley, and Emily Everett went 3-4-5 in the discus.
On the boys' trip to Dayton, Johnson took first in the 3,200 in 9:32.2 while Brian Coon took third in 9:43.9. Johnson, Hernandez, Kevin Hendrickson, and Luke Dishnow (8:18) combined to take third in the 3,200 relay and second in the distance medley relay. Dawson's second-place finish in the discus and fifth in the shot put were enough to place Saline seventh overall despite sending only six athletes to the meet.
In Ypsilanti, Johnston won the 300 hurdles in 40.7. Burchyett took second in the 200 dash and along with Johnston, Jurgenson, Goeman (in the 800) and Owens (in the 400) placed second in both sprint relays as well. Barnett, Hunt, Andrew Harper, and Curran McGuire took second in the 3,200 relay with Olsen also runner-up in the high jump after clearing 6'2". Although no official team scores were kept, Saline would have placed first if they had been.
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