The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Hornets take meet over Pioneer
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 17, 2007
Round 1 went to Ann Arbor Pioneer. But May 9's SEC jamboree — Round 2 in a season-long battle for Southeastern Conference, regional, and possibly even state boys' track supremacy — went to the Saline Hornets.
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The Saline boys took first place in only one event but showed off their depth in winning the jamboree 793.5 to Pioneer's 694. The jamboree's unique scoring system ranks all 24 participants in each event, meaning that the score of a team's second- and third-best athletes in an event are as important as its best.
And in the end, Saline's athletes proved to be the best at the jamboree.
"It was big. We needed to do that," boys' co-head coach Brian Boze said afterward. "The kids came out fired up and proved that we have a solid team, top to bottom. Our young kids ran really well and it's going to give them a lot of confidence."
The Saline girls made a statement about their depth as well, pushing Pioneer to the final event and finishing runner-up by a scant 1.5 points, 770.5 to 769.
"On one hand, it's disappointing to end up that close and not come out on top," said girls' head coach Mike Smith (acknowledging that the score may not have been as close if Pioneer had not decided to briefly leave the meet out of concern for the wet rack conditions, missing the 100 hurdles). "On the other hand, this is a good step forward for us. We ran just about as well as we could."
The Hornet boys' only win came in the shot put, as Joey Everett threw 46'8 ?" for the full 24 points. But Saline capitalized on the scoring system with three top-10 finishers in seven of the 13 non-relay events.
Top-three finishes on the track included Chris King (11.47, 2nd) and Sam Burchyett (11.48, 3rd) in the 100-meter dash; Brian Hernandez (2:00.39, 2nd) and Blake Johnson (2:00.59, 3rd) in the 800; Johnson (4:24.66, 3rd) in the 1600; Branden Post in the 110 hurdles (15.16, 2nd) and 300 hurdles (40.59, 2nd); King, Post, Drew Jurgenson, and Luke O'Brien (45.07, 3rd) in the 400 relay; King, Burchyett, Bobby Schilke, and Marcus Johnston (1:32.75, 2nd) in the 800 relay; Johnson, Schilke, Zill, and Joe Zill (3:26.36, 2nd) in the 1600; and Kyle Zill, Joe Zill, Hernandez, and Johnson (8:04.41, 3rd) in the 3200 relay.
In the field, top-three finishes included Jackson Martin (13', 2nd) in the pole vault; Tyler Olsen (5'10", 2nd) in the high jump; and Quinn Dawson (149-05, 2nd) and Joey Everett (141-08, 3rd) in the discus. Gabe Helmuth's throw of 138-11 put three Hornets in the top four in discus.
The Saline girls netted five first-place finishes: Corrie Castro (25.86) in the 200 dash; Meagan Creutz (2:21.4) in the 800; Alex Leptich in the 1600 (5:13.3) and 3200 (11:33); and Leptich, Creutz, Lindsey Cummings, and Kate Carter (9:28.7) in the 3200 relay.
Other top-three finishes included Kim Turrentine (10', 3rd) in the pole vault; Kim Miller-Tolbert (16; 1 1/4", 2nd) and Mary Rzepka (15'7" 3rd) in the long jump; Castro in the 100 dash (12.58, 2nd); Lauren Zakrasjek (60.5, 3rd) in the 400; Carter (2:21.9, 2nd) in the 800; Angie Johnston (17.51, 3rd) in the 100 hurdles; Rachel Nyberg, Miller-Tolbert, Rzepka, and Castro (50.66, 2nd) in the 400 relay; Taylor Franz, Zakrajsek, Castro, and Rzepka (1:45.38, 2nd) in the 800 relay, a new school record; and Creutz, Zakrajsek, Carter, and Franz (4:07.5, 2nd) in the 1600 relay.
With the jamboree behind them, the teams' attention now turns to Friday's regional meet. For Smith, the most important goal at regionals is to get as many of the team's athletes qualified for state (either via a top-two finish or by meeting a set qualification standard) as possible.
"That's what we're focused on.," said Smith, adding that having all four relays qualified is a major priority. "We'll be as ready as we can be."
Boze, however, admits that after several years of runner-up finishes in regionals, a regional title in what could shape up as Round 3 is a factor for the Hornet boys as well as qualification.
"We train our guys where we try to peak now, at the end of the season," he said. "We should have a good regional meet."
Saline also entered less-than-full-strength squads in the River Rat Invitational at Ann Arbor Huron on Saturday, with the boys placing third and the girls second. Highlights included Post winning both hurdles races and being named Athlete of the Meet; Everett and Dawson both throwing season-bests (54'5" for Everett and 154-03 for Dawson) in the shot put and discus, respectively; Tommy Hunt and Brian Conn finishing 1-2 in the 3200; a personal-best 16'1 1/4" long jump for Nyberg, good for first place; and a meet record for the girls' 800 relay team.
Regionals will be held Friday in Saline beginning at noon with field events.
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