Sparta Boys and Girls Capture Regional Titles, What a season it has been for the Sparta Spartans, and it's not over yet. Both the Sparta boys and girls track and field teams competed at the MHSAA Regional meet at Coopersville High School, and both teams ended the day as regional champions. Although both teams came in on a high from conference championships, neither had an easy time securing the regional title. The Sparta girls had an easier time securing the meet by outscoring second place Forest Hills Eastern 120-100.33. On the boys side the meet came down to the final event; the Spartans third place finish in the 1600 meter relay scored just enough to break defending champion Whitehall's heart, 83-81. The girls earned their second regional title in three years, whereas the boys won their first regional title since 1986 - this is the first time in school history that both the boys and girls teams have held the regional title in the same year. The Sparta girls continue to win, and their "secret" to success is really not so secret. Coach Adam Pfeffer explains the girls strategy, "We just score points. We scored points in every single event except shot and disc." Most of the aforementioned scoring was done by superstar hurdler/sprinter Andrea Kober. Kober placed first in all four of her events including the 110 meter hurdles (15.59 seconds, school record), 300 meter hurdles, as well as the 800 and 1600 meter relays. Junior Katelyn Cnossen, and sophomores Kelsey Blystone and Allison Scheidel also turned in stellar performances for the Spartans, scoring 13.25, 16.5, and 9.25 points respectively. Pfeffer summed up the nights performances, "Kober really led us out there, also (Kelsey) Blystone was huge, and we got great performances from (Katelyn) Cnossen and Allison (Scheidel) too," the Spartans got huge efforts from top to bottom, "Our relays really stepped up and handled business. We had a lot of front power, we won 5 events, and then we had a lot of those third and fourth places, so we really scored everywhere." The Lady Spartans will look to rack up their second state title at the MITCA team state meet in Jenison on May 23. "Unbelievable." That is the word that Boys Coach Ted Smith used to describe his team's regional victory, "I didn't think we had a prayer to beat Whitehall, I thought that we would be in a fight to get second honestly." The Spartans did not waste the great performances that they got on this night. Senior Brandon Vandriel made an extended appearance back from injury, winning the 100 meter dash and anchoring the winning 800 meter relay, his only events of the night. Senior Josh Patterson won the pole vault (14-00) and the 800 meter relay, and placed second and third in the high jump (6-02) and 1600 meter relay respectively. Junior Eddie Mazurkiewicz also had a huge night winning a crucial 400 meter dash over conference rival Zachary Yeo of Cedar Springs. So how exactly does a team that looked buried at points during the season win a regional title? "Total team effort, we scored points all across the board, those 30 points from field events were huge. Basically we had our seniors take care of business, and our young guys step up," the 3200 meter relay (Johnson, Versluys, Schnabel, Fairman) epitomizes the Spartan's team philosophy, says Smith "We unloaded that relay, and they still took sixth, which scored us three huge points, that's the meet right there." Senior Nate Dahlgren had a reduced work load in the meet, but made the most of his races, "I feel a lot better going into the 800 not running the 1600, it really helps keep my legs stronger and fresh." Dahlgren certainly looked fresh on his way to a second place finish and personal best 1:57.54 800 meter, as well as the anchor leg in the deciding 1600 meter relay. The Sparta boys will be accompanying the girls to the MITCA team state meet in Jenison, looking to win the first track and field state title in school history. posted from mlive.com |