RIVER RUNS DEEP

Trenton Shows Off Depth, Wins GRC Title

Trenton High School girls track and field Coach Chris Parks was after points on Wednesday at the Grand River Conference Relays at South Harrison High School in Bethany. He hoped to find them by taking his top two point-earners on the track – Kristi Ewing and Lexi Whitaker – out of one relay each to give them both a third individual event.
The depth of this team is real.
Despite not having Ewing in the 4×200-meter relay or Whitaker in the 4×400-meter relay, Trenton still finished first in both events.
Parks got his points from Ewing and Whitaker and a host of others as well as the Bulldogs netted 153 team points to blitz the 16-team field and capture a second-straight Grand River Conference championship.
“Overall I was really proud of the way our girls performed,” Parks said. “All the way through our running, through our field events, through our jumps, it was a team effort. You just see a lot of pride with our girls at that track meet.”
Trenton used Whitaker in the 4×200 and Ewing in the 4×400 and that was plenty as Trenton swept those events to account for a combined 20 of the team’s first-place 153 points. Mykah Hurley subbed for Ewing in the 4×200 and Chandler Lynch stepped into the 4×400 for Whitaker.
“The depth of this team is really good,” Parks said. “Our backups can come right in a 4×4 or 4×2. They have a lot of determination and it doesn’t matter who is on that group, they are determined to do the best that they can for our team.”
Hurley, Whitaker, Lynch and Lexi Gott combined to win the 4×200-meter relay with a time of 1:53.2. In the 4×400, Gott, Lynch, Ewing and McKayla Blackburn won with a time of 4:20.0 – setting a new conference record for the event.
“We always say when we have Kristi or Lexi as our anchor ‘we’re just going to give you a chance’,” Blackburn said. “We’re going to do our best to get them as close to first place as we can and if we get ahead then we get ahead.”
Ewing gave Trenton a gold medal individually in the 400-meter dash, winning with a time of 1:00.41. She was second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.7 and second in the 100 with a time of 13.21.
Whitaker, meanwhile, finished runner-up in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 47.9, third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.2 and fourth in the high jump with a mark of 5-0.
Trenton won one gold medal in the field, coming from Maci Moore, who was first in the triple jump with a leap of 32-0.5. Hurley wasn’t far behind Moore, placing third in the same event with a mark of 30-10.75.
Moore added a fourth-place finish in the shot put with a throw of 35-1 and was seventh in the high jump after clearing 4-8. Hurley placed fifth in the long jump with a mark of 15-6.
Other placewinners in the field included Salem Croy, second in the javelin with a throw of 116-1 and fifth in the discus with a throw of 102-0; Kendall Crowley, sixth in the discus with a throw of 94-4; and Emma Curtis, seventh in the long jump with a mark of 14-8.5.
Back on the track, Trenton’s 4×100- and 4×800-meter relay teams each came home third. Gott, Hurley, Curtis and Shay Westerhof combined to finish third in the 4×100 with a time of 54.99 and Gwyneth Foster, Blackburn, Morgan King and Gracyn Rongey combined to run third in the 4×800 which didn’t have an official time due to a computer error in the event.
Other placewinners on the track included Evy McCullough, fourth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 20.11 and sixth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 59.76; Katie Markell, fourth in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 14:25.34 and sixth in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 6:28.91; Rongey, fifth in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 6:26.47; King, sixth in the 3,200-meter run with a time of 15:10.15; Foster, sixth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:40.86; Lynch, sixth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:05.26; Jenna Reeter, seventh in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 20.94; and Blackburn, eighth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:44.79.
The team title was the third in a row for Trenton this season and marked the eighth time this year the Bulldogs scored a meet championship. Worth County was the runner-up to Trenton for the second year in a row, finishing with 102 points. St. Joseph Christian was third with 92 points.
The Bulldogs have now, in one school year, captured GRC championships in softball, basketball and track and field.
“What we have been able to do has been incredible,” Blackburn, who was a member of all three conference-championship-winning teams, said. “I think that everyone is scared of us in our conference, no matter what sport it is. Whenever we go to a conference thing, it’s always like ‘oh, there’s Trenton, we’ve got to beat them.’ It’s tough because everybody wants to beat us.”
TRENTON BOYS
The Trenton boys placed third in the boys standings, tallying 74 points. Princeton was first with 113 points and Worth County placed second with 107.
Brian Ewing led the way for the Trenton boys, winning the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.3, the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.86 and the 400-meter dash with a time of 51.0.
Trenton double-placed in the 100 and 200, where Hayden Griffin was fifth in the 100 with a time of 11.99 and sixth in the 200 with a time of 24.25.
In the field, Dylan Harris placed second in the triple jump with a mark of 38-10.5 and seventh in the high jump with a mark of 5-4. Carson Burchett was second in the shot put with a throw of 46-4.5 and Hunter Trask followed, placing fourth with a throw of 43-9. Trask added a third-place finish in the discus with a throw of 134-4.
Other placewinners for Trenton included Camdyn Leeper, fifth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 17.83 and seventh in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 47.12; and Kayden Spencer, seventh in the 3,200-meter run with no time recorded due to a computer error at the meet.
Trenton’s track and field teams returned to action on Thursday, traveling to the Irish Relays at Lafayette High School in St. Joseph. Trenton will be back in St. Joseph on Tuesday, traveling to the Benton Relays.