Harriers Compete at Hill and Bale
Story and photos by Alexis Mercer In the first cool weather Saturday of the cross country season, 22 schools attended the Hill and Bale Invite in Fremont. Teams were split up into two divisions based on school enrollment. From Newaygo County, Fremont, Grant and Newaygo competed in the large schools division. Hesperia and White Cloud raced in the small school division. Many middle school teams competed in their own races in addition to the high school divisions. In an early season twist to the traditional 5k high school race, at the Hill and Bale, runners hurdle, vault, launch, step and sometimes crawl over a series of stacked bales of hay. It takes a skill unfamiliar to most runners to find ways over the bales of hay without crashing and most importantly, without slowing down the pace! Full results can be found at https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/Results/Meet.aspx?Meet=144172&show=all Fremont boys won the large school division as a team. Top five runners included Nathan Walker (1st), Ben Paige (6th), Conor Somers (7th), Joshua Zerfas (9th), and Adam Ward (11th). Fremont girls won the large school division as a team as well. Top five runners included Hannah Hamilton (1st), Kendra Fowler (3rd), Leah Converse (4th), Samantha Schmidt (6th) and Annika Tuls (13th). Grant’s top finisher for the boys was Colten Covington (2nd). Spencer Cole (8th) rounded out the medalists for the Tigers. Grant’s top finisher and medalist for the girls was Elizabeth Gates in 5th place. Newaygo’s first place runner for the boys was Ryan Brummel, finishing in 15th. The top two runners for the Lions were Sophia Frisbie (10th) and Kate Haan (11th). In the small school division, Hesperia’s top finisher was Chris Stapel for the boys and Becca Castillo (6th) for the girls. White Cloud boys finished 3rd place overall as a team with Reginald Richmond finishing 1st and Adrian Rodriguez 7th. The girls team for White Cloud came in 2nd place to Western Michigan Christian. Ella Bowman was the first runner to cross the line in 8th place.
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Vikings D pillages Warriors, ‘Yotes show firepower against Tigers, Giving Devils their due, Lions come out roaring, Eagles too much for Cloud, Packers score on both sides of the ball but not enough to rein in Cards
Tri County 12 Chippewa Hills 0 Tanner Ching crossed the goal line twice and the Viking defense delivered a shutout to give Tri County an early share of the top spot in the Gold. The other team? Reed City who will be paying the Vikes a visit next friday. "I’m so proud of our players and coaches,” said Coach Phil Butler They put in a ton of effort this week and it paid off. So many individual efforts to make one great team effort" Coming off an improbable win at Newaygo and playing at home for the first time this season the Warriors were counting on their explosive offense to provide the kind of quick strike scoring that sent them to a win over the Lions. Unfortunately it fizzled. The key turnovers and untimely penalties that plagued Newaygo last week were taken up by the Warriors and combined with a showcase defensive effort by TC resulted in a Viking victory. Ching finished with 33 carries for 135 yards while teammate Bryce Hallman pulled in 4 catches for 106 yards. Chippewa Hills (1-1, 1-2) returns to action at Grant next week while Tri County(2-0, 2-1) will welcome in the Coyotes (2-0, 3-0). Reed City 50 Grant 7 The Coyotes ran up a 30-0 advantage by intermission on their way to their 26th consecutive conference win and a 3-0 record to start the season. The Coyote defense smothered the Tiger run game and limited any air attack as well as they took control early and never let go. The Tiger offense could get no traction whatsoever in the first half and finally got on the board when Chase Lowery hit Billy Ostyn for a 32 yard score late in the game. Grant will look to get back on the winning track when they host Chippewa Hills (1-1, 1-2) Friday night. Holton 20 Hesperia 6 The Red Devils came to Hesperia with the Golden Football in hand and later left town still in possession of the traveling trophy that goes to the winner of this annual rivalry game. Drew Trygstad broke a 0-0 tie with a 4th down sneak from the 1. The conversion failed and the scoring ended for the remainder of the half as intermission saw the visitors holding a 6-0 lead, The Panthers put together a drive early in the third culminating in a 4 yard touchdown run by Logan Pearson. The hosts did not convert and the score settled at 6-6. Early in the 4th Trygstad found paydirt again then ran in the 2 point conversion for a 14-6 Holton lead. Hesperia answered with a drive that stalled in Devil territory. Holton put on a time consuming drive that ended with an Aaron Herron touchdown run to make it 20-6. Pearson led Panther rushers with 158 tards while Logan Balkema led the defense with 13 tackles followed by Johnny Segura who tallied 8. Holton is now 3-0 for the first time this century. They will host the Mohawks of Morley Stanwood (1-0, 2-1) while Hesperia (0-1, 0-3) heads east to take on White Cloud (0-1, 0-3) Kent City 54 White Cloud 7 Kent City scored on its first play from scrimmage and ran to a 48-0 lead by intermission. Steven Holt completed 7 of his 17 passes for 76 yards with 4 going to Levi Graham 2 to Donavan Stevens while two fell into the hands of the Eagle defenders. Alex Doke pounded out 68 yards against a tough KC defense and also led the team in tackles with 11. Tucker Kooman added 7 tackles. Holt scored the lone Cloud touchdown with Chance Montemayer converting the extra point Big Rapids 61 Fremont 14 The Cardinals scored 4 times in the first quarter and posted a 48-6 lead by the half enroute to the Gold conference win. The Packers got on the board in the first as well when Christian Kennedy ran it in from 12 yards but it was the only scoring for the offense until Courtland Carson broke away for a 27 yard scoring run early in the 4th. The Packer defense posted a safety late in the third. Kennedy led Packer rushed with 107 yards with Kane Widing adding 77 and Carson 52. Carlos Delossantos gained 24 yards on 3 carries. Kennedy, Carson and Widing also led their team in tackles. The Cardinals(1-1, 2-1) will be headed for Newaygo Friday while Fremont will host an equally winless Central Montcalm (0-2, 0-3). Newaygo 62 Central Montcalm 14 The Lions took out some of their frustration from last week's loss on the Hornets putting up the most points by a Newaygo team since the 2005 Lions scored 69 against Hesperia. Newaygo (1-1,1-2) looks to get back into the conference title hunt when they hst Big Rapids (1-1,2-1) next week. Morley Stanwood 16 Lakeview 14 By Ken DeLaat
All area teams are on the road Friday except for Hesperia who will be hosting their southern neighbors in a battle for the Golden Football, Here’s a quick look at who’s playing who and a few words about the matchups. Newaygo at Central Montcalm How do you bounce back from a gut wrenching loss at home that has put you in an early season 0-2 hole? Lion fans will find out Friday night when their team travels to Stanton to face Central Montcalm. The Hornets are not going to present the kind of challenges Newaygo has encountered these last two weeks. They won’t be seeing the passing game of the Warriors nor the running game of the Eagles but CM stayed in the game against a tough Grant team last week and they play some spirited defense so they can’t be taken lightly. They won’t be. The Lions have the talent to make the playoffs and they have to have this one if they are to succeed in doing so. Grant at Reed City Both teams are 2-0 and the Coyotes have beaten a pretty good team in Montague and a team that struggles on defense in Fremont. The Tigers have posted wins over Shelby and Central Montcalm. They knocked off Shelby by a touchdown while Reed City was pounding Montague in week one then Montague pasted the Tigers (Shelby) 67-7 last week. They’re playing at Reed City and the Yotes have a huge and vocal following. It’s a tough place to play and Reed City is a program that has gone 63-2 inn the regular season since 2011 including a current conference streak of 25 games. Grant will have to pull out all the stops while playing mistake free football and hope for a break or two if they want to come home 3-0. Fremont at Big Rapids The Packers are improving despite running into the buzzsaw that is Reed City last week. Big Rapids got beat by Tri County after opening with a win over a Shepherd team that struggles to score. The Cardinals are playing in front of their home crowd for the first time this season. The Packer offense could find its footing here and put up some points. After all, they should be game readied after spending twice the time on the field and executing 4 times the plays as their guests last week. Courtesy of the lightning strike Coyote scoring machine. White Cloud at Kent City The Eagles are good. Real good. And solid. And deep. They have a premier running attack led by a true speedster and an outstanding corps of linemen. Beal City held them down last week before losing 13-7 and the Aggies are a strong program with a great tradition who are looking to return to the playoffs after missing them last season for just the 4th time since 1980. Yep 1980. That game aside White Cloud does not have the numbers, the depth or the talent they will be facing across the line. In high school sports they say anything can happen so playing the Eagles on the road with thinned ranks in an all important conference opener doesn’t mean the Cloud is not going to win. But it will definitely be an uphill battle. Holton at Hesperia Big game. The 0-2 Panthers need to get it going in the other direction after struggling to get traction so far this season. The Red Devils are riding high after going 2-0 for the first time since before their players were born. Hesperia has played two teams that are strong playoff contenders. Holton played two teams who will likely have less success this season. But throw all that out because this is one of those ‘season within a season’ rivalry games. The contest is at Hesperia and the Devils hold possession of the Golden Football trophy. High on their wish list would be a trip home with the trophy and a third win. The Panthers need this one to turn their season around. Get their early. This one is always a good draw. Tri County at Chippewa Hills The Vikes and Cards put on another great show last week with TC taking the victory to begin the conference season 1-0. To make it 2 in a row they will have to be able to stop the Warrior passing attack the key to a shifty and multifaceted offensive attack possessed by CH. The Warriors are coming off a huge high, winning with an improbable final seconds drive to answer a furious Lion comeback. Let down? Maybe. But they’re at home playing in front of a lot more than the couple of dozen of their fans who watched the wild ending in Newaygo. That should fire them up a bit. The Vikings will have to play at their top level and minimize mistakes. The Warrior defense can open doors now and then but they tend to be pretty tough in the red zone. TC needs to put points on the board early. The Grant Tigers opened league play Tuesday in Stanton against the Central Montcalm Hornets. And came away with a hard fought 3-1 win.
The first set proved to be a point for point battle with Grant pulling away at the end to secure a 25-22 first set. The Hornets stung back in the second set taking advantage of some errant passing on the part of the Tigers to snare a 25-21 win. The visitors regrouped to take control of the match winning two straight sets (25-14, 25-18), to secure the match. A strong show of leadership came from senior middle Kylie Patton with 16 kills followed by senior outside Olivia Keelean with 13 kills. Junior setter Nicole Whan led the offense with 56 assists while adding 8 kills herself. Junior DS Kirstyn Throop and Senior Libero Jill Arends led the team with 4 service aces each. Arends also led the team defensively with 17 digs. The Tigers now boast an early season record of 13-5-1 and begin the conference season with a win. The Tigers host a home quad Thursday and will compete in the Fruitport Tournament on Saturday. |
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