JACKSON – The Lumen Christi girls track and field team started and ended their day with relay wins at the Selby Classic on Tuesday at Withington Stadium.
The Titans 4×800 team of Sydney Fazekas, Macy Fazekas, Samantha Schroeder and Leila Lopez won the opening running meet of the meet with a time of 9:56.58, beating Western by 90 seconds.
And finally, the 4×400 was won by Fazykas, Fazykas, Lopez and Madison Osterberg in 4:12.23. The Grass Lake team started strong, but the Titans took the lead in the second leg and the Warriors finished third behind Leslie’s Jaidyn Smith, Alexandra Ream, Hailey Kriesher and Macy Boyer.
“Our second leg, Macy Fazekas, is always so consistent and so reliable,” Osterberg said. “She wasn't in great form today but still ran a great leg and got us where we wanted to be, so we can always rely on her.”
Lumen Christi's dominance extended to the individual events as well, as Schroeder won the 3,200 meters in 11:34.49, with Northwest's Chloe Conn second and Homer's Sophie Patrick third.
Unlike most meets where the women's and men's 3200m are raced separately, at Selby they were run simultaneously, so there were runners running alongside her even though she held a commanding lead.
“I'm just trying to get as close to the boys as I can,” she said. “I'm used to running on my own. Running with people is a nice change of pace.”
Osterberg won the 1,600 meters in a time of 4:49.60 with Hanover-Houghton's Olivia Perrin taking second and won the 800 meters in a time of 2:17.27 with Macy Fazykas taking second and Sydney Fazykas taking third.
“I was really happy with the 1,600 today,” she said. “It was my most consistent run of the year, sub-five seconds.” [minutes] I've always felt good. The 800m felt pretty good. It wasn't the time I was aiming for, but I can't complain.”
Osterberg was named the tournament's female player of the year after winning three games.
Grass Lake won the sprint relay with Grace Bullock, Ava Vigeland, Kate Starkey and Maia Vigeland winning the 4×200 in 1:50.20, beating Jackson by nearly a second, while Bullock, Kate Starkey, Brooke Starkey and Ashley Simon won the 4×100 in 51.48 with Jackson narrowly edging out Western for second place.
In the hurdles, Ream won the 100 meters in 16.17 seconds, with Columbia Central's Melissa McJennett taking second in 16.62 and Springport's Imony Pace taking third in 16.71.
But in the 300-meter hurdles rematch, McJennett won in a personal best time of 48.17, with Ream second.
“I just try to run as hard as I can and give it my all,” McJennett said. “This meet has some of the best girls in the state at it, so I knew I had to really compete if I wanted to go out there and place.”
Hanover-Houghton's Sophia Reynolds won the 400 meters in a close race against Jackson's Everett Drummond, winning in 59.27 seconds.
Drummond took second in the 100 meters behind Lumen Christi's Chloe Franklin, who finished in 12.93 seconds, before Concord's Brady Lehman won the 200 meters in 27.05 seconds with Drummond taking second place.
“I think I got off to a great start and I think that helped me,” she said. “I'm a fast kicker so I knew I had to start early and I knew if I went the long way I could beat her.”
Homer won three field events, with Jaylynn Perkins throwing 34 feet, 9 inches in the shot put to beat Springport's Hope Oberweg and Kaylee Kopros. Emma Wild also cleared the meet record of 10 feet in the pole vault to be named the meet's best athlete in the girls' field events.
Stockbridge's Megan McKinder won the discus with a throw of 106 feet, 6 inches, with Perkins taking second place.
Northwest's Mara Mitchell won the high jump, clearing 5 feet, 2 inches.
