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Central Montcalm’s Kyah Hoffman, left, and Ashley Choponis, right, lead the pack coming around the curve during the 1,600-meter run at the Division 3 Region 30 track regional at Bath High School on Thursday. — DN Photo | Meghan Tripp
BATH — The Central Montcalm track and field teams put their abilities to the ultimate test Thursday afternoon, competing in what’s arguably the most competitive regional lineup in Division 3.
The Hornets had an exciting end to their conference season last week after both teams claimed the Central State Activities Association (CSAA) White championship, the girls clinching it outright and the boys sharing it with Kent City.
With at least three top-10 state-ranked teams on both the boys and girls side, the girls being in the No. 8 slot, the Hornets pulled out all the stops to qualify as many athletes for the state meet as possible.
Despite the tough field of competition and the heat, the Hornets were able to qualify 10 individuals in 13 events, crowning four regional champions in the process.
As a team, the girls finished fifth with a total of 51 points, one point behind seventh-ranked Ithaca, and the boys finished ninth with 33 points, just two points behind sixth-ranked Olivet.
“Today was very much about their own personal bests,” girls head coach Michelle Hoffman said. “Obviously, we want them to qualify in as many events as possible, but when you race against this caliber of schools, placing top-two is going to be extremely difficult across the board. Coming in sixth and seventh at this meet is super impressive. For a lot of them, this will be their last meet, so I just wanted them to leave here knowing that they left everything on the track or the field, whatever the case may be.”
“This has got to be one of the toughest regionals in the state in Division 3,” boys head coach Kris Kolbe said. “It’s loaded. After our league competition, we talked a lot about what it takes to mentally prepare ourselves to make this step into the MHSAA state finals. I think having a growth mindset was huge for us today.”
Spearheading the charge on the girls side were seniors Kyah Hoffman and Ashley Choponis who qualified for four and three events respectively, including the regional champion 4×800-meter relay team along with junior Grace Coston and sophomore Andrea Rolston (10:00.03) that finished a full seven seconds ahead of second place.
Not only did the same relay team break the school record at the Big Rapids Cardinal Invite on May 2 (9:51.42), but they also qualified early for the state meet. Still, getting the regional win was something that came as a complete surprise to them.
“It feels really good,” Choponis said. “I wasn’t expecting that to happen. We had a goal of having good handoffs too, but I think our main goal was just getting the personal record time. It’s really nice having our teammates and everything with us at state, especially since it is our last one.”
“It was really nice,” Hoffman said. “I wasn’t expecting that. Our big goal coming into today was to run a personal record because we are super close to the school record. We had a little slip up there towards the end, so it didn’t end up happening, but we still worked our butts off. I love running the 4×800 at state. It’s really nerve-wracking but having a team there to freak out with you, it’s a really nice thing.”
The pair also had a strong showing in the 1,600-meter run where they claimed the top-two spots, both setting new personal records. Hoffman won the race with a time of 5:08.46, breaking her own school record she set back at their home invitational, and Choponis snuck past the second runner at the last second to finish with a time of 5:09.17, just 0.08 seconds ahead of third place.
Hoffman also qualified in the 800-meter run (2:26.87) and Choponis won the 3,200-meter run (11:54.95). Hoffman hit an early-qualifying mark for the 3,200-meter run at the Big Rapids Cardinal Invite with a school record time of 11:03.66.
The final qualifier for the girls team was junior Danica Phenix in the long jump with a personal best jump (17’ 3.5”) at the Ithaca invitational on April 17.
“It’s an extremely tough regional, so anybody that comes out of this qualifying, I’m just extremely proud of them,” Michelle Hoffman said. “I know they ran their hearts out and I know they gave it everything they’ve got. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Leading the charge for the boys was junior Gage Hoffman who won the 1,600-meter run (4:26.75) after claiming his first lead of the race in the final 200 meters to win. He also qualified early in the 3,200-meter run at the Ithaca invitational with a school record and personal best time of 9:39.9.
Other qualifiers for the boys were junior Jamison Johns with a second-place finish and new personal best in the high jump (6’ 2”), junior Keegan Williams in the long jump, junior McCoy Wernholm in the shot put and senior Waylon Lingeman in the discus.
Even though Williams finished fourth with a new personal record (20’ 5.75”) and Wernholm and Lingeman both finished sixth with throws of 47’ 10” and 135’ 10” respectively, all three athletes reached qualifying marks throughout the season for the state meet.
“I wanted our kids who had a great year to continue to build upon that,” Kolbe said. “If we could sneak a couple of kids in there by AQ, that would be great, but from the men’s standpoint, this field is loaded in everything. I think the biggest thing to take away from this is even if we don’t finish one-two in the region, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a success. Let’s instead build on running some faster times and increasing some distances. I think building upon that, especially with our younger athletes, is just encouraging that mindset.”
The Hornets have seen great deals of success so far this year including individual and team championships, a handful of broken school records and new personal records everywhere they go. As they prepare for the Division 3 state meet on May 31 at Kent City, they look forward to finishing out an excellent season the best way possible.
“I just want them to go out and have fun,” Hoffman said. “Today is about making it to that stage. I just want them to leave the state meet knowing that they’re so accomplished. I’m really excited for them and I want them to be happy with their own performances.”
“It’s just the experience,” Kolbe added. “That’s a huge stage that I want as many of our kids to experience as possible. I’ve been going down there every year since 2004 and it just amazes me every time at the sheer number of the volume of kids that go down and cheer each other on. The whole atmosphere is something special and I want them to have that experience.”
