From staff reports

PAW PAW – The Dowagiac boys’ and girls’ track teams both finished fourth at the Paw Paw Invitational on Saturday.

Mattawan won the boys’ meet with 159 points, while Paw Paw was second with 137 points. The Chieftains finished with 60 points.

Dowagiac scored 65 points in the girls’ meet, which was won by Vicksburg with 185 points. Mattawan was second with 112 points.

While it may have been cold and windy out, that didn’t stop Chieftain sprinter Kaisha Martin from tying and breaking a meet record.

Martin set a new meet record in winning the 100-meters as she was clocked at 12.3. That also ties the school record.

Martin then tied the record for the 200-meters as she won with a time of 26.7. That tied her with former Chieftain Angela Saxton.

The junior also won the long jump with a lead of 14-7.5 and she teamed with Jacoya Brookins, Cierra Mattix and Andrea Bradshaw to win the 400-meter relay with a time of 54.6.

Dowagiac also got a second and a third place finish from Regina Kennedy in the discus (85-feet) and shot put (28-2) respectively.

The 800-meter relay team of Mattix, Andrea Wade, Ashley Pritchard and Bradshaw was fourth with a time of 2:00.7. Bradshaw placed fifth in the long jump with a leap of 13-4.5.

Kyle Wright captured the lone first place finish for the Chieftains as he won the pole vault with a height of 11-6.

Troy Butcher, Jon Myers, Damone Huff and Austin Adams took second in the 400-meter relay with a time of 46.0.

Mike Hemenway was third in both the discus and the shot put with tosses of 105 and 39-8.

Butcher placed third in the 100-meters (11.3) and Myers third in the 200-meters (23.9. Collin Tidey was fourth in the pole vault (10-6) and Adams fourth in the 100-meters (11.3).

Dowagiac’s 3,200-meter relay team of Chris Gantt, Robert Andrade, Joey Pasternak and Kasey Proshwitz finished fourth with a time of 9:17.

Other Chieftain top six finishes were the 800-meter relay team of Myers, Michael Bennett, Adams and Huff, which was fourth (1:39.9); Pierre Reed, who was fifth in the 110-meter high hurdles (16.2); Gantt, who was fifth in the 1,600-meters (4:48.7), the 1,600-meter relay team of Proshwitz, Butcher, Reed and Gantt, who were fifth (3:59.5) and Brett Lesniak, who was sixth in the shot put (36-0).

“It was cold and windy, but we gave a lot of effort,” Dowagiac coach Ken Jordan said. “Our boys showed a lot of depth, scoring in 11 events. Kaisha obviously led the girls with another record-breaking day. All in all, we were pretty pleased.”

Dowagiac heads back to the Wolverine Conference on Tuesday when it travels to Gull Lake.