The Ring Lardner Vikings finished their track season on Monday up at Allegan.

They ran against nine other schools in a co-ed relay format. The meet was a barn-burner all afternoon with the lead going back and forth between the Vikings and Otsego.

When the final race ended the Vikings finished second to Otsego by a score of 73-70.

The athletes from Ring Lardner needed a first place in one of its last two races to pull off the win but fell short in both races.

The team started off the meet well with a first place in the long jump relay with Jamal Hinds, Ethan Stanfill, Asiah Brookins and Keilah DosSantos winning by three inches.

The shot putters came in second just 11 inches short. Miranda Bailey, Emma Doud, Kale Pollard and Boston Hand threw for a combined total of 135-4. The high jumpers then helped the team by combining for 17-7 and a fourth place finish. Miranda Baker, Olivia Jordan, Stanfill and Adam Langmeyer did the honors in the event.

The 6,400-meter relay team then took another fourth. The team fell behind early but tried to make a comeback behind Allison Grant, Kylee Myer, Sammy Rodts and Mike Geiger.
The hurdlers were up next and once again they performed their magic taking the Vikings to a first place finish, winning by almost two seconds over second place South Haven in the 55-meters.

Kierra Fillwock, Lashonda Greene, Rusty Feeback and Boston Hand were so impressive in their win athletes from two other schools asked, “how do you get them to be that good?”

Greene, Hand and Feeback along with Taylor Glenn also captured first in the 100-meter hurdles winning going away by five seconds.

Hinds, Brookins, Pollard and Jordan Rank took the next first in the 800 relay winning by two seconds over Plainwell. The team hit the wall in the Sprint Relay and came away with no points, this was followed by a fifth place finish in the 3,200 meters and a fourth in the 1,600-meter relay.

The Vikings were now struggling to hold on to second two points behind Otsego.

This is the time that hurdle relay team came to the rescue with their first place victory.

Now the team of Pollard, Hinds, Rank and Brookins came up again the 400 meters and finished in second .65 seconds behind South Haven.

The team had regained the overall lead in the meet with these two efforts, but first place once again slipped through the young Vikings fingers.

The Distance Medley and 800 Medley races resulted in zero points again with Otsego picking up 12 points to jump ahead in the meet and win it 73-70.

Both the boys and girls team faced 51 opponents during their season. The boys finished with a 38-12-1 record, the girls were 48-3.

The boys took second in the Edwardsburg Invitational while the girls won both at Edwardsburg and The Niles Bender Relays.

The combined teams took second in both the D’Agostino-St Joe Relays and at Allegan.