By Staff
NILES - Ring Lardner's boys and girls track teams have already competed in two meets so far this week.
Niles traveled to St. Joseph Monday afternoon.
The Vikings faced the Bears and Coloma.
This would have been an easy meet to cancel for the teams since they were missing 28 players due to the band concert and injuries. Instead, coach Joe Zdziebko used it as another challenge to his team this teams.
Rachel Smith and Kaleigh Hill started off the girls by taking second and third in the shot put. Liz VanDenheede then took first in the two mile run with Sara Stenstrom and Gabie Ezell taking third and fourth.
Stephanie Watson, Morgan Farmer and Brittany Buti then swept the first three places in the 55 hurdles with Sara Tyler and Madie Rodts continuing their one-two punch in the 800 meter run.
The losses in people then started to take its toll on the girls.
St. Joe and Coloma's speed started to take over the sprint races, mile run and 1,600 meter relay.
The final score was St. Joe with 80 points, Ring Lardner 65 points and Coloma 20 points.
The boys also fought for every point finally coming out victors beating St. Joe and Coloma with a final score of 68.5.
St. Joe came in second with 54.5 points and Coloma with 42 points.
Cameron Sly finished first in the two mile with Matt Fatacek taking fourth.
Assad Ali and Matt Karsten led the way in the shot put and Justin Williams showed everyone why it's called long jump going 18-1.
Williams, Mcade Reese, Bradley Thomas, Zach Payne, Kyler Shearer and Sly all helped the boys by winning their races and relays.
Bradley Thomas kept some fans at the meet a little late by making jump after jump until finally ending at 5-6 and taking first.
Tuesday afternoon became Tuesday night by the time the next day's meet was decided.
Ring Lardner hosted four of the best schools in the area, Lakeshore, Edwardsburg, Berrien Springs and South Haven.
The girls team came out from the start and never looked back.
They piled up 139 points to take first with Lakeshore finishing second, Edwardsburg in third, Berrien Springs in fourth and South Haven in fifth.
Meagan Horn and Sarah Crabtree began taking firsts. Merriah Merritt and Maddie Rodts joined in with first place finishes and Kaitlyn Tuohey, Sara Tyler, Liz VanDenHeede, Ashley Allison and Kadijah Abdullah all took first place finishes in their events.
Alyssa Pingel, Devyn Roberts, Nellie Coquillard, Rachel Smith, Brittany Buti, Shannon McKeel, Morgan Farmer, Patty Amon, Kaleigh Hill and Stephanie Watson all added to the point total.
The boys came up three and a half points short of the first place spot to South Haven.
Bradley Thomas, Kyler Shearer, Justin Williams and Assad Ali took firsts for the Vikings.
Cameron Sly, David Garner, markus Dodd and Zach Payne all tried to help Ring Lardner by putting up points in their individual events.