By Staff
NILES - The Ring Lardner Vikings captured the co-ed Allegan Relays for the fourth straight year.
The boys and girls combined to beat nine other teams earning 108 points with their closest competitor 28 points behind.
While competing in 13 events, the Vikes took five first place finishes, six second place, one third and one fourth place finishes.
The field events teams took two of the first place finishes and one second.
Justin Williams, Khadijah Abdullah, Rasdah Harris and Delaind Croom finished second in the long jump with a combined jump of 54-7.
Bradley Thomas, David Garner, Nellie Coquillard and Alyssa Pingel won the high jump by just one inch, 18-4 to 18-3 over South Haven.
The shot put took first by out throwing their closest competitor by 19 feet.
Asaad Ali, Rachel Smith, Matt Karsten and Kaleigh Hill never looked back.
One of the Vikings' strengths this season had been its long distance runners.
Nate Allison, Cameron Sly, Liz VanDenHeede and Sarah Crabtree had outstanding races all season.
At Allegan, they ran into Otsego who beat them in two out of three races by just seconds, forcing Ring Lardner to settle for second place.
The hurdle relay teams of Stephanie Watson, Meagan Horn, Kyler Shearer and Zach Payne dominated their two events.
Payne, Horn, Thomas and Kaitlyn Touhey won the final first in the sprint medley relays.
Each runner ran a different distance in the event.
Ashley Allison, Sarah Tyler, McCade Reese and Meriah Merritt helped the Vikings down the stretch by making great efforts to help take second place finishes.
The best efforts of the day came from Crabtree, Payne and Madie Rodts with their 6,400 meter relay team trailing by almost a full lap, Crabtree made up the difference and put the team in position to finish second.
Payne put his 1,600 meter relay team in first by running neck-in-neck with a runner from South Haven the entire 400 meters.
Neither of the runners were willing to quit with the lead being exchanged six times.
At the end, Payne sprinted ahead giving the baton and enough of a lead to Horn for her to sprint to the win.
The crowd who attended Tuesday's meet were glad they stayed for the last race of the evening when Rodts ran her last leg of the 800 medley relay. Starting from behind, Rodts fought to catch the lead runners, took the lead, then with 100 meters left she sprinted away from the next closest opponent leaving her 10 meters behind.
Ring Lardner has participated in five major relays and invitationals this season.
The boys and girls both took first at the Edwardsburg relays and at the 14-team Buchanan Invitational.
The boys took first at the 10-team Bender Relays here in Niles, while the girls finished second.
Both teams formed co-ed teams to win the Allegan Relays and St. Joe Upton's 10 team D'Agustino Relays.