By Staff
NILES - The Ring Lardner Vikings participated in the Edwardsburg Relays on Wednesday night against eight other schools. Both the boys and girls teams captured first place.
The Lady Vikes have finished first the past three years at this event, while the boys have taken home the first place trophy four out of the past five years.
The boys started off slow, but by the third race of the night they took the lead and won by 25 points over their closest competitor. They took first place in six out of ten events. Rashaad Harris, Justin Potthoff and Nick Lucero started the night off by winning the long jump. David Garner, Jordan Potthoff and Justin Hughes took the high jump. Mitch Peterek, Anthony Horvath, Justin Potthoff and Mark Calhoun started the running events off with a victory in the distance relay.
Next came Shawn Holland, Ron Smith, Zak Prenkert and Garner, who won the hurdles. From then on, the boys never looked back.
Cameron Sly, one of the team leaders this year, was instrumental in his relay teams success. Andrew Wregglesworth and Antwaan Brann also helped in the win.
The Lady Vikes faced a more difficult test. The girls were behind in the meet from the start, trailing by as many as 12 points. Going into the last four races, it would take an extra special effort to overcome the point deficit. Not only did the girls have to finish in the top two spots, but they had to have help from other teams to keep Lakeshore in the back of the pack.
To say it was a miracle finish by the girls would be understanding it. Gabbie Ezell, Ashley Allison, Sarah Crabtree and Maddie Rodts won the 1600 meter with Lakeshore in second.
Next a juggling act in the line up to fill in for an ill runner placed Jordan Brown, Nichole Sly, Alex McIntee and Lizzy Coulston in third in the sprint relay, bringing the girls within six points of the Lancers.
The 3200 meter was next and once again the juggling act continued due to the illness. This time, eighth grader Shannon McKeel ran the best 800 of her career and put her team in the top spot. Ezell, Crabtree and Rodts finished the race by winning with 25 seconds to spare.
Heading into the last race, the Vikes were only trailing by two points. They had to finish ahead of Lakeshore's 400 relay team, the same group of runners who beat the Niles girls in the 400 the prior week.
Coulston started it off and Ezell took the lead. Sly held it and Allison beat Lakeshore by .13, capping the comeback. A tie for first between Niles and Lakeshore ended with 70 points for each team.
Runners like Every, Dreher, Tyler, Touhy, Mitchell, Gibson, Allen and Webster.