FREMONT — Whitehall put out a terrific performance last Thursday at the Division 2 regional meet, earning its second straight title by outscoring runner-up Hamilton 105-88.
In the process, the Vikings qualified 11 entries into the state meet, which coach Kirk Mikkelson said afterwards would be the team’s focus. Generally, Mikkelson prefers to focus on the coaches’ association team state meet, but with his team shorthanded by injury - distance runner Hunter Parsons recently had his appendix removed, forcing him from action - he said the team will try to get healthy for the MHSAA finals June 1.
“There are some teams out there this year that have phenomenal team state teams,” Mikkelson said. “We’d do ourselves a disservice this year, and risk injury, by going to an extra meet when we have that big one. We’ve got enough people qualified that if we have the right day, we can win that one...If our kids do what they can, it’s possible.”
Team leaders Malcolm Earvin and Trannon Aylor both said they agreed with their coach’s decision to shift focus. Ideally, the Vikings would gun for a team state title, but both trust Mikkelson’s judgment.
“It’s just where our strengths are this season,” Aylor said. “I don’t know how well we’d be able to compete and if it’s going to be worth it to go to that (MITCA) meet and potentially place fifth or 10th.”
Whitehall certainly looked like a team capable of taking the big prize in the MHSAA meet Thursday, winning five events. Seniors Malcolm Earvin and Trannon Aylor were big scorers, each winning an individual event and teaming up as part of wins in both the 800 and 1,600-meter relays. Aylor, the 2023 state champion in the 400 meters, look primed to defend his title by running a personal best time of 48.49 seconds, easily outpacing the field. Earvin won the 200 meters in a time of 21.88 seconds, beating out Hamilton’s Ben Boehm at the line after Boehm edged him for the win in the 100 earlier.
“I was really nervous going into that race, because he beat me earlier and he beat me (in the regionals) last year,” Earvin said of Boehm. “But Coach told me that the 200 is my race. I just had to go out there and prove it, and that’s what I did.”
Aylor had to work harder than he anticipated to secure the win for Whitehall in the 1,600 relay. It took him only about 100 meters on his anchor leg of the relay to catch Hamilton’s Josh Langeland, but Langeland, a distance running specialist, managed to keep up with Aylor and force a final surge from the latter to eke out a win by 0.06 seconds - a time of 3:25.4.
“I feel like I can usually hear them (when they’re close behind me), but that dude must have quiet feet, because I didn’t even know he was behind me,” Aylor smiled. “I had to give a secondary push, and I wasn’t ready for it, but I’m glad I was able to.”
Aylor also qualified for state in the 200 with Earvin, finishing fourth in that race with a season-best time of 22.68 seconds.
“Great day by both of those guys,” Mikkelson said of his senior leaders. “We’ve asked a lot of them, and they’ve stepped up. They did everything that we expected them to do, and they did it well.”
Kyler Frees and Ca’Mar Ready ran with Aylor and Earvin in the 800 relay, where the winning time was 1:29.3, and Frees and Kal Koehler ran in the 1,600 relay, where the Vikes finished in 3:25.4.
Camden Thompson picked up his second straight regional title in high jump despite not yet being at 100 percent after a March ankle sprain. Thompson won the title with a mark of 6-0, beating three others who cleared that height, including teammate Ayden Mendoza, by tiebreaker. Mendoza also earned a state spot with his jump.
Other state qualifiers included Koehler, who took second in long jump (20-11.25); Ready, who set a personal best in pole vault to finish third (13-3); and Stewart Waters, who beat the qualifying standard in the 1,600 with a personal best time of 4:27.3, taking fourth.
Jason Smith medaled twice for the Vikes in the throws and set personal bests in both, taking fourth in shot put (45-10.25) and sixth in discus (135-11). Corde Anderson medaled by taking sixth in the 110 hurdles. Graysen Olstrom scored a PR in pole vault to finish seventh (11-8), and Waters earned a second medal with a PR in the 3,200, placing eighth (9:57.6). Thompson medaled in discus with an eighth-place finish, and the 3,200 relay team finished eighth as well.
The Whitehall girls finished in 10th place, scoring 30 points. Cami Kraai and Arianna Black led the way with regional titles. Kraai won in the 800 meters, setting a PR of 2:20.99, and Black took the high jump with a mark of 5-1. They were the only Vikings to earn state qualification.
However, Whitehall also saw Aaliyah Jamison deliver a strong effort in shot put, taking fourth with a PR of 33-3.5. Adalyn Britton also medaled, earning fifth in the 800, and the 3,200 relay team also medaled, in eighth.
