Whitehall had a terrific day at Friday's Allegan Invitational, earning first place as a team by four points over Otsego, 116-112.
The meet was also the Vikings' first of the season to serve as an early qualifier to the state meet. New this year, early qualifying meets allow athletes who hit certain marks to earn bids to the state meet regardless of what happens at the regionals, which used to be the only meet that could produce state qualifiers.
The Vikings earned top placements in five events at the meet, led by Mason Mulnix' sweep of the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Mulnix ran personal bests in both races, scoring a 11.01-second time in the 100 and finishing the 200 in 22.34 seconds. Mulnix also secured a 200-meter state qualification with his time.
Camden Thompson picked up a win in the 110-meter hurdles and ran a personal best 15.16 seconds, earning a state meet spot. Ayden Mendoza and Thompson went 1-2 in the high jump and both qualified for state; Mendoza jumped 6-8 and Thompson went over the bar at 6-6.
Kal Koehler also picked up a win for Whitehall in the long jump (19-10).
Three other Viking events earned top-3 finishes in the meet. Stewart Waters was second in the 3,200-meter run and went under 10 minutes, scoring a time of 9:57.9. Graysen Olstrom set a new personal best of 12-6 in the pole vault to finish second. Mulnix joined Tyler Van Antwerp, Andon Palmer and Jevon Hilliard to finish second in the 1,600 relay with a time of 3:30.9.
Corde Anderson finished third for Whitehall in the 110 hurdles, clocking in at 16.07 seconds. Waters, Van Antwerp, Drew Boeringa and Rex Pumford took third in the 3,200 relay in a time of 8:43.5.
Two Whitehall girls took third in their events as the team tied for 13th place. Cami Kraai placed third in the 1,600-meter run in a time of 5:26.6, and Lexi Poulin was third in high jump with a mark of 4-10.
