Flying Dutchmen Track and Field team with second-place trophy at Coed Royal Invitational in Blissfield, Mich. Photo credit: Manchester Flying Dutchmen Track and Field program.

submitted by Michael Coltre, Manchester Flying Dutchmen Track and Field program coach

On Saturday, the Track and Field team took home the second-place trophy in the Coed Royal Invitational at Blissfield in cold and windy conditions! Grant Johnson was named “King of the Meet” for his first-place finishes in the long jump and 300m hurdles, second in the 400m, and third in the 200m.

Other highlights included the combined 4x400m relay teams taking first place and they consisted of Valorie Hieber, Ellie Marsh, Eline Dumont, and Gianna Turek on the women’s side, and Mason Meyer, Luis Baron, Harper Doyle, and Cade Sayer on the men’s side. Our high jumpers of Alexander Woods, Carson Horky, Olivia Woods, and Caroline Mason took a combined first place. Nathan Fletcher, Cody Branner, Valorie Hieber, and Faith Branner took first in the shot put. Our Hurdle Turtles, consisting of Grant Johnson, Sawyer Lutton, Siera Jedele, and Valorie Hieber, took a combined first place in the 300m hurdles. 

“This was a very unique meet, and we look forward to coming back to it next year. Both the men’s and women’s team had to work together to claim their second-place trophy! We could enter three boys and three girls in each event, and then they take the top 2 placers for each gender from each school and combine them all, then they would get points on who had the best combined foursome. This shows the overall depth that we currently have on our teams in all of our events. We ended up scoring in almost every event so everyone was pulling their weight and doing what needed to be done! We had some adversity in the middle of the meet, and it was great to see the kids overcome that and still finish strong!” — Coach Coltre

On Tuesday, the Flying Dutchmen defended their home track and dominated East Jackson 115–20 on the women’s side and 101–35 on the men’s side! This brings their dual meet record to 2–1 for both teams! There were so many PRs that night, but special shout-outs to:

• Freshman Teagan Clarke for clearing 6’ in pole vault and placing in three events, including the back-to-back 3200m and 4x400m relay!
• Freshman Amanda Hieber for stepping up and running two winning relay legs and placing third in the 1600m.
• Freshman Caroline Mason for PR-ing in the 3200m and winning the 1600m, as well as taking second in high jump and third in the 100m hurdles.
• Our 800m crew of Eline Dumont, Megan McClennan, Madelynn Bennett, Ella Turek, Julia Gratacos Jodar, Cade Sayer, and Morris Pengel for all having big PRs!
• Hunter Anderson and Alec Dodak for PRs in the 1600m.
• Both the men’s and women’s 4x200m relay teams running season-best times (Olivia Woods, Valorie Hieber, Siera Jedele, and Gianna Turek, and Carson Horky, Mason Meyer, Jayden Johnson, and Grant Johnson)!
• Our throwing crew for having PRs in shot (Mason Meyer, Seth Myers, Brett Brothers, and Memphis Felzcak) and in disc (Nathan Fletcher, Lucas Brothers, Braylin Deschoff, Seth Myers, Faith Branner, and Alina Baran)!
• And to our oldest Hurdle Turtle, Addie Gale, for a PR in the 100m hurdles!

“It’s not very often you score over 100 points in a meet, and to have both teams do that shows how locked they were! EJ had some good runners, but they have a smaller team so our numbers allowed us to overwhelm them, plus we had a lot of PRs so that helped a lot, too. It was a great first home meet. Captain Lydia was there, which gave us a boost, and the sun ended up coming out towards the end of the meet, so it ended up being a really great day!” — Coach Coltre

This coming week, Manchester will host Leslie in a dual meet at home Tuesday, April 30. Field events will start at 4:30pm and running events will start at 5pm. On Friday, May 3, we will be hosting the 45th Annual Manchester Metric Relays! Field events will start at 1pm and running events will start at 3pm. This is a nine-team event and a fun meet with lots of events you do not normally see. It’s all relays, except for pole vault and high jump, so it’s a really good time. This is a perfect time to see some of Manchester’s best athletes in action! This will also be our Senior Night. Go, Dutch!

Photo credit: Manchester Flying Dutchmen Track and Field program

Photo credit: Manchester Flying Dutchmen Track and Field program

Photo credit: Manchester Flying Dutchmen Track and Field program