Dutch Track team at home against Leslie.

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

It was another great week for the Manchester Track and Field program. The Dutch Track team picked up 2 upset wins Tuesday at home against Leslie as they defended their home track! The girls defeated Leslie 77–60, and the guys won 74–63. Both teams improve to 3–1 in the dual meet season!

All areas contributed but some standout performances included:

• Grant Johnson winning the long jump, 300m hurdles, 400m (running a PR of 53.54), and being anchor of the winning 4x200m relay.
• The men’s 4x800m relay of Hunter Anderson, Jesse Sangster, Morris Pengel, and Cade Sayer dropping 16 seconds and winning the race to set the tone for the meet with a time of 9:01.63!
• Abbi Austin winning the long jump and 200m (running a PR of 29.63), plus taking 2nd in the 100m and running the winning anchor leg of the 4x100m relay.
• Siera Jedele winning the 100m and 300m hurdles, plus a leg on the winning 4x100m relay team. She ran a PR of 18.05 in the 100m hurdles.
• Hunter Anderson taking a 2nd in the 1600m and a huge 2nd place in the 3200m run which clinched the meet for the men’s team. He cut off 10 seconds from his previous personal best and ran a 11:11.83.
• Cody Branner for taking 1st in shot and disc!
• Cade Sayer for dropping his time in the 800m and winning the race with a 2:15.17.
• Caroline Mason for winning the 3200m, 2nd in the 1600m, and 3rd in the high jump.
• Our distance crew with big improvements; Madelynn Bennett, Cade, and Morris in the 800m, Caroline, Amanda Hieber, Teagan Clarke, and Alec Dodak in the 1600m, and Hunter Anderson, Alec, and Lucy Baran in the 3200m!

We had 48 personal records, which is outstanding for one meet!

On Saturday, the Dutch hosted the 45th Annual Manchester Metric Relays, which included nine teams. The boys’ team nearly took home the 2nd place trophy, with 67.5 points for the meet. A strong Napoleon team won the meet, and Columbia Central took 2nd. On the girls’ side, the girls had a great showing and took 5th place overall. Both places were higher than the projections had shown before the meet. The weather forecast ended up working out after showing rain for much of the week. It turned into a nice sunny spring day. Metrics is a meet of all relays, except for the pole vault, so this offers a different type of challenge from what we normally see.

Some highlights from the meet:

• The women’s long jump team of Madelyn Bennett, Abbi Austin, and Julia Gratacos Jodar took 3rd place.
• The women’s 4x1600m relay team of Caroline Mason, Lucy Baran, Amanda Hieber, and Teagan Clarke took a 2nd place and all four ladies ran personal best times!
• The women’s distance medley relay of Madelynn Bennett, Eline Dumont, Meghan McLennan, and Caroline Mason took 3rd place.
• The women’s 4x200m relay team of Abbi Austin, Valorie Hieber, Siera Jedele, and Gianna Turek ran a season best time of 1:55.25, which was good for 3rd place.
• The women’s Buffalo Relay team of Faith Branner, Alina Baran, Lucy Baran, and Valorie Hieber took 3rd place overall. Faith threw a personal best 73’ in the disc!
• On the men’s side, Alexander Woods and Cade Sayer combined to take a 3rd place finish in the high jump.
• The men’s shot put team of Cody Branner, Nathan Fletcher, and Mason Meyer took 2nd place.
• The men’s disc team of Cody Branner, Nathan Fletcher, and Landon LaVigne took 2nd place. Cody threw a PR of 126’9 and Nathan threw a PR of 118’2.
• The men’s 4x1600m relay team of Hunter Anderson, Jesse Sangster, Alec Dodak, and Justin Gale took 3rd place. All four ran personal best times!
• The men’s Manchester Relay of Luis Baron, Mason Meyer, Jayden Johnson, and Grant Johnson took 3rd place.
• The Men’s Distance Medley team of Alec Dodak, Mason Meyer, Cade Sayer, and Hunter Anderson took 3rd.
• The men’s 4x200m relay, in an extremely fast race, ran over a 2-second season record time of 1:35.59 for a 5th-place finish, which is 1 second off qualifying for States. This team consisted of Alexander Woods, Carson Horky, Jayden Johnson, and Grant Johnson.
• The men’s 4x400m relay team of Cade Sayer, Harper Doyle, Carson Horky, and Grant Johnson took home a 3rd-place finish.

We concluded the night honoring our 14 seniors who are: Morris Pengel, Luis Baron, Cody Branner, Alexander Woods, Landon LaVigne, Hunter Anderson, Mason Meyer, Carson Horky, Eline Dumont, Julia Gratacos Jodar, Lydia Bennett, Addie Gale, Gianna Turek, and Alina Baran. We would like to thank them for all their contributions in their time here at Manchester!

We would also like to thank all the parents and volunteers who stepped up and made our three home meets, including metrics, run so smoothly. Thank you! We would also like to thank Krista Scharpenberg for running our FAT timing system. She has done a great job! Special thanks also goes out to Dan Budd and Guy Cole for being our announcers this season and who have done a great job contributing to the efficiency of our meets.

Our season is not done, though. This Tuesday we will travel to Grass Lake for our last dual meet of the season. This Friday, we will go to East Jackson for their annual 16 team Dome Classic Relays, which is a regional preview meet. We look to continue to drop times and position ourselves for our regional and conference meets. Go, Dutch!