Flying Dutchmen Track and Field, D3 Regional at Madison, Saturday, May 18, 2024

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

On a hot and sunny day in Adrian, perfect for Track and Field, the Flying Dutchmen were posting personal best times in all areas at their D3 Regional at Madison on Saturday, May 18th! Sophomores Grant Johnson and Siera Jedele highlighted the day with their State qualifying performances, but there were 19 PRs, and five of the seven relays ran season best times! The boys took 6th out of 15 and the girls took 13th overall.

Siera was the first to qualify after she had run a great prelim race, and she followed that up with an even faster time in the final to take fifth place overall. The fastest girl in the State won the event and overall it was a very strong field as this region sent five girls in the 100m Hurdles. Siera hit the AQ time which has been her goal all season. Later in the meet, Siera improved her time in the 300m Hurdles by 1.5 seconds and took sixth overall and just missed going to States in that event as well.

Grant became Regional Champ in the 400m when he ran down the leader in the last 100m and cruised to victory. He improved his time by a second from last week’s great time, coming in at 51.23 and giving him the 11th ranked time in all of D3. He followed up this race 15 minutes later in the 300m Hurdles where he took third in 41.81 which put him about a second under the AQ time and on his way to States!

Some other standout performances:

• Nathan Fletcher - PR in Disc with a 3rd place finish and a 4th place finish in Shot Put.
• Cody Branner - a 4th place finish in Disc, and a 6th place finish in Shot Put.
• Alexander Woods - T-3rd place in High Jump
• Carson Horky – T-6th in High jump
• Eline Dumont - PR in the 800m and 7th in PV (7’9)
• Julia Gratacos Jodar - 4 second PR in the 400m
• Cade Sayer - 3.5 second PR in the 800m
• Alec Dodak - 4.5 second PR in the 1600m
• Faith Branner - PR in Disc of 84’2
• Blake Sloan - PR in Long Jump of 17’4.5

-Men’s 4x400m Relay of Harper Doyle, Carson Horky, Cade Sayer, and Grant Johnson ran a 3.5 second PR, and missed out on States by less than a second!

-Women’s 4x100m Relay of Gianna Turek, Halle Parks, Siera Jedele, and Abbi Austin just missed out on States by a second but ran a season best by 1.5 seconds!

-Women’s 4x200m Relay of Gianna Turek, Valorie Hieber, Siera Jedele, and Abbi Austin took 6th place.

Cascades Conference Recap:

Last Tuesday was the Track Conference Championship meet at East Jackson. There were a lot of great performances on the night, but the highlight of the evening was our own Lydia Bennett, competing in her first event of the season!

Overall, in the final league season standings, the boys finished tied for 5th and the girls finished tied for 7th overall (out of 12 teams). Napoleon was the Boys Champ, and Grass Lake won the Girls Conference title.  The four new teams that were added to the Cascades Conference; Leslie, Jonesville, Homer, and Brooklyn Columbia Central all have good Track programs, so it made for a very competitive conference this year. If you look at times from other D3 teams across the State you will notice the Cascades is now the strongest D3 Conference out there and Manchester held their own for most of the season.

Our All-Conference performers from the meet:

-2nd place All-Conference Disc - Nathan Fletcher (PR of 134’4)

-2nd place All-Conference 300m Hurdles - Grant Johnson

-2nd place All-Conference 300m Hurdles - Siera Jedele (PR of 50.60)

-3rd place All-Conference Disc - Cody Branner

-3rd place All-Conference 400m - Grant Johnson

-3rd place All-Conference women’s 4x200m Relay (Gianna Turek, Valorie Hieber, Siera Jedele, and Abbi Austin)

-4th place All-Conference Pole Vault - Eline Dumont (PR of 8’)

-4th place All-Conference 100m Hurdles - Siera Jedele

-4th place All-Conference Shot Put - Nathan Fletcher

-4th place All-Conference 3200m - Caroline Mason

-5th place All-Conference men’s 4x400m Relay (Harper Doyle, Carson Horky, Cade Sayer, and Grant Johnson)

-5th place All-Conference women’s 4x400m Relay (Valorie Hieber, Ellie Marsh, Eline Dumont, and Gianna Turek)

-5th place All-Conference women’s 4x800m Relay (Meghan McLennan, Julia Gratacos Jodar, Ella Turek, and Caroline Mason)

-6th place All-Conference 1600m - Caroline Mason

-6th place All-Conference High Jump - Alexander Woods

Our Honorable Mention performers:

-6th place Honorable Mention women’s 4x100m Relay (Gianna Turek, Halle Parks, Siera Jedele, and Abbi Austin)

-7th place Honorable Mention 400m - Ellie Marsh

-8th place Honorable Mention High Jump - Carson Horky

-8th place Honorable Mention Pole Vault - Teagan Clarke

-8th place Honorable Mention men’s 4x800m Relay (Hunter Anderson, Jesse Sangster, Morris Pengel, and Cade Sayer)

The Dutch also had a lot of close calls getting to the top 8 (and scoring points), with Lucy Baran in the 3200m and Valorie Hieber in the 300m Hurdles both missing by .01 of a second! Faith Branner and Madelynn Bennett also made finals and finished in 9th in Disc and Long Jump. Abbi Austin took 10th in Long Jump and missed out on finals because of a tie breaker she lost to Madelynn. Olivia Woods took 10th in High Jump. Addie Gale took 11th in a very competitive 100m Hurdles field and missed finals by less then .7 of a second. On the men’s side, Tommy Johnson Long Jump, Jesse Sangster Pole Vault, and Cody Branner Shot Put all took 9th place. Carson Horky missed the 200m finals by .14 seconds as well.

Next up for the Dutch on Tuesday the 28th is the annual Selby Meet at Jackson High which takes the top 9-12 places in each event regardless of division so it’s a great honor to qualify and compete against the bigger schools and see where we stack up. On Saturday June 1st, sophomores Grant Johnson and Siera Jedele will travel to Kent City to compete in the D3 State Finals!

Go Dutch!

Siera Jedele

Grant Johnson

Madelynn Bennett (left) and Lydia Bennett (right)