Coldwater girls track takes second, boys finish fifth in Interstate 8 conference invite

ALBION – The Coldwater Cardinal Track team traveled to the campus of Albion College on Tuesday for the final event on their conference calendar, as the Cardinals competed in the Interstate 8 conference championship. In the girls' portion of the day the Cardinals finished in second place while the boys finished in fifth place overall.

Coldwater girls finish second, boast three conference champions

The Coldwater girls track team finished with runner-up honors on Tuesday, scoring 121 points, just behind the conference champions from Harper Creek who took first with 142 points.

The Cardinals and their runner-up finish were led by three conference champions, one in the running events and two in the field events.

One of those conference championships came in record breaking fashion as freshman phenom Ella Grabowski not only won the Interstate 8 conference title in the long jump, she did so in a new Coldwater High School record of 17 feet, 5 inches. Grabowski also took fourth place in the 100, seventh place in the 200, and third place in the 400.

Junior thrower Elli Foley repeated as Interstate 8 conference champion in the shot put, winning with a throw of 37 feet, 11.75 inches. Foley also took silver in the discus, finishing in second place with a throw of 104 feet, 6.5 inches.

Coldwater’s final conference championship came in the 800-meter run where junior superstar Grace Huff won the gold, winning the race in a time of 2 minutes, 22.41 seconds. Huff also took two silver medals as part of the runner-up 800 relay team and the runner-up 1,600 relay team.

Helping Coldwater to their runner-up status with a top-eight finish in their respective event was Ella Thompson, fifth place in the 100 and sixth place in the 200; Ava Longstreet, seventh place in the 100 and second place in the pole vault; Miyah Moore, third place in the 200; Sam Bernard, seventh place in the 400; Mackenzie Scheid, sixth place in the 800; Madilynn Persails, seventh place in the 100 hurdles and seventh place in the 300 hurdles; Morgan Baker, second place in the 300 hurdles and seventh place in the high jump; Elizabeth Torres-Ojeda, fourth place in the 300 hurdles; the 400 relay team of Bernard, Thompson, Abigial Robison, and Ava Longstreet third place; the 800 relay team of Huff, Bernard, Thompson, and Moore, second place; the 1,600 relay team of Bernard, Baker, Moore and Huff, second place; the 3,200 relay team of Annika Johnson, Adriana Hernandez, Scheid and Baker, second place; Danika Cox, third place in the shot put; Marie Powers, fourth place in the shot put; Savannah Hayward, eighth place in the high jump; and Abigail Robison, fifth place in the pole vault and sixth place in the long jump.

Coldwater’s Reilly wins discus title, Cardinals finish fifth in boys meet

The Coldwater Cardinal boys track team took fifth place on Tuesday after scoring 43 points. Parma Western secured the conference title with 160 points, followed by Harper Creek in second place with 130 points, Hastings in third with 85 points and Marshall in fourth with 72 points.

Coldwater had one conference champion emerge from Tuesday’s meet as sophomore Jackson Reilly exploded for a career best throw down in the discus pit, winning the gold medal with a mammoth throw of 156 feet, 1 inch. Reilly also took third place in the shot put with a throw of 48 feet, 10.75 inches.

Kendall Austin also had a solid day, earning multiple conference medals after taking fourth place in the long jump, seventh place in the high jump, sixth place in the 110-meter hurdles and fifth place in the 300 hurdles.

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Rounding out the Coldwater effort with a top eight finish in their respective event was Claudel Wischmeyer, sixth place in the 400; Mason Sabaitis eighth place in the 400; Drew Vanderpuyl, third place in the 800; Luke Aerts, eighth place in the 1,600 and fourth place in the 3,200; Bennett McDonald, eighth place in the 110 hurdles; the 800 relay team of Dayne Knap, Sabaitis, Phanom Dompierre, and Naseem Taha, sixth place; the 1,600 relay team of Vanderpuyl, Sabaitis, Landon Dirschell, and Wischmeyer, fifth place; the 3,200 relay team of Vanderpuyl, Austin Accardi, Aerts, and Wischmeyer, third place; Garrett McVicker, sixth place in the shot put; Drew Ennis, eighth place in the pole vault; and Dayne Knap, eighth place in the long jump.

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Coldwater track travels to Albion College for Interstate 8 championship