Coldwater's Ella Grabowski breaks 43-year-old school long jump record at Portage Northern

PORTAGE – The Coldwater Cardinal track and field teams traveled to Portage Northern High School on Friday to compete in the Huskie Invitational.

The top news of the day came out of the girls side of the invitational, most specifically down in the long jump pits where a freshman superstar in the making broke one of Coldwater’s oldest school records.

Ella Grabowski, in just her second meet of her high school career, not only won first place in the long jump but did so in record-breaking fashion. Grabowski won the gold with a jump of 17 feet, 4.75 inches, a new Coldwater High School record that broke the previous mark of 16 feet, 9.5 inches set by Lisa Kellogg 43 years ago.

One other Cardinal brought home a gold medal as freshman Marie Powers tossed her way to first place in the shot put with a throw of 31 feet, 9.5 inches. Powers also took fourth place in the discus with a throw of 81 feet, 11 inches.

Also earning medals were Grace Huff with a runner-up finish in the 800-meter run in a time of 2 minutes, 25.29 seconds and Jaelah Sloan with a third-place finish in the long jump with a jump of 15 feet, 8 inches and third place in the high jump with a jump of 4 feet, 8 inches.

Rounding out the scoring for the Cardinals with top-eight finishes were Miyah Moore, sixth place in the 200; Grabowski, eighth place in the 400; Madilynn Persails, fifth place in the 100 hurdles; Morgan Baker, eighth place in the 300 hurdles; the 400 relay team of Sloan, Moore, Grabowski and Ella Thompson, fifth place; the 800 relay team of Grabowski, Thompson, Moore and Huff, third place; the 1600 relay team of Sloan, Thompson, Moore and Huff, third place; the 3200 relay team of Adriana Hernandez, Olivia Golematis, Mackenzie Scheid, and Morgan Baker, sixth place; Danika Cox, fifth place in the shot put; Ta’Vaiyah Hughes, eighth place in the high jump; and Ava Longstreet, fifth place in the pole vault.

The Coldwater girls finished fifth with 80.5 points. St. Joseph took home top honors with a score of 138 points, while Portage Northern finished second with 104 points.

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Led by Jackson Reilly down in the pits, Coldwater boys finish seventh

The Coldwater Cardinals boys finished seventh Friday at Portage Northern with a score of 63 points. St. Joseph made it a clean sweep, winning the boys crown with 112 points, followed by Mattawan in second with 106 points.

Coldwater was led on the day by sophomore Jackson Reilly, who brought home the lone gold medal for the Cardinals, winning the shot put with a throw of 49 feet, 3 inches. Reilly also took third place in the discus with a throw of 141 feet, 7 inches.

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Also earning points for the Cardinal were Claudel Wischmeyer, eighth in the 1600; Kendall Austin, seventh in the 110 hurdles; the 400 relay team of Manuel Hernandez, Kaden Lewis, Phnom Dompierre and Naseem Taha, sixth place; the 400 thrower relay team of Garrett McVicker, Alex Crabtree, Lennon Swick and Reilly, fourth place; the 800 relay team of Taha, Landon Dirschell, Lewis and Hernandez, seventh place; the 1600 relay team of Hunter Barnett, Drew Vanderpuyl, Mason Sabaitis and Wischmeyer, fifth place; the 3200 relay team of Austin Accardi, Luke Aerts, Vanderpuyl and Wischmeyer, fifth place; McVicker, fourth in the shot put; Ayden Dirschell, fourth in the high jump; Kendall Austin, seventh in the high jump and fifth in the long jump; Cooper Coan, seventh in the pole vault; Drew Ennis, seventh in the pole vault; and Kazzier Lindblom, fourth in the long jump.

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Coldwater's Ella Grabowski breaks 43-year-old school long jump record