Saugatuck girls place third at SAC Championship Meet

By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
GOBLES—Novella DeGraaf helped lead the Saugatuck girls track and field team to a third-place finish Tuesday at the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship meet at Gobles High School.
Saugatuck totaled 75 points to place third in the 18-team field, finishing behind conference champion Kalamazoo Hackett (102) and Constantine (76). Allegan placed sixth with 42 points, Martin was 10th with 29 and Fennville finished 13th with 20.
DeGraaf turned in one of the top all-around performances of the day for the Trailblazers. She earned all-conference honors in three events, placing runner-up in the pole vault at 9 feet, 6 inches, third in the 100-meter hurdles in 16.32 seconds and winning the long jump with a season-best leap of 15-10.
Saugatuck also got a first-place finish from Alina Martinson, who won the 400-meter dash in 1:00.37. Martinson added a third-place finish in the 100 dash and later helped the Trailblazers place third in the 4×400 relay alongside Kamryn Sixberry, Bella Ketterer and Ellyse Heyser.
Sixberry added a third-place finish in the 800-meter run in 2:30.73, while the 4×800 relay team of Heyser, Lyyvia Curtis, Savannah VanDenBerg and Sixberry placed third in 10:17.52.
Allegan was led by Jayden VandenAkker, who captured the conference title in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.44 and later finished runner-up in the 300 hurdles in 46.47.
Bailey Dilley also earned all-conference honors in multiple events, placing third in the 400 in a personal-best 1:00.56 and winning the pole vault at 11-0.
Martin distance runner Veyda Conley had a strong day for the Clippers, placing runner-up in both the 1600-meter run (5:16.37) and 3200-meter run (11:18.27).
The Martin 4×800 relay team of Sara Schipper, Allison Rodgers, Torryn Harris and Conley added a sixth-place finish in 10:46.22.
Fennville’s top performances came from Macy Samp and Isabelle Sliter. Samp placed third in the 200-meter dash in 27.53 and tied for fourth in the pole vault at 8-0, while Sliter finished fourth in the 800 and fifth in the 1600.