Grizzlies Attend Unusual Meet

On Thursday, March 21st the Grizzlies traveled to Hazelton to take part in the Viking Relays.  The Viking Relays is a unique meet with a mixture of traditional and uncommon events.  Some of the unique events included a variety of co-ed relay races as well as many individual races that differ in distance than what they do traditionally.  The Grizzlies fared well in the meet that featured a total of fifteen teams.  

The Grace boys would finish second in the team points while the girls would come in third place.  Some of the individual boys' bright spots featured Braden Kimball placing third in the 60 meter race, Adrian Mejia grabbing first in the 600 meters followed by Brock Johnson who placed third in that race.  Mejia and Johnson would also place in the top five in the 1500 meters.  Landon Moss and Nathanial Smith would each place in the top five in both the 110 meter hurdles and 300 meter hurdles.  In the throwing events Trevor Mathews would take third in the shot put and Carson Reeves would take sixth in the discus improving his PR by more than ten feet.  In the pole vault Carter Kimball would take second place with Bryant Jensen and Brett Hobbs each earning marks.  And finally Jonah Wilkerson would take fifth place in the triple jump. 

The girls also had their fair share of accomplishments.  Brooklyn Porter and Tessica Jorgensen would place second and third respectively in the 600 meter race.  They would be joined by Lily Gilbert in the 1500 meters where Gilbert would get the high mark placing second just edging out Porter who finished third.  The Lady Grizzlies would take the top spots in the hurdle races with Bella Eddins taking first in the 100 meters and Kallie Stoddard placing first in the 300 meters.  Skyla Cloud would take fifth in the high jump and Bella Eddins would take fourth in the triple jump.  

With all of that success the most entertaining events of the day may have been the co-ed relays.  In the 4x200 the Grizzlies would take second place despite some trouble with some of the handoffs.  In the 4x800 meter race the Grizzlies would find themselves in a distant second place after the first leg of the race. The next two runners would begin to close the gap and when the final runner Adrian Mejia got the baton he was in striking distance.  Mejia was able to take the lead coming down the stretch claiming first place for the Grizz.  In the most thrilling race of the day, the Swedish relay, once again the Grizzlies would find themselves in a distant second place through much of the race.  In the Swedish relay there are six runners to a team running a combination of 100, 200, 300 and 400 meters.  When the final member of the team Bella Eddins received the baton the Grizzlies were trailing by seven seconds with just 400 meters left in the race.  In almost every case that would be an insurmountable lead with just one lap to go.  Eddins did not easily concede the race however as she ran an amazing leg of the race eventually running down the lead runner with just ten meters left securing first place for Grace.  All in all it was a fun and exciting day for the Grace teams.  The Grizzlies will next be in action in Firth on the 28th of March.