Goodrich’s boys and girls track teams received a morale boost with the recent appearances of two old friends.
Danielle Bila and Kaitlin O’Mara, two Goodrich High School students who were seriously injured in a January accident that took the life of Kaitlin’s twin sister Kayla, showed up in the stands at both the Lake Fenton Relays April 8 and the Martians? Genesee Area Conference opener April 11 against visiting Lake Fenton.
Both the boys and girls teams won their matchups against Lake Fenton, and the Martians nearly made it a clean sweep at the relays, with the girls team taking first place in the Division 3-4 competition, and the boys team finishing in second place, one point behind GAC rival Montrose.
Goodrich coach Jennifer Sweet said Bila and O’Mara are both at home and doing their rehabilitation work.
‘When they came in Saturday (for the relays), it was really uplifting,? she said.
Sweet also said April 7 (the day before the relays), the girls team took a moment of silence and talked about the accident and susbsequent rehabilitation for both Bila and O’Mara.
Goodrich team members Kelsey Meyers, Kelsey Krych and Sam Minkler, who were teammates of Bila and the O’Maras when they won the Division 3 state championship last season, then each addressed the team and shared their memories of their three teammates.
‘It set a high tone for the kids,? Sweet said.
At the relays, Goodrich’s girls team outdistanced second-place Almont 101-7, but the boys team was edged out by Genesee Area Conference rival Montrose 86-85 for first place.
In field events, the Martians captured three of the five relays. Sarah Sweet and Jo Carter took both the shot put (57?5?) and the discus (168?1?), while Casey Tubbs and Christina Sweet won the pole vault with a combined throw of 15?6?.
The Martians captured three other relay events to wrap up the championship. The middle distance relay team of Krych, Christina Sweet, Minkler and Meyers won in 7:20.8; the shuttle hurdles relay team of Lauren Warner, Paige Plant, Alex Reikel and Jessica Schmeider won in 1:14.7; and the distance relay team of Meyers, Christina Sweet, Minkler and Krych won in 13:25.4.
Like their female counterparts, the Martians? boys team also won three of five field events. The long jump tandem of Eric Hughes and Steve Harlow won with a combined jump of 37?9-1/2?, while the high jump team of Tyler Bouck and Dan Eisinger won with a combined jump of 10?10? and the pole vault pair of Joe Leppek and Jimmy Armstrong won with a combined throw of 21?.
Goodrich’s other win came in the shuttle hurdles, where the relay team of Eisinger, Alex Kauer, Harlow and Adam Kauer won with a time of 1:08.9.