Pewamo-Westphalia’s coach realized that it would not be easy repeating as Division 3 girls’ track and field champion.
It proved not to be, as Frankenmuth stormed to the Division 3 title this year with 96 points, compared to Pewamo-Westphalia’s 72. The next closest team, Manistee, was far behind with 33 points.
Several Pirates won state championships. Kenzie Wieber won the pole vault at 11’6″; the 400-meter relay team of Sasha Platte, Jenna Thelen, Gabie Hummel, and Wieber won in 49.78 seconds, and the 1,600-meter relay team of Brenna Wirth, Cammie Noeker, Betsy Arens, and Marissa Wirth won in 4:01.16.
“It was awesome,” Hummel said. “The girls are really good to run with. Our competition, we know, was Frankenmuth. It was hard work and believing we would get there. We’ve worked on our handoffs and we’ve got them down.”
“I think everybody did very strong,” Wieber said. “It’s hot, and sometimes the heat kills the performance. Everybody is pushing their hardest, giving 100 percent.”
In the pole vault, “this year, it was awesome competition,” Wieber said. “The competitors were all great. The whole dynamics was great compared to other years. My sister won pole vault four years. I’m proud to keep the tradition going. I think the key was faith in each other, in our God, and in our coaches.”
Wieber will now take her talents to Central Michigan University.
In the 1,600-meter relay, “I think we performed really well, and we broke our school record,” said Marissa Wirth. “We’ll take second place [as a team]. But it’s disappointing not to take first the way we worked as a team. Everyone performed their best.
“It’s really fun. The 4×4 team I’ve been with the last couple of years.”
The Pirates got second-place finishes from Thelen, Brenna Wirth, Marissa Wirth, and Wieber in the 800-meter relay, with a time of 1:43.38, and from Brenna Wirth, who finished the 400-meter dash in 58.07 seconds.
“We fully expected it would come down between us, between both teams,” coach Scott Werner said. “We have nothing to hang our head about today, at all. We were only projected to score somewhere in the 50s when you look at the seeding, and we put up 72. That’s not only one or two kids stepping up. That’s the whole team stepping up.
“All of our relays set school records today. We are just competing at an elite level. [Frankenmuth] was a better team today. I’ll give them all the credit in the world. I’ll take my hat off to them.”
Werner acknowledged that he figured ahead of time that Frankenmuth had too much scoring power to overcome. “I know our two teams have been watching each other all year,” he said. “I thought we would be able to compete with them at a high level. I’m sure they felt the same way. We came in and executed very well. [Frankenmuth] is just an unbelievable team.”