Jeff Chaney
Sports Scene
ADA, MI – The DeWitt girls track team sped its way to a top-three finish at the MHSAA Division 2 state track finals.
Led by sprinters Alexis Studer and Josie Yesmunt, the Panthers finished with 32 points. Divine Child Catholic won the state title with 81 points, while host Forest Hills Eastern was second with 53 points.
Studer and Yesmunt each earned 10 points by winning the 100-meter hurdles and 100-meter dash, respectively.
Studer won the hurdles’ state title with a time of 14.69 seconds, while Yesmunt was the state champion in the 100 with a time of 12.18 seconds.
“I never expected to win,” Studer said after winning her championship. “I was hoping to medal; I never expected to win, even though I really wanted to. And it felt great, I cried after the race.”
Yesmunt was just as excited to win her championship medal. “I came out strong and just pushed hard,” she said. “I came out of the blocks and pushed to the end. It feels great to win.”
Yesmunt had to overcome a timing problem in the semifinals that forced the runners to run the heat again. “I was not happy to run that again,” she said. “There was a timing malfunction, and that broke our focus. I was glad I was able to overcome that, because it was hard to run the semifinals twice.”
The Panthers also received points from their 400-meter relay team that finished third with a time of 49.91 seconds and from the 1,600-meter relay team that was fifth with a time of 4:04.81.
“We all work hard together; we all push each other to get better,” Yesmunt said. “We had a great season.”
Studer, a first-time state qualifier this year, added, “I put more time in during the year. We all put a lot of time in during the off-season. I did indoor track, and my coach worked with me on a lot of technique. We all pushed hard to get to state, and it was a great season.”