Forest Hills Central track and field met at Catholic Central with 18 other teams this past Saturday. This highly-competitive meet was invite-only, so only four players could participate in each event.

The Rangers lived up to expectations and set the bar even higher for states. This meet consisted of many of the teams that will qualify for the state meet and now FHC track and field has a standard set for that meet.

“It was more or less just to see where we were because we knew we would have better competition,” head coach Greyling Steverson said when asked what the goal of this meet was. “I knew we could run faster than we have been running, so the improvements we are seeing are what we were looking for.”

FHC held its own in this meet of elite athletes with the men taking sixth place and the women’s team taking ninth place. One event that highlighted FHC’s abilities was the 4-by-200 relay. The mens team, which consisted of Max Meadow, Conner Milton, Evan Boucher, and Jayden Savin, took third place with a time of 1 minute and 30.94 seconds. Lucy Yoder, Gwen Lampert, Zenash Cummings, and Lauryn Gaskin took sixth place for the women’s team with a 1-minute and 50.61-second run. 

Mens and womens 4-by-100 relay also saw Ranger excellence by securing sixth and fourth place. The mens team ran it in 44.66 seconds with the team consisting of Alexander Dixon, Conner Milton, Jayden Savin, and Max Meadow. The womens team managed to take fourth with a time of 52.33 seconds. The runners in this event were Lucy Yoder, Brooke Bowers, Zenash Cummings, and Lauryn Gaskin. 

The Rangers’ most impressive track event, however, was the infamous 4-by-400 relay race. The mens team shot up to third place and the women’s team secured first. The mens relay was run by Evan Boucher, Conner Milton, Max Meadows, and Jayden Savin and secured a time of 3 minutes and 36.21 seconds. Grace Fitzgerald, Gwen Lamport, Peyton Ludwig, and Zenash Cummings ran this event with an impressive time of 4 minutes and 15.87 seconds. 

“With the warm weather and good conditions, our relays were able to run competitive times early on in our season,” junior Lauren Gaskin said.

The field team showed impressive numbers, especially in the pole vault. It was run by Brooke Bowers who took second place for the women’s team with an 11-foot vault and Matthew Burns who came in eighth with an 11-foot vault.

Overall, this meet was a huge success for the Rangers.

“Considering it was our first conference meet, I think the team’s performance was really impressive on both the girls’ and boys’ sides,” senior leader Rachel Marco said. “We are racing against Grand Rapids Christian on Tuesday. They are a really good team but based on our season thus far, we could put up a good fight.” 

The highly anticipated Grand Rapids Christian versus Forest Hills Central meet will occur on Tuesday, April 26, at 4:15 P.M.