Grand Rapids West Catholic (Grand Rapids) @ Sparta (Sparta) - Boys Track and Field

Spartans Fall to West Catholic by Single Point

Timothy Blystone

Mother Nature finally cooperated with the Spartan track and field teams, but the West Catholic Falcons wouldn't be so helpful. The Spartans were defeated by a single point, 69-68, losing their second meet of the year (Cedar Springs) by that score. 

Spartan throwers, jumpers, and vaulter displayed dominance early as they scored 38 of the 45 possible field event points. Providing standout personal best performances were Kyle Rauser in long jump (19-5), Cody Deruischer in pole vault (13-0), and Richie Noom in discus (120-11). Sparta coach Ted Smith was pleased with the effort and performance of his guys, "Our performances today were incredible. The reason we were in position to win was because our kids put us in great position."

Despite the early dominance, the normally vaunted Spartan runners could not capitalize on the field team's heroics. West Catholic's cross country state champion Antonio Schafer established a tone for the day's track events with a strong anchor leg in West Catholic's victorious 3200-meter relay. He would follow that up with an overpowering 1600-meter run. Things seemed to be shifting when Sparta's All-State distance runner Nate Dahlgren ended Schafer's reign with a thrilling 800-meter win by .25 seconds. Josh Patterson, who also won the pole vault (13-6) and the high jump (6-0), then gutted out a second place finish in the 200-meter dash. Sparta Freshman Brandon George proceded to give Schafer a good run in the 3200-meter dash, turning in an incredible time of 10:18.94, but ultimately failing to outlast Schafer. After that, the Spartan 1600-meter relay team (Mazurkiewicz, Lang, Fairman, Dahlgren) took first with a time of 3:36.01. However, the comeback would fall short as the Spartans fate had already been sealed.

Coach Smith refused to be upset with another narrow loss, "We had a lot of guys out there competing hard, giving us personal bests and millennium milestones. You can't be upset when your team goes out there and gives absolutely everything they have." The loss drops the Spartans to 3-2 in OK Blue competition. The two conference losses are the most for the Spartan boys since 2004, when they lost to Cedar Springs and Greenville as members of the OK White conference.

State champion sprinter Brandon Vandriel did not participate in the meet for the Spartans due to a sore hamstring.