Spartans Earn Redemption With Win In OK Blue Conference Meet, After an unusual season in which the Sparta boys track and field team lost two league dual meets, the Spartan boys still ended up on top. At the OK Blue conference meet in Comstock Park, the boys scored 99 points to edge out West Catholic (88) and Coopersville (87) for the victory. The Spartans will share the overall conference title with the Falcons of West Catholic based on both school's performances in the dual season and the conference meet. Sparta earns their 4th consecutive OK Blue conference title with the victory. How does a team that finishes third during the dual season become conference champions? Although the Spartans did not finish with the kind of league record they would have liked, they knew that all that did not matter at the conference meet. Coach Ted Smith preached to his guys the opportunity they had, "Those two losses we had were by one point, and we won a dual by two points, so we knew that anything could happen today if we just go out and perform." The Spartans heeded the words of their coach and they performed. Senior Josh Patterson scored 19.75 points and senior Nate Dahlgren scored 16.5 points to lead the Spartans. Sprinter Brandon Vandriel made a triumphant return in the 100 meter dash, winning with a time of 11.02 seconds. "We scored points everywhere, we just had a ton of awesome performances across the board. I couldn't be more proud of these guys." During the course of the year this Spartan team faced it's fair share of adversity. Last year alone, five All-State athletes graduated, leaving questions for the future. Then state champion sprinter Brandon Vandriel went down for most of the year with a hamstring injury. Despite never giving up, it appeared that the Sparta boys could not overcome. However, a wealth of new, young talent such as distance runners Brandon George and Jake Gilman, and pole vaulter Cody DeRuischer blossomed into stars. Upperclassmen Eddie Mazurkiewicz, Cody Chamberlain, and Josh Patterson all had breakout years in their events. As the Spartans posed as a team with their conference championship trophy, the two tough dual losses seemed like forever ago. Both the Sparta and West Catholic boys were smiling, cheering, and laughing as they took their victory laps. The perennial powerhouse and the OK Blue rookie are both on top. posted from mlive.com |