Tippecanoe Valley’s Rex Kirchenstien takes the baton from Caleb Petgen as the Viking 4×100 relay rockets to a win over NorthWood Tuesday night. InkFreeNews photos by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

AKRON – It looked and felt like a typical opening night. Plenty of optimism, plenty of production snafus, plenty of new faces performing new tasks. But for all the shortcomings, it was a win-win for everyone as Tippecanoe Valley and NorthWood both officially kicked off their respective school’s spring seasons Tuesday night in the boys-girls track meet.

A spring season two years in the making.

“I’m excited, and the kids were excited, too,” said Tippecanoe Valley track head coach Jenny Moriarty. “The sophomores never got the taste of it. The juniors were really missing it because they were the lowly freshmen two years ago, everyone was just excited for the season to come. Even through the winter, they were ready. They didn’t get it last year.”

Moriarty and the NorthWood staffs all shared the same feeling as spring sports resumed Tuesday after the pandemic erased the 2020 season. With the return brought some new wrinkles, including a completely handwritten meet, coaches trying to communicate through masks and a bevy of athletes needing a good bit of shepherding where they were needed, but such is.

The meet itself worked out to an 88.5-40.5 victory for NorthWood’s girls, and a tight 67-65 result for the NorthWood boys over the Vikings.

NorthWood’s Reagan Koble and Valley’s Erika Henderson compete in the 100 hurdles.

The action at the meet saw some notable moments. Valley sped to a pair of resounding boys relay wins, Rex Kirchenstien anchoring an impressive 45.25 win for the Vikings in the 4×100 and Dawson Perkins running a commanding second leg of a 3:38.93 stop for the home team in the 4×400 closer.

Perkins also had a good sail in the high jump, clearing 6-0 for honors, part of a four-win field event night for the hosts. Wade Melanson (49-7 in shot put) and Dalton Albers (116-6.5 in discus) won throws and Braden Shepherd claimed long jump (18-10). Not to be outdone, Brad Demitruk wowed a growing audience in pole vault, the NorthWood airman clearing 13-0 before bowing out.

NorthWood’s distance was elite, with Brady Hunsberger responsible for three wins, helping the 4×800 relay to a 8:45.37 opener, then winning both the 800 (2:05.50) and 1,600 (4:40.26) carrying over from a successful fall cross country season.

“We ran into some really good sprinters on Valley, and that challenged us a little more than some of the kids might have been ready for,” said NorthWood boys head coach Boonie Boocher. “What really helped us is having a good core of distance runners. It starts with our cross country program with Justin Bell, they had a great fall. Grady Stevenson, Owen Allen, Brady Hunsberger, they are really fun to watch. They helped settle us a lot today, and will over the course of the year.”

Added Moriarty of her boys showing, “Really excited for our four-by-one and four-by-four. Really, our sprinter guys, we knew we had a lot of talent there, but it was exciting to see it play out tonight.”

NorthWood’s depth and Valley’s lack thereof in the girls fixture saw NorthWood command much of the head-to-head competitions. Kaitlin Burden continued her assault on the distance stopwatches, winning both the half-mile (2:40) and mile (5:49.71) without much opposition. Hannah Chupp also doubled up for the Lady Panthers, taking both the 100 (17.15) and 300 (53.44) hurdle events.

Valley did have Chloe Shepherd go 28-10 in shot put and 79-2.75 in discus to pace the throws.

“This was good, and after talking with our assistant coaches, we’ve already found some things we can work with,” stated North Wood girls head coach Mark Mikel. “The main thing is we are out here competing again. We are working on where to plug some of these young kids in. There’s a lot of learning for them on how to manage the meet, how to warm up again, how to get ready for the next event. I’m just so glad that we got to get out and compete again. This feels great.”