Olivet girls capture state title; Tryce Tokar wins pole vault again

KENT CITY — Even in the relays the Olivet girls didn’t win Saturday, they were impressive — and impressed with each other.

When Celina Sinclair, Olivet’s anchor in everything, saw teammate Lola Miars pass the runner from Hart on the second leg of the 400-meter relay, Sinclair said to herself, “Oh, we’re doing this,” on their way to a third-place finish in an event that wasn’t their strongest race.

“Oh, we’re doing this” might as well be Olivet’s new slogan. Because the Eagles carried that right on through to the final relay — the 1,600 — when they only needed a top-three finish to win Saturday's MHSAA Division 3 state track and field meet at Kent City.

“I just kept saying, ‘Third or better,’ ” Olivet coach Brian Lincoln said heading into the 1,600 relay. “They just went out and won it.”

The Eagles had been close to a team state championship twice before during this dazzling three-year run, finishing as the runner-up two years ago and third last season, when the same foursome that closed the deal in the 1,600 relay Saturday — Emily Peters, Cassie Coleman, Sophia Pell and Sinclair — were beat by a barely a 10th of a second, which dropped Olivet to third overall at last year's Division 3 meet.

Saturday, they left no doubt, winning a state championship with 46 points, ahead of Erie Mason (41) and Lansing Catholic (34). Pewamo-Westphalia wasn’t too far behind, either, tying for fifth place with 27 points.

Olivet won Saturday at Kent City on the backs of just five girls — and on the strengths of their relays. The Eagles also won the 800 relay — Peters, Pell, Coleman and Sinclair — after Coleman, Miars, Peters and Sinclair nabbed a chunk of points in the 400 relay.

Peters won the state title in the 300-meter hurdles, racing out to a big lead and holding on for the win in 45.26 seconds.

“I could hear the girl (behind me) on the second to last hurdle,” Peters said. “I could hear her hit the hurdle. I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, she's right there. Okay, if I clear this (last hurdle) clean, I'll get it.’ ”

Sinclair’s fourth-place finish in the 200-meter dash and Pell’s fourth place in the high jump also helped get Olivet over the line.

Lincoln had been doing the math for three weeks on what it would take to win. He thought it would come down to his Olivet team and Lansing Catholic. After the 2-mile run, he realized Lansing Catholic was out of it. Then it was just about catching Erie Mason.

Olivet did so not just by winning, but setting PRs and school records, including in that final 1,600 relay.

“The girls, they did their job and kind of what they've done all year. So that was really awesome,” said Lincoln, who whittled down a fast roster to lean on a handful of runners Saturday. “Total excitement. Just an awesome feeling. We’ve been close the last couple years.”

While it was Olivet’s day collectively, there were a number strong performances and state titles by area athletes on the girls side.

Bath senior Destiny McDaniels won the long jump with a PR nearly half a foot longer than her qualifying jump, landing at 17 feet, 1.5 inches.

Lansing Catholic’s 3200-meter relay team of Frances Melinn, Lindsey Ludwig, Josie Bishop and Grace Wonch won with a time of 9:32.97. Melinn and Bishop were also part of the 1,600 relay team (along with Isabelle Currie and Stella Gates) that finished third. Bishop also finished third in the 800 meters.

Pewamo-Westphalia’s Jenna Spitzley also had a top-three finish, taking third in the discus.

Somehow, after winning state championships in the pole vault each of the past three years, Ovid-Elsie senior Tryce Tokar was more nervous than ever Saturday as he tried to win a fourth, while jugging relay events.

“It was the fourth one in a row. I’m like, ‘You can't mess this one up,’ ” Tokar said.

He didn’t. After jumping three different heights, he ran the 800- and 400-meter relays, before coming back to jump 14-9 and 15-feet flat, which won it for him.

“I’m super grateful,” Tokar said, sounding relieved. “This was definitely more of a mental challenge than anything.”

He was pretty dang good in the relays, too, helping Ovid-Elsie’s 800-relay team — which also featured Wyatt Lover, Owen Long and Travis Milner — take second at 1:30.8, just behind Hart’s relay team, even though they didn’t know it. Ovid-Elsie’s second-place in the 800 relay highlighted a flaw in how the MHSAA runs its state finals. By doing it all on one day, there are heats in the finals of certain events. Even though Ovid-Elsie won what was projected to be the fastest and final heat, Hart surprised everyone with the top time overall out of a slower heat. Who knows if Ovid could have made up the 0.28 seconds had their nearest competitor been in the same race.

“It’s just tough,” Tokar said. “I mean, they ran a good race out of nowhere. It’s pretty disappointing. But it is what it is.”

Another area star on Saturday: Pewamo-Westphalia’s Trevor Smith, who lost by a hair in the 100-meter dash to University Liggett’s Santino Cicarella, 10.86 to 10.88, but then clipped Chesaning’s Zach Harlan and Cicerella in the 200, finishing in 22.40.

“I figured I had him with my lean,” Smith said after his state title in the 200. “You’ve got to keep going, even if you feel like you’re losing. You never know in sprints. It could change really quick.”

Smith’s sprints helped P-W finish second as a team with 34 points, behind Chesaning’s 57. Ovid-Elsie came in sixth with 28 points and Lansing Catholic ninth with 20.

Smith and Tokar were the headliners on a good day for area athletes on the boys side.

Lansing Catholic’s Leland VanAlstine took second in the 110-meter hurdles and third in the 300 hurdles.

Other top-three finishers included Ovid-Elsie’s Brock Spitzley, who took third in the discus, and Bath’s Luke Skidmore, who finished second behind Tokar in the pole vault. Tokar credited Skidmore and others for pushing him.

Contact Graham Couch at [email protected]. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @Graham_Couch.