by Ben Murphy
Sports Writer
Paw Paw baseball sees season ended in district semis
The Paw Paw baseball team saw their season come to an end on Saturday. The Red Wolves were playing Three Rivers in a Division 2 district semi-final contest at Vicksburg, and lost that game 6-2.
“We had bae runners all over, but just couldn’t get that clutch hit,” head coach Derek Vanderburg said.
Remi Hahn took the loss, going five innings and striking out 10 batters.
The offense saw Landon Buhl hit a home run and a single, Andrew Lehto had a double and a single and Jake Hindenach had a double and a single as well. Joe Miller had one single and an RBI and Nick Boyd and John McCaw had one single each.
Vanderburg gave a thank you to his seniors, Kai Huntley, Tyler Houston, Joe Miller, Remi Hahn, Micah Major, John McCaw, Nick Boyd, and Matthew Hartman.
On Tuesday, May 30 Paw Paw played at St. Joseph in their regular season finale, losing this one 11-7.
Hahn had a home run, McCaw had a single and two RBI, Gunnar Goodell and Buhl had one hit and one RBI apiece and Lehto added a single.
Mattawan golf qualifies for state finals
The Mattawan golf team is headed for the state finals. That is thanks to their second place finish at their Division 1 regional meet on Tuesday, May 30 at Sunnybrook Country Club in Grandville. The Wildcats shot a team score of 318, while Portage Central won the meet with a 306. Coming in third to take the last state finals spot was Byron Center, with a 324.
Leading the way for Mattawan was Matthew Novak, who took second overall with a 74. Will Kuiper finished 11th with a 79, Brian Garver finished 18th with an 81 and tying for 30th with twin scores of 84 were Cameron Graver and Blake Welch.
The Division 1 state finals are Friday and Saturday at the Meadows at Grand Valley State University.
Paw Paw track competes at D2 finals
Forest Hills Eastern was the host to the Division 2 track and field state finals. Paw Paw was able to get some of their boys’ to attend the meet.
Will Vanderbor was 24th in the 1600 meter run with a time of 4:47 and Austin Williford was 38th in the 3200 meter with a 10:20. Aaron West was third in the 110 hurdles with a 15.13 and he was fifth in the 300 hurdles at 40.32.
Mattwan’s Hugh Ford competed in the Division 1 finals at Rockford on Saturday. He placed sixth in the pole vault with a 14’0.
Lawton takes part in D3 finals
The Lawton track and field team made the trip to Kent City on Saturday, for the Division 3 state finals.
On the boys’ side, they had the 4×100 relay team of Kal Motter, James Holder, Jason Crall and Aiden Obrien place 15th with a time of 44.77. They also had the 4×200 relay team of Motter, Luke Leighton, Crall and Obrien come away in 16th on a time of 1:33.
Mason Mayne had a great showing in the throwing events, coming in second in the shot put with a distance of 55’11 and he was third in the discus with a 164’2. Leighton was also 25th in the high jump at 5’9.
On the girls’ side, Heidi Newhouse was seventh with a 1:00, Kendra Koster was fifth in the 800 with a 2:19 and shew as 13th in the 1600 at 5:26. Sofia Oertel was also competing in the 1600 and she crossed the line 17th on a run of 5:35. Alexis Girolami finished 24th in the 100 hurdles with an 18.11.
The 4×100 relay team of Addisyn Price, Koster, Oertel and Heidi Newhosue was third on a time of 4:12. Newhouse was also third in the high jump at 5’4, Rylee Oxley and Megan Robertson were ninth and 16th in the pole vault, with heights of 9’6 and 9’0. McKenna Macon was also 17th in the long jump at 15’1.25.
Gobles takes part in D4 finals
The Gobles track and field team had a good amount of athletes at the Division 4 state finals at Baldwin Middle School on Saturday.
On the boys’ side, Mason Mansfield finished 13th in the 100 meter dash on a time of 11.53 and Nolan VanHorn was 11th the shot put with a throw of 42’4. They also had a seventh place 4×100 relay team, with a team of Nathan ray, Alex Lee, Eli Huizenga and Mansfield, as they ran a time of 45.23.
For the girls, Morgan Modert was 22nd in the 100 meter dash at 13.34 and Madison Cooley was eighth in the 400 and 20th in the 800 with times of 1:01 and 2:34. Alyson Tripp finished 29th with a time of 1:07 in the 300 hurdles.
The 4×100 team took third with a 51.39, with the efforts of Deanna Wood, Modert, Elizabeth Woodard and Kaya Huizenga. The 4×200 team of Wood, Modert, Tripp and Huizenga finished second on a time of 1:48. The 14th place 4×400 relay team of D. Wood Zoie Wood, Modert and Cooley ran a time of 4:25. In 26th with a time of 12:09 was the 4×800 squad of Halle Bigelow, Samantha Paladi, Mina Bunchkowski and Z. Wood.
Sasha Doll was also third in the high jump at 5’2, with Huizenga taking 18th in the same event at 4’10. Woodard was also 30th in the long jump at 13’7.25.