J-L relay team sets new school record; GHS baseball, softball, soccer and track in action

GAYLORD ― Finally, it seems like spring weather is finally here to stay.

It only took until the last full month of the school year, but area high school teams will take what they can get as they look to finish their respective seasons in style.

Both Johannesburg-Lewiston and Gaylord hosted track meets on Tuesday, May 9 while the Gaylord baseball, softball, soccer and track and field teams were all in action as well.

New school record highlights Cardinals efforts at JL Invite

After a couple of months of fighting through the worst of Northern Michigan spring weather, the JoBurg track and field team was met with clear, sunny skies on Tuesday as they hosted 16 teams for the JL Invitational.

An impressive day for both the JoBurg boys and girls teams was highlighted by the girls 4x800-meter relay team's new school record. Freshman Yolanda Gascho, junior Rosalinda Gascho, junior Madalyn Agren and sophomore Allie Nowak clocked a time of 10:19.57, finishing nearly 20 seconds ahead of the Harbor Springs team in second place.

Individually, Rosalinda Gascho excelled in the hurdles, placing first in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.87 seconds and second in the 300-meter hurdles with a season-best time of 51.45 seconds. Meanwhile, Nowak topped the field in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:32.03, just edging out Gaylord St. Mary's Miriam Murrell's 5:33.38, a new school record.

Murrell also had a PR in the 800-meter with a time of 2:32.27, highlighting the day for the Snowbirds. On the boys side, Peyton DeWeerd set a new PR in the long jump with a mark of 19 feet, 4 inches.

The JoBurg boys also dominated the distance events, earning the top two spots in the 800-meter with a PR from Jeremiah Witt (2:10.23) and a season record from Jacob Wartenberg (2:12.25). They also swept the top three spots in the 1600-meter, with Blake Fox's new school record (4:34.11), Malaki Gascho's 4:42.30 and Jeremiah Witt's PR (4:48.77) placing them first, second and third respectively.

The Lady Cardinals finished third overall with 79 points, while the boys took fifth with 51 points. The St. Mary's girls finished 10th, meanwhile, while the boys finished tied for 14th.

Gaylord girls top four-team track meet

The Gaylord track and field team was also in action, hosting Ogemaw Heights, Alpena and Charlevoix on Tuesday, May 9. And, as usual, they were led by a strong performance from their girls team as they topped the field at the end of the day.

Senior Ana Fortier swept the sprints again, winning the 100-meter (13.13 seconds) and 200-meter runs (27.26 seconds, PR) while the Blue Devils swpet the top six spots in the 200-meter, with Lily Palmer (28.96), Autumn Wilkes (30.35), Lillian Mason (31.35) and Emily Kurncz (31.53) all setting new PRs.

Katie Berkshire also had her personal best time in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:26.57. Other top performers from the Lady Blue Devils included Ella Moylan's PR in the discus (99 feet, 10 inches), Ivy Roberts's first place finish in the high jump (4 feet, 10 inches) and Lauren Rigney's first-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles (50.61).

Gaylord's boys were yet again led by their efforts in the field events, with Gage Looker setting a new PR in the shot put with a throw of 50 feet, 3 inches, and Michael Cheek's PR in the long jump with a mark of 19 feet, 6 inches.

The GHS girls placed first with 103 team points while the boys placed fourth with 48 points.

GHS softball sweeps TC West, baseball drops pair

The Gaylord softball team continued its domination over Big North opponents this week, sweeping TC west with a combine score of 35-0 in the two games.

Game one was led by sophomore Aubrey Jones, posting a shutout win in the circle with nine strikeouts while tallying three hits, two runs batted in and a run scored from the plate. Avery Parker, Alexis Kozlowski and Hali Lenartowicz all homered in two-hit performances, helping the Blue Devils secure the 12-0 victory.

The game two effort was even more dominant, outhitting the Titans 22-0 and outscoring them 23-0 in a five-inning victory. Again, Aubrey Jones dominated, homering three times while driving in seven runs in her five at bats. Kozlowski also had a multi-homer game, going 4-for-5 with two home runs, five RBI and four runs scored.

Avery Parker picked up the win in the circle, not allowing a hit in five innings of work while striking out nine.

The Blue Devils are now 17-1 overall and 6-0 in the BNC.

Meanwhile, the TC West baseball team got the best of the Blue Devils, sweeping the doubleheader with 11-3 and 10-5 victories.

Louden Stradling and Torino Lamerato both had two hits in game one, with Stradling leading the way with a triple, an RBI and a run scored. Stradling and Brennan Radulski both had three hits in the game two loss.

Gaylord baseball is now 10-8-1 overall and 1-4 in BNC matchups.

Other scores

Girls soccer

Gaylord 4, Alpena 0

Goals- Claire Gorno (2), Alivia Zaremba, Emma Ross

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: J-L relay team sets new school record; GHS baseball, softball, soccer and track in action