5 Lady Hornets Earn All-State Honors at State Meet

The Saline Girls Track and Field Team ended the 2011 season with five all-state performers at the MHSAA Division 1 meet in Rockford Saturday.

Senior Emily Everett finished fifth in the discus with a throw of 136’7 feet. Kristin Green, Emily Reyst, Amy Creutz and Elianna Shwayder took seventh in the 4-by-800 relay, completing the race in 9:27. The foursome continued Saline’s tradition of excellence in the distance relay, as it was team’s seventh all-state performance in eight years..

Coach Mike Smith said the team has done well at the dual meets and invitational meets because of its depth, but that it lacked the “star power” to score a lot of points in the state meet.

“In that sense a really good dual meet team may not really do well in the state meet while a relatively poor dual meet team with a couple star performers can do very well,” he said.

There were other Lady Hornets competing the state meet. Randi Bennett competed in the shot put (37’10) and discus (101’3). Wendy (9’9) and Samantha (9’3) Szuminski competed in pole vault. Alina Luurtsema finished her sprinting career with a 12.4 run in the 100. She joined her sister Amada along with Alexa Ross and Katrina Ezienyi in 4-by-100 relay that finished in 49.6 seconds.

Shwayder and Creutz also ran in the 1,600 and 3,200 races. Schwader completed 1,600 in 5:10 and 3,200 in 11:41. Creutz completed the same races in 5:12 and 11:49. Green also ran in the 800 race, finishing in 2:24.9.  The 4-by-400 relay team of Green, Reyst, Natalie Wysocki and Sam Richart finished in 4:11.6.

Smith said the state meet capped a strong season in which the Hornets finished second in the SEC Red and 2^nd in the Regional. And he has good reason for optimism about next season.

“We lose a few key seniors, but the vast majority of our varsity athletes will be returning, so we feel very positive about the future,” Smith said.