Sparta beats conference track foe Cedar Springs

SPARTA -- The Sparta boys and girls track teams cleared major hurdles Tuesday on their attempt to repeat as O-K Blue Conference champions.

The Spartans beat conference foe Cedar Springs, which is always a serious contender for a conference title.

The boys team beat the Red Hawks 81-56, and the Sparta girls team beat Cedar Springs 84-53.

"Anytime you go against Cedar Springs it makes you nervous," Sparta boys coach Ted Smith said. "They are a good team, and they don't like to lose. Our speed and distance people really won it for us."

Sprinter Brandon VanDriel was big, winning the 100 in 11.12 seconds and the 200 in 22.56. And Nick Arends won both hurdle events in times of 16.1 and 43.28 respectively.

The Spartans also won both sprint relays, which helped the team overcome a deficit after field events.

"Arends in the hurdles and VanDriel in the sprints gives us a lot of strength," said Smith, whose team has won two consecutive conference titles. "And our sprint relays were extremely good tonight."

The Sparta girls team had a more balanced effort, performing well in the field events, as Halley Love won the pole vault with a leap of 10-3, Katelyn Cnossen won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet and Megan Vanderhyde won the long jump with a jump of 15-5.

From there, Sparta received great efforts from Andrea Kober, who won both hurdle events in 16.68 and 48.38 respectively, Allison Scheidel won the 1,600 in 5:35.84 and Bailey Ravell won the 3,200 in 13:02.22.

"They have some holes, and we don't have too many holes," said Sparta coach Adam Pfeffer, whose team has won four consecutive O-K Blue titles. "This was a big step, and we're still young. We still have kids trying to figure out their events and trying to get in shape. So this was big."

Both teams have another hurdle Thursday when they travel to Forest Hills Eastern High School to take on the Hawks.

"This (Tuesday night's win) was huge, but we have another big one Thursday," Smith said. "They will be equally tough, and they have different strengths."

Added Pfeffer: "This week will show us what we are made of. This is a big week for all of us."