Cedar Springs boys and Sparta girls crowned OK Blue Conference track champions

Jeff Chaney | The Grand Rapids Press, May 14, 2010 11:45 p.m.

SPARTA -- The Cedar Springs boys track team was greeted with cheers, whistles and an air horn at Friday's OK Blue Conference championship trophy presentation.

It was a much different mood from a year ago, when the Red Hawks, who were undefeated in conference duals, circled as a team in silence after losing the league title at the conference meet.

Cedar Springs won its first conference championship in six years after winning the conference meet Friday with 137 points, 39 points better than runner-up West Catholic.

The Sparta girls track team won its fifth consecutive conference title, winning the conference meet with 171 points. West Catholic finished second with 135 points, and Cedar Springs was third with 86 points.

"It was real quiet last year after conference because we were in awe that we lost," Cedar Springs junior sprinter and hurdler Justin Balczak said. "We couldn't believe we lost after being undefeated during the regular season. We just weren't focused at this meet last year. This year, we came more focused after working so hard during the offseason."

Balczak won the 110 hurdles in 14.71 seconds and 300 hurdles in 39.93.

Junior James Putnam also won two events, the 100 in 11.37 and 200 in 23.18.

Freshman Conner Mora won three events: 1,600 (4:28.51), 3,200 (9:47.61) and 3,200 relay (8:13.97).

"(The team) was pretty tore up after last year," Cedar Springs boys track coach Jeff Myers said. "We left that meet at Comstock Park pretty burnt and talked afterward (about) what we needed to do to take it to the next level.

"And I can't say enough of the commitment of this team. They really worked hard in the offseason for this."

Sparta girls track coach Adam Pfeffer also has a team committed to winning.

His Spartans have not lost a conference meet or regular-season dual in five years. The Spartans' current group of seniors and juniors are a big reason for the recent success.

"We have great senior and junior leadership on this team, and we are a real close team that really helps each other," Pfeffer said.

"We are pretty balanced. We scored in all but one event tonight and had multiple scores in several events. So we have first-place power and depth, and if you don't win with that, the coach is in trouble."

Sparta senior Andrea Kober won the 400 in 1:00.52 and was part of the winning 800 relay (1:50.84) and 1,600 relay (4:11.71).

Senior Katelyn Cnossen won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet and was on the 3,200 relay team that won in 9:54.22.

Junior Kelsey Blystone won the 100 (13.28), 200 (27.44) and 800 relay. Junior Allison Scheidel won the 1,600 (5:17.10), 800 (2:21.45) and 3,200 relay.