Jonathan McKay led the boys’ track and field team, squeezing the Hornets past Holly by a half of a point at the Flint Metro League Track and Field Championship on May 20 at Linden.

The Hornets finished the season as co-league champions with Holly.

Kearsley, which was 6-1 going into the meet, faced off against seven other schools in the league meet, scoring 135 1/4 points.

Holly, which ended the dual-meet season 7-0, finished as the meet runner-up with 134 3/4 points.

McKay scored 25 points single-handedly and Kearsley’s runners in the 400-meter dash scored a combined total of 30 points in one event.

“We performed really well as a team,” McKay, a junior, said. “I’m proud of our performance at the meet.”

Sophomore Darrion Younger talked about how proud he was of his teammates because they push each other.

“I’m definitely happy that we won last night,” Younger said. “It’s more like the trash talking (among teammates), honestly, because it motivates us to run faster.”

The 800 relay, consisting of Younger, junior Deitrick Young, McKay, and junior Matt Parkinson, took first place. The team’s time was 1:31.88 seconds, only 3.01 seconds ahead of the second place team from Flushing.

Parkinson said it was important to the team to claim a league title in the Metro League since Kearsley had only won titles in the Big Nine Conference.

“We wanted to be the first team from Kearsley to win the Metro,” Parkinson said.

In the 400 dash, the Hornets had five runners place in the top eight. The runners and their places and times were:

• McKay – First Place – 50.53
• Webster – Second Place – 50.99
• Younger – Third Place – 51.92
• Senior Trevor Gehrig – Fifth Place – 52.68
• Junior Chase Garza – Seventh Place – 52.95

Three runners placed in the top eight in the 200 dash. The runners and their places and times were:

• McKay – First Place – 22.90
• Younger – Third Place – 23.24
• Parkinson – Sixth Place – 23.45

The 1600 relay was yet another successful one. The team consisting of Webster, Gehrig, McKay, and junior Matt Worley, took first place with a time of 3:30.17. The team was 1.88 seconds ahead of the second-place team from Holly.

The 3200-meter relay team, consisting of Webster, Younger, Gehrig and senior Josh Arnes, took second place with a time of 8:23.04. The team was 13 seconds behind the first place team, Holly.

Senior Jason Clark took fifth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.61 seconds, only 0.01 seconds behind fourth and 1.3 seconds behind first.

Junior Deitrick Young placed seventh in the 100 dash with a time of 11.75 seconds. Young was 0.48 seconds behind the first-place runner from Linden.

In the 400 relay, the team that consisted of freshman Tre’ron Griffin, Parkinson, Clark, and Young, took fourth place with a time of 45.01 seconds. The team was 0.8 seconds behind the first place team from Linden.

Two runners placed in the 300 hurdles. These runners were sophomore Hunter Stanley, who took sixth with a time of 43.64 seconds, and Clark, who took fifth with a time of 43.09 seconds.

In the 800 run, Webster took second place with a time of 2:02.88. Webster was 2.78 seconds behind first place.

The high jump saw one Hornet place. Junior Brandon Scales tied for fourth place with a jump of 5-feet, 8-inches.

In the pole vault, Arnes tied for seventh place with a vault of 9-0.

The long jump was another field event that The Hornets found some success. Worley took fifth place with a jump of 18-10 1/4. Freshman Dakotah Doman just missed scoring, finishing ninth place with a jump of 17-10 1/4.

The discus throw had one Hornet place in the top eight. Senior Sebastian Freed took fourth place with a throw of 127-03.

There were two Hornets who placed in the shot put event. Senior Jaylen Shock took third with a throw of 47-02 and senior Alex Speer took fifth, throwing 46-03 1/2.

Webster thought that what they accomplished was a great way to finish out the season and his career as a runner for Kearsley.

“I feel that it was a good way to end my senior year,” Webster said.

It took team work and determination to win the meet championship and become league co-champions, according to Parkinson.

“Everyone was on the same page,” Parkinson said. “We were all focused on winning and getting first place.”