Forest Park girls win first Skyline title since 2014

Forest Park’s girls turned a long wait into a breakthrough in Felch, winning the Skyline Conference track title with 99.5 points and edging Bark River-Harris by 17 in a 10-team field that stretched from Munising to Rapid River. It was the Lady Trojans’ first Skyline championship since 2014, the 14th conference title in school history, and a sign that Forest Park is peaking at the right time.

Coach Lindsay Anderson said she did not expect the Trojans to win the meet, but Forest Park backed up its confidence with balance across the lineup. The Lady Trojans scored in 12 of the 17 events, and that depth separated them from Bark River-Harris and Stephenson, which finished third with 71 points. Forest Park’s win carried extra weight because the conference meet included Class C and Class D programs and drew schools from across the region, making the margin a real measure of how far the program has come.

Ava Fischer delivered one of the meet’s biggest individual performances, winning the pole vault, the 100-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles. In the separate results report, Fischer’s hurdle wins came in 16.69 seconds in the 100 and 48.26 in the 300. Freshman Haven Van Sickle added another point for Forest Park by finishing second in the 100 hurdles in a personal-best 16.7.

Audrey Williams also gave the Trojans a major lift. She won the 1,600-meter run, took second in the 800 and anchored Forest Park’s winning 4x400 relay. Williams had already broken the school record in the 800 at the May 13 regional meet in Ishpeming, where Forest Park won the Regional 47-3 title and ended a regional drought that had lasted since 2014. That regional victory sent 12 girls and 10 boys qualifiers on to the Upper Peninsula championships.

The boys team nearly matched the girls’ pace, finishing fourth out of 10 teams and missing third by just three points while staying one point ahead of Stephenson. Will Hoffman, Hayden Smith, Reuben Rasner and Joey Mainville led the way in the 4x800 relay, with Mainville running a season-best 9:09. Junior Dietrich Rasner added a win in the 300-meter hurdles with a personal-best 43.17.

With the Skyline title secured, Forest Park headed toward the next test on May 30 at Kingsford High School, which was again hosting the Upper Peninsula Track and Field Finals for all divisions. For a program supported by about eight volunteer coaches and staff, the conference championship marked more than one strong afternoon. It showed a team built to contend deep into the postseason.