Linden Lake and Havel Lake runner Sam Roberts, right, hands the baton to teammate Matthew Jokera during the 800-meter relay Monday at the Houghton High School track field. Lakes won. (David Archambault/For the Gazette)
HORTON — They say records were meant to be broken. That's certainly the case Monday at the Copper Country Invitational on the Houghton High School course, where new school records were set on the family-friendly Lakes Linden-Hubbell and Chassel.
First out of the blocks was senior sprinter Matthew Jokera from Linden-Hubbell Lake. He broke both the long-standing school records for the 200 meters and 400 meters. The 200m record was 23.12 seconds, set by Jamie Wiles in 1990. On Monday, Jokera ran it in 21.03.
Next up was Ken Anderson of Lakes' 1969 400-meter record of 51.60 seconds. More than 50 years later, Jokera set a new standard with a time of 51.43 seconds.
“Matthew is a dedicated athlete who has taken his offseason training to the next level and it is paying off.” Lakes coach Brett Gervais said.
Interestingly, Matthew's sister Emily also set new school standards in the sprint event. Her junior broke her own (school) records in the 200-meter and 400-meter dashes. In the 200 meter dash, Emily ran 26.62 seconds and set her new record for the 400 meters in 59.27 seconds.
The Jokes weren't the only ones experiencing a record-breaking moment on Monday. Chassel junior and distance runner Calvin Kitta also broke his older brother and coach's school record. Chassel College track and field coach Colson Kitta held the Panthers' fastest 1,600-meter run of 4 minutes, 35.10 seconds. However, it was broken by two seconds by Calvin at 4:33. twenty four.
Calvin also raised the bar by setting a new record in the 800-meter dash with a time of 2:04.
“It was Calvin's first time running this and he beat Ray Soumis' 40-year record by one second.” said his brother and coach. “So it was very exciting. He wiped our name off the leaderboard.”
