The Fruitport boys track team’s 4×400-meter relay team was good all season, and qualified for the state finals, which was a big accomplishment all by itself.

The team was ranked 26th in the state going into Saturday’s finals, however, so nobody really expected anything special to happen.

But the four Trojan athletes defied expectations and made it happen.

Seniors Nathaniel Cribley-Cotto and Ryder Merkins, junior SeanPaul O’Brien and sophomore Christian Pavlige turned in a time of 326.37 and finished eight in the event, which was good enough to earn All-State status at the Division 2 state finals at Hamilton High School.

Their time was the third best in that event in Fruitport school history.

The top eight performers in every event on Saturday became All-Staters, and several Trojans met that mark.

O’Brien continued to outperform expectations in the long jump competition. He was ranked 16th in the state, but turned in a best jump of 21 feet, 8.25 inches, finished eighth and became a two-event All-Stater.

Pablo DeLong-Mayorga finished fourth in the adaptive shot put competition, with a long throw 11 feet, 1.25 inches, and became an All-Stater.

Junior Chloe Anderson was the top performer for the Fruitport girls team, finishing in seventh place in the 100-meter dash, and won All-State honors.

A number of other Trojans fell short of the All-State mark but had very good days.

The girls 4 x 400 team of Genevieve Franklin, Bailey Garner, Layla Phan and Anderson finished 10th with their best time of the season at 4:10.48.

Lily Johnson had a high jump distance of five feet and finished 13th.

Luke Westerlund wrapped up his high school career by finishing 18th in the discus competition with a throw of 141 feet, 7 inches.

Pavlige, from the 4×400 relay team, finished 15th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:01.08.

The entire Fruitport girls squad, which won the O-K Silver conference title this year, competed in the finals and finished 50th out of 54 in the final team standings.

“We are so proud of our state finalist athletes and the hard work that they put into this season,” said Fruitport boys coach Tim McKeeby, who works alongside girls coach Randy Johnson and several assistants to guide all the athletes.