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Spring Is Racing Along!
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Pretend you are reading this newsletter a few days ago. It’s been a frustrating one to put together! I was on the road most of the time, and when home I had to deal with dead car and maniac puppy issues (necessitating me having to rebuild/raise our backyard fence because this dog has got serious jump in his legs!).
But dang, the season is already on fire, with the big meets yet to come. And the more time I spend trying to catch up with what has happened lately, the more great stuff is happening RIGHT NOW.
So the best I can do is ignore the current weekend, and pretend I haven’t yet seen Barnyard Mile results or Addy Stiverson’s national leader in the shot put or Miles Brown’s 1:43 split at Penn, and so on.
The season is exploding, and there will be plenty to write about next week too. Here’s just a taste of what we have seen on the high school end so far (and apologies for the lack of proofreading)":
(A note on highlights: obviously, every team in the state has its highlights, and all divisions do as well. The focus here is unashamedly elitist, with meets selected because they have turned out a good number of top 10 marks on the yearly lists. When we talk about the state’s best athletes, we base that on stats—faster, higher, longer. These are the athletes who often will be making an impact nationally and on the college scene later. I wish we had time/space to cover everyone, but that’s crazy. No one has time or interest in reading a newsletter that’s 500 pages long. That’s what social media is for.)
Oak Park Spring Classic (4/11): Catholic Central senior Samson Gash produced a monster 21.53 into a 1.7 headwind. Nick Coleman of Heritage took the 400 in 48.15. Greg Myers of Lincoln ran 1:53.84. Oak Park took a close 4×2 over Kalamazoo Central, 1:28.86-1:28.94. Willow Mason of Heritage took the dash in 11.72 (0.9 wind) and later anchored the winning 4×2 to a 1:43.50. In the 200, Malise Brown of Cass Tech stunned with a 23.95 (-0.6); Mason took 2nd at 24.16, with Aubrey Wilson of Divine Child at 24.40. Nevaeh Burns of OP won the 400 in a state-leading 54.21. Cass Tech’s Laila Hawkins edged OP’s Payton Gee in the hurdles, 14.06-14.07 (0.7 wind). Hawkins also won the 300s at 44.91. A sizzling 4×1 saw Oak Park run 47.26 to Cass Tech’s 47.70—it was the fastest race ever run in April. The 4×4 went to Oak Park at in a list-leading 3:52.86. Results.
Ram Classic (4/17): Oak Park and Northville traveled west to do battle against powerhouse fields at Rockford’s Ram Classic. The two Detroit-area schools battled in the 4×8, with Northville winning 7:48.60-7:52.84. Grand Haven’s Luka Hammond won the 800 (1:53.85) and 1600 (4:17.85). Mason Darke of Reeths-Puffer ran an impressive 14.32 into a 2.7 wind. Grand Haven burned the 4×1 in 41.53, becoming the No. 5 team in state history. In the discus, Carl Flinton of Holt hit a big 177-11. And Oak Park wrapped it up with a 3:15.21 in the 4×4, the fastest ever run in April.
On the girls side, OP’s Nevaeh Burns won the long sprints in 24.71 & 54.87. Alexandra Scappaticci of Northville won the distances in 5:01.41 & 10:49.17 (and also was on the winning 4×8—9:25.09). Payton Gee of Oak Park hurdled 14.81 into a monster 4.6 wind, then doubled back for 44.49 in the 300s. Rockford won a competitive 4×1 in 49.31. Oak Park relayed to wins in 1:39.11 & 3:56.67. Lorelai Zielinski of TC Central won the throws big at 47-8 & 161-1. Results.
Dexter-April Showers (4/18): Highlights included a great 3200, Pioneer teammates Kamari Ronfeldt (9:11.40) and Beckett Crooks (9:14.43) leading the way. Dexter’s Coen Hill ran 9:18.70 and Canton’s Aiden Pengelly 9:20.52. Earlier the two Pioneer runners had been on the winning 4×8 which clocked 7:50.09 (Ronfeldt 1:53.7 anchor). West Bloomfield’s Kamryn Tatum moved up to 400 to battle with Cass Tech’s Malise Brown, winning in 54.93 to 55.24. Romeo’s Annie Hrabovsky won the 3200 in 10:30.26. Pioneer popped a liost-leading 9:08.39 in the 4×8, Natasza Dudek anchoring in 2:11.6. Results.
Also:
Cayla Hawkins of East Lansing ran the fastest 100 ever in a dual/tri meet with her 11.89 versus Grand Ledge & Lansing Everett on April 13. Old best was 12.02 that Portage Northern’s Mauriel Seeberger ran a few weeks earlier. (The results are still listed as “under review”, for what that’s worth.)
East Kentwood girls ran 1:40.58 to win the 4×2 at the Rockford dual (4/22). That’s a state dual meet record. Old best 1:41.08 Oak Park in 2021.
Another dual meet record fell to Izzy Robbins of Grand Haven, with her 13-1 vault versus Grandville (4/22). Old best was 13-0 by Mackenzie Shell in 2015 and Katie Blue of Grand Ledge on April 9.
Charlie Sanders of West Ottawa ran a list-leading 10.63 against Grandville (4/15). That beat the dual meet record of 10.64 that Shamar Heard of Chippewa Valley ran in 2021.
De-Mani Roberts crushed the old dual meet record for 200 with his 21.34 into a headwind (-1.0) at Rockford (4/22). Old best was 21.59 by another Falcon, Ricco Hall, in 2011. Earlier in the meet, Roberts joined Jhavon Alexander, Shukuru Makechi and Donovan Rubens for a 1:26.78 state leader in the 4×2, which beat Grand Haven’s old dual meet record of 1:27.01.
More on that fast 4×2 by East Kentwood. In addition to their 1:26.78 list leader, timer Jacob Kuyvenhoven notes the Falcons got a 1:28.79 from their B squad and 1:30.97 from their C. Has anyone else ever had depth like that?
Pro/College Highlights
For at least a while, the two Wolverines were the fastest collegians of the year. (Michigan Photography)
East Kentwood alum Gabriela Leon jumped 15-1 to win the vault at the South Florida Invitational (more to come next week, with a new PR to report!).
At the big wind throws capital of Ramona, Oklahoma, Alex Rose (Ogemaw Hts/CMU) threw the disc 231-1, good for 6th place in a competition with insanely long throws.
Erika Beistle (Big Rapids/GVSU) hit 211-9 in Ramona.
Dylan Terryberry (Onsted/MSU) placed 4th in the Texas A&M decathlon at 7425. At the same meet, Milena Chevallier (Mercy/Texas A&M) won the high jump at 5-11.5.
Kaila Jackson (Renaissance/Georgia) won the 100 at the Spec Towns Invite in a blazing 11.03 (1.2 wind). Abby Russell (Allen Park/UM) placed 3rd in the discus at 175-4.
Ben Barton (Seaholm/BYU) won the decathlon at the Bryan Clay Invite with 7998 points.
In a jaw-dropping 1500 race at the Wake Forest Invitational, Michigan’s duo of Trent McFarland and Brendan Harger went 1-2 in the fastest NCAA times of the year, McFarland’s 3:33.17 missing the NCAA record by just 0.15 (the record then got faster later in the day thanks to Simeon Birnbaum of Oregon running 3:31.93). Harger clocked 3:34.06 to become the No. 9 collegian ever. Both were under Kevin Sullivan’s old Wolverine record.
Obviously, a lot more to come. Starting work on the next newsletter as soon as I hit “send” on this one.
Other Things
(Note that the outdoor lists aren’t yet “complete”. In the wind-affected events — 100, 200, 110/100H, LJ. Rather than just accepting all times à la anet and pretending there’s no such thing as wind-aided, I traditionally examine all the marks without wind readings and look at local weather reports for the day, in addition to the track’s orientation, and make a determination whether the mark was likely legal or windy. My algorithm is generous—the benefit of a doubt leans toward the athlete. However, this throws the extreme outliers onto a sublist, where they belong. Otherwise reality gets skewed in those events.)
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