#20 - JOs Wrap Up Season With Big Marks

In this issue…

• Junior Olympics Action

• Should Summer Count?

• Recent Highlights

• Legendary Mumford 4×4 Mark Falls

• Legend: the Detroiter who won Olympic medals in the hurdles and shot put

• The Little Stuff

JO’s: The Best Track Meet Half Of Us Don’t Pay Attention To

When I was a high schooler, I remember watching the Junior Olympics on TV (yes, it was!). I really wanted to participate, but I didn’t know how. This was pre-Internet, so if you didn’t have a coach or club that was wired in, information was hard to come by.

Times have changed greatly, but there still are a lot of white suburban and rural kids (as well as coaches) who aren’t tuned into the Junior Olympics and perhaps don’t get what the fuss is about. Especially distance people—you look at the winning times in the 1500 and 3000, and you might just think it’s not a very good track meet (understandable, plus, XC camp beckons!). But it’s a different world on the speed side of things. Those kids set the track on fire!

Take Shamar Heard. This spring for Chippewa Valley, the junior struggled with injury issues and didn’t look much like the kid who won JO’s last summer with a 46.02 state record at 400. Instead of defending his 100/200 crowns in D1, he moved up to the 400, winning that in 47.78 (A-net calls that a PR, not having figured out how to sort out summer marks yet). But Heard was just starting to round into shape. He unleashed at JO’s, with a 46.84 in the heats and winning the final in 46.23. Both of those were 11th grade state records (the old one, 47.42, was held by current Baylor star Matthew Moorer). Of the 16 performances under 47.00 in state history, he now has 4, twice as many as anyone else. And he has a year to go and has already made the announcement that he’s giving up football to concentrate on track.

(Shamar didn’t just run the open 400 in Des Moines. At 200 he clocked 21.46 twice and placed 4th in the final with 21.58 into a 2.0 headwind. On the relay, his 45.85 FAT leg helped his 16 Ways/Chippewa Valley team to a state record 3:11.97 in the heats. In the finals, legs beat up from a very busy weekend, he split 47.61 as part of the 3:15.47 effort that gave the team 4th.)

Kamryn Tatum: The West Bloomfield frosh won D1 titles in the 200 (24.10w) and 400 (55,74) in June. Then she really started rolling in the summer season with the Michigan Mustangs, with marks of 11.82, 23.93 and 54.96. She came to Des Moines breathing fire. In the heats she hit 11.84 (-0.5) and 24.39 (-1.7). In her semis she blitzed a 9th grade state record 11.70 (0.5) and a 23.87 (0.5). In the 15-16 finals, she placed 2nd at 23.93 in the 200, and 4th in the 100 at 12.07 into a 1.5 wind.

Cayla Hawkins, the younger sister of former East Lansing/Track Life star Comari, showed that she’s not interested in being under anyone else’s shadow. At East Lansing’s MacDonald Middle School, she ran bests of 12.37, 25.24 and 57.99—as a 6th grader! In Des Moines she went faster… much faster. Now she’s the 6th-grade state record holder at 24.42 (0.4) and 54.83. To put that into perspective, the legendary Kendall Baisden, who still holds the 400 state records from 7th-12th grade, had the old 6th grade best at 57.68.

Neveah Burns won another national title at 400, recording a state-leading 54.51 to capture the age 14 crown. The Motor City TC star is still an 8th-grader, but will be a force for Oak Park in the future. At 200, she placed 4th in 25.11 into a big 2.5 headwind (she ran 24.99 in her semi with a 0.8).

Carrie VanNoy: The Oak Park/Motor City sophomore had a dream meet in Des Moines, winning the 15-16 400 hurdles in 60.83, then capturing the 100 hurdle title in 14.11.

Morgan Roundtree: First the Motor City/Oak Park junior took 2nd in the 17-18 400H in 60.04. Then after a 14.18 heat, a crash in the 100 hurdle final kept her to 8th. She closed off the week with a leg on Motor City’s runner-up 4 × 400 (3:43.44).

Teegan Simmons: The Monroe soph, throwing for Waza TC and the Magsig-Pallett Throwing Club, had a great week with 2nd place finishes in both the discus and javelin for 15-16, as well as 7th in the shot. His javelin mark of 167-2 moves him to No. 2 in state history. Watch that javelin throw.

Kylee King: The Motor City/Oak Park junior won the 17-18 title at 800 with her 2:12.29 and also ran on the runner-up 4×4.

Janae Coleman: Won the age 14 title at 800 with her 2:14.78—that gave her a winning margin of more than 6 seconds! In the heats two days earlier, she ran 2:13.10. That cut the state 7th grade record from the 2:14.42 that Anna Jensen of Midland ran in the same meet 8 years ago. A few days later, Coleman was runner-up in the 400 behind Cayla Hawkins at 56.08.

So many more: I could go on all day. My apologies for the many athletes I did not get around to mentioning. I’m still working my way through the voluminous results, updating my lists. Hoping I have everything good to go before I fly to Budapest.

Should Summer Count?

I have heard before from coaches who are of an opinion that summer performances should not count for state records and all-time lists. The argument is that not all programs are active in the summer, and the difference between MHSAA track and summer track is like night and day.

My response to that is a big fat nope. Track is track. I’ve been keeping the records and all-time lists for nearly a half century now, and my policy has always been to include any legitimate meet on the planet. Otherwise we end up in the ridiculous business of saying, “X is the record, but so-and-so ran faster somewhere else that we don’t count.”

For ages I heard the old folks say, “State records can’t count unless they’re set at the state meet.” That indeed once was the MHSAA policy. Now they call those marks, appropriately, “championship records.” The MHSAA once asked me to come up with a list of records for the MHSAA season, as they were considering getting into the record-keeping business. I did so, but in the end they decided not to bother with it (it can be a lot of work, I’ll attest). Nowadays the MHSAA links to Michtrack, and forwards various stat questions our way.

I’ve always had an aversion to folks who eagerly throw out chunks of the season to make themselves or their athletes look better. Rest assured that at Michtrack, when we say something is the best all-time, we mean all-time, not just the some of the time!

Recent Highlights

Pan-Am U20 Champs (8/4-6): After winning silver in the individual 100 in 11.41, Renaissance/Track Life alum Kaila Jackson rocketed out of the blocks to spark an American U20 Record in the 4 × 100 relay. The United States won the gold in 42.88, the No. 3 clocking in World U20 history, after two Jamaican marks from last year. In the steeple, Pinckney alum Caleb Jarema, finishing up his frosh season at Michigan, took gold in 9:05.92.

Murphey Classic (8/4-5): East Kentwood alum Gabriela Leon placed 5th in the pole vault at 14-2.5. AA Huron alum Cindy Sember was 8th in the 100H in 12.94 after a 12.87 heat. Oak Park alum Aasia Laurencin 13.13 heat.

USATF Junior Olympics (7/24-30): Not intentionally ignoring this one, but I’ve been through all the results, and I haven’t noted any Michiganders at all, let alone any performing at Elite List levels. Could be a first.

Legendary Mumford 4×4 Mark Falls

Yeah, I know I mentioned it above, but 3:11.97 deserves extra attention. The time came in the heats. Here’s how it played out:

Chris Estell 49.9 - Noah Morris 48.8 - Shamar Heard 45.85 - Jonah Morris 47.46

The crazy thing is, this is the same foursome that was the last seed in the D1 finals, relegated to section 1 (the slowest seed times) because of a worst-case weather scenario at regionals and their resulting 3:34.26. In the state finals, they ran to a 3:20.52 in their 3-team section, which only got them 3rd overall, as Oak Park took the title in 3:18.90.

In contrast, the Mumford/Motor City team that held the old state record of 3:12.53 had a magical year in 2002. They won the D1 finals in a still-standing meet record of 3:13.90. They won the team title that year 63-62 over Cass Tech, thanks to the heroics of superstar Kenneth Ferguson, who won the 110H in a still-standing meet record of 13.65, anchored the winning 4×2 (1:27.32), took the 300H in a still-standing state record of 35.90, all before anchoring that 4×4 state record. (I should note that Mumford coach Robert Lynch gave a special nod to his 800 crew, who came through with clutch points.)

In the balloting for the 2002 Track & Field News High School Athlete of the Year, Ferguson ended up 2nd, just short of the title. He had ranked No. 1 in the nation in the 110H, No. 1 in the 300/400H, and he won the World U20 silver medal with his 49.38 national HS record. At that same meet he ran leadoff in 45.8 as the United States won the gold medal in the 4×4 in 3:03.71. A week later, he once again put on his Motor City singlet, and he helped his longtime teammates cut another 1.37 off the state record when they won the Junior Olympics, Ferguson splitting another 45.8. The performance came in the heats. They placed 7th in the finals at 3:16.75 (Ferguson 45.9).

On hearing of the new state record, Ferguson said, “Wow! Congrats to those guys. That’s amazing. It lasted a long time too. Records for sure meant to be broken.”

While I’m sure the 16 Ways / Chippewa Valley squad would have preferred to have had that performance in the finals, the schedule was stacked against them. On Thursday, they ran the the record 4×4. Friday came the 400 prelims: Shamar Heard (46.84), Jonas Morris (47.89), Noah Morris (49.19), Chris Estell (49.30). Saturday was the 400 final first (Heard 46.23, J Morris 48.93). The 4×4 final came less than two hours later, and the legs of the top two runners were pretty trashed by that point. Estell and Noah Morris delivered 1:38.46 for the first half, about 0.2 faster than in the record (their individual splits aren’t available). But Heard was good for “only”47.61, with Jonas Morris anchoring at 49.41.

Heard Runs Fastest 400 Split Ever

That 45.85 relay split by Shamar Heard at the AAU Junior Olympics was the fastest-ever FAT split by a Michigan high schooler, breaking the 45.92 that Donavan Brazier ran at the 2015 OK Black meet.

Historically, hand times are a different story. Earl Jones, later an Olympic 800 medalist, has the best at 45.6 from the 1982 Midwest Meet of Champions. And Kenneth Ferguson has a pair of 45.8s, plus a reported 45.0 (44.92 hand) from the AAU JO’s in 2002 in a race where the stick got dropped at the last exchange. But without FAT splits or a video to examine, hand times in the relays are a dicey business.

What are the other relay split records for the state? Here’s what we have at Michtrack for outdoor bests. This is very much a work in progress, so please let us know of anything we’ve missed:

BOYS
400m - 45.85 Shamar Heard (Chippewa Valley) - AAU JOs 4×4 2023
800m - 1:47.79 Cameron Cooper (Oak Park) - NB Nationals SMR 2017
1200m - 3:03.8 Neil Atzinger (Saline) - adidas Outdoor DMR 2004
1600m - 4:08.25 Cole Johnson (Rockford) - NB Nationals DMR 2016

GIRLS
400m - 52.04 Comari Hawkins (East Lansing) - AAU JOs 4×4 2021
(hand 51.7 - Kendall Baisden-Detroit Country Day - USA Youth Ch 4×4 2010)
800m - 2:08.3 Hannah Meier (Grosse Pointe South) - D1 Finals 4×8 2012
1200m - 3:30.66 Mallory Barrett (Milford) - NB Nationals DMR 2016
1600m - 4:50.5 Jenny Morgan (Clarkston) - Nike Outdoor DMR 2006

Legend: John Garrels – Detroit Central 1902

The first time that John Garrels found his name in the newspapers, it was for winning a pair of bicycle races when he was 13. He would later become very famous for his athletic exploits, but none of his later feats involved a bicycle.

Garrels could both run and throw. That naturally made him one of the biggest football stars in the city, but it also opened up doors in track. His senior year at Central High, he won the state finals in the discus throw with a toss of 101-10. That may not seem very impressive, but back then, preps were throwing the same 2kg platter that collegians and Olympians were using.

Just 6 years later, Garrels would be the man who carried the U.S. flag into the stadium for the 1908 Olympics, where he would win medals both in the hurdles and the shot put.

The best account of his athletic life comes from Jim Moyes, my co-author for the book, The Fleet Feet of Spring: Michigan’s High School State Championships in Track & Field (please click the link and buy the book!):

Following his prep career for the Blue and White of Detroit Central, Garrels enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he developed into a Maize and Blue legend. Not only was Garrels one of the U of M’s all-time track greats, but the 6-1, 205lb dynamo also started three straight years on the football team. During his tenure on Coach Fielding Yost’s football powerhouses of the early 1900s, the Wolverines posted a gaudy overall record of 29 wins, two losses and one tie. In his senior season Garrels drop-kicked a field goal through the uprights to give the Wolverines the points needed to defeat archrival Ohio State.

 It was on the track, however, where Garrels made his biggest impact at the University. Just two years after winning the state high school discus title at a distance that barely surpassed 100 feet, Garrels was flinging the platter over the 135-foot marker. He teamed up with Olympic gold medalist Ralph Rose to give the Wolverines a pair of weight performers unmatched in the collegiate ranks of their era.

Rose was a 6-6 native of California who put together back-to-back Olympic shot gold medal performances at the 1904 and 1908 Olympics. Garrels and Rose gave Michigan a 1-3 finish at the London Olympiad of 1908. Garrels was much more than a shot putter and weightlifter. If the decathlon had been part of the Olympics during Johnny’s era, he might have found his best event. Unfortunately, for Garrels and Joe Horner, another Wolverine that followed Garrels at Michigan, the decathlon would not become an Olympic event until 1912.

 At the 1905 "Big Nine" conference championships in Chicago, Garrels, with a heave of 140-2, shattered the previous world record in the discus by three feet. Not content with just a discus World Record, Garrels also captured the 220-yard low hurdles crown.

 He bettered his own showing a year later by nearly winning the Big Nine title all by himself. Garrels took first place honors in the discus, high and low hurdles, and still had enough energy left to place second in the shot put. What was even more amazing was that Garrels had tied another World Record, this time in the hurdles. In the 120-yard high hurdles Garrels tied the mark of 15 and 1/5 seconds. His individual total of 18 points outscored all the other teams entered with the exception of the University of Chicago.

 At the intercollegiate championships the following season, the captain of the 1907 Wolverine track team won both hurdle events and placed second in the shot put. Surprisingly, the intercollegiate did not offer the discus as an event or perhaps Garrels would have won three national championships.

 Following the Olympic Games of 1908, Garrels made good use of his degree in chemical engineering by becoming the President of the Michigan Alkali Company of Wyandotte before passing away in 1957.

The Little Stuff At The End

Good reading: Check out Olympics - com story on Udodi Onwuzurike. Link here.

World Athletics profiled Samoan discus thrower Alex Rose (Ogemaw Heights’ finest!) Link here.

Lani Bloom: The former Ithaca star, after a year at Purdue, has transferred to Michigan.

More schedule disruption? Most likely. I’m leaving next week to cover the World Championships in Budapest. There are a lot of variables at play that will affect whether you’ll get regular newsletters over the next few weeks. They might be shorter than usual, or they might not come at all. Just be pleasantly surprised (I hope) with anything that shows up in your email.

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And thanks! No one complained that I skipped last week’s newsletter to escape into the mountains of southeast Arizona and find this cool bird. Call it self-care. Just what I needed to get away from track for a bit before the intensive work of the next few weeks.