Deshetsky and Gramzow Win State Titles; 16 Athletes From Blue Water Area Earn All-State Track and Field Honors
- Meran Miles
- Jun 4
- 5 min read
The MHSAA Track and Field Championship took place across the west side of Michigan on Saturday, May 30, capping off a terrific season from a multitude of Blue Water Area athletes. After four separate Lower Peninsula divisions of competition, a total of two state champions and sixteen All-State athletes were crowned, and many recent marks were added to the all-time lists for performances from our area.
Division 1
Anchor Bay’s Cameron Gramzow capped off his undefeated season in discus by winning the most important meet of them all: the state championship. With a throw of 172-1 at the state finals at Rockford High School, Gramzow beat his nearest competitor by six feet and cemented his dominance across Michigan. He is now the top thrower of all time from the Blue Water Area with a best this year of 188 feet, surpassing Eli Bickel of North Branch at 180-9.
Gramzow’s teammate Noah Ring snagged the last All-State spot in shot put, taking eighth in 53-11. Ring is seventh all-time for shot put in the Blue Water Area, while Gramzow is eighth.
Port Huron Northern’s Lincoln Watkins doubled up on his All-State honors, taking fifth in the shot put (54-4.25) and seventh in the discus (154-1). Watkins had the best season throw in the area in the shot put of 56-1.5, and was second only to Gramzow in area discus throws (161-1). He is now fourth all-time in shot put and eighth in discus across all recorded performances available on athletic.net.
Photos courtesy of PHN Track/Tyler Houle/Anchor Bay T&F Instagram.
Division 2
With her eyes on the prize all spring, Aubree Deshetsky (North Branch) finally stood at number one on the discus podium, winning the event with a toss of 148-10. Her season-best of 150-3 moved her to the top of the all-time area list, surpassing Janae Hudson of Marysville (146-10), also a state champ. She was less than two inches from the shot put title as well, taking second in 43-0 to the winner’s 43-1.75. Deshetsky later teamed up with her 4x100 and 4x200 relays, taking another trip up the all-state podium steps.
North Branch’s Penelope McNutt garnered her first All-State finish with her 100-meter dash, taking fifth in a new best of 12.46. She scratched the open 200 to focus on the relays with her team (Sydney Bailey, Aubree Deshetsky, Lily Hurd), and it paid off: the 4x100 was 11th, but the 4x200 climbed the podium for seventh place (1:45.23) and set a new season-best time. McNutt stands at number five all-time from our area in the 100 and 200 meters, and the relays are third (4x100) and fifth (4x200) all-time.
Sadie Dykstra (Yale) was four-for-four at the state finals at Hamilton High School, placing in every event in which she entered. She was undefeated in the 100-meter hurdles before the state meet and finished second in 14.73; she also came out of the prelims with the fastest time in a new personal best of 14.68. In between her hurdling rounds, Dykstra was also competing in both the long jump and high jump, finishing sixth in 17-4.75 (LJ) and fourth in 5-4 (HJ), respectively. To wrap up her amazing career, Dykstra finished the day with the 300-meter hurdles, taking third in 44.81. A state champion several times over throughout her four years of high school competition, Dykstra heads to the University of Michigan, where the Wolverines will utilize her amazing multi-event versatility in the heptathlon. Dykstra topped the list in five events in our area the entire 2026 season and ranks in the top five all-time in both hurdling events. She is the number-one long jumper ever to come out of the Blue Water Area, with a best of 18-7.5.
Macomb Lutheran North’s Joshua Macri has dominated the Blue Water Area through the last few years in cross country and mid-distance/distance track events, and he finally earned the one missing medal from his resume, leaning across the line in the 1600 to take eighth in 4:20.09, his personal best. That time ranks him ninth all-time. Macri returned in the 800 and, in a hard-fought finish, narrowly missed a second medal, taking ninth in another best of 1:58.14.
After an amazing season of vast improvements, including leading the D2 state rankings for several weeks in the 100 meters, Imlay City’s Brett Lestage wrapped up 2026 with two all-state medals: the 100 (6th; 11.11) and the 4x100 (7th; 43:01). The other members of the relay team were Alan Valdovinos, Enrique Cardenas, and Ethan Everhart, and they now are the fastest relay team to ever come out of the Blue Water Area. They are also ninth all-time in the 4x200, but were unfortunately disqualified at the state meet. Lestage just missed the finals in the 200 with a ninth-place finish in the prelims. He has the second-fastest 100-meter dash time (10.78) ever from our area and the fastest 200-meter time (21.96).
Division 3
Jenna Dobbs of Algonac had already broken the school record in the 400-meter dash earlier this season, a mark previously set by her own mother, but she eclipsed the sub-60 mark at the state finals, taking fourth in 59.36. Dobbs tops the season-best list for our area and also moved her name up the all-time list to number six in the event.
Division 4
Kai Fisher attends Memphis High School, which does not have a track, but that didn’t stop
him from earning All-State status by placing third in two events: the 200 and the 400 meters. Fisher ran a personal best of 22.63 in the 200 and a 50.77 in the 400.
Ava Klink threw the discus 109-2 for sixth at the D4 state finals, earning one of Capac’s few All-State finishes in decades. Her throw was a personal best and number three in the area for the 2026 season.
Other notable season performances:
PHN’s Samantha Langolf capped off an amazing career for the Huskies, setting yet another personal best in the 3200, running 11:12 for a school record in the elite D1 distance division. Langolf dropped over two minutes from her freshman debut and over half a minute since just last year. Langolf stands as the fastest Blue Water Area runner in this event for 2026 and the fourth all-time for all recorded performances.
Anchor Bay’s Kacy Agyeman put his name at number eight on the all-time Blue Water Area list in the 110-meter hurdles, running 14.71 on May 8. That time would have been fast enough for a D1 All-State top-eight finish, but Agyeman did not make it out of the prelims at the state finals.
Vasili Kasparian, Alex Jamison, Collin Landschoot, and Messiah Drake moved to number nine all-time in the 4x100 relay with their time of 44.06 on April 13.
Samantha Whitlam of MLN ran a 59.5 in the 400-meter-dash this season, which ranks her ninth all-time for our area, and a 2:17 in the 800, which is third overall for a female athlete in this event. Alannah Wessel of Macomb Academy Homeschool is tenth all-time with a 2:18.
