Regional Results Set the Stage for State Finals
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
After a season of hard work and standout performances, local Blue Water Area track and field athletes emerged from regional competitions over the weekend with their tickets punched to the state track and field finals on May 31.
Anchor Bay’s Jonah Konarz already had an early qualifying standard in the 110-meter hurdles and added the 300-meter hurdles to his state meet schedule, finishing second in 39.88. After last year’s finish of third in both events, this is a great way for the senior to round out his season. Cameron Gramzow handily won the discus for the Tars, taking first in 171’-10”. Luke Bowman is also a state qualifier in the 100, 200, 400, and shot put adaptive/ambulatory events for Anchor Bay.
With a throw three feet farther than last year’s best, Port Huron Northern’s Lincoln Watkins set his PR of 51’-5” to take second and earn his first trip to the state finals. The top four throwers in this event all met the automatic qualification mark.
Malencia Price was the lone female athlete from the Port Huron Area to qualify out of this incredibly tough D1 regional: Romeo was the team champion by 50 points, with athletes qualifying in ten events. Price was second in the long jump in 17’-1.25” and will represent the Red Hawks at the state finals. For the Lady Tars, Anchor Bay’s Korin Hutton was second in the discus with a throw of 111’-11”.
Girls’ Team Scores
1. Goodrich 140
2. Cranbrook Kingswood 100.75
3. Orchard Lake St. Mary's 82.75
4. North Branch 65
5. Croswell-Lexington 46.75
6. Macomb Lutheran North 45.25
7. Armada 37
8. Yale 30
8. Pontiac Notre Dame Prep 30
10. Richmond 28
11. St. Clair 22
12. Ortonville Brandon 10.5
13. Marysville 8
14. Imlay City 6
14. Pontiac 6
Boy’s Team Scores
1. Macomb Lutheran North 145.5
2. St. Clair 77
3. Orchard Lake St. Mary's 63
4. North Branch 61.5
5. Pontiac Notre Dame Prep 54
6. Goodrich 41
7. Yale 39.5
8. Marysville 33
9. Cranbrook Kingswood 29
10. Armada 28
10. Croswell-Lexington 28
12. Ortonville Brandon 23.5
13. Imlay City 16
14. Pontiac 14
15. Richmond 3
The majority of Blue Water Area athletes compete in the D2-19 region, and while they didn’t have the high heat of Thursday’s/Friday’s regional meets, the dramatically lower temps and strong wind were serious factors. Sustained winds of 20 mph and gusts up to 40 mph made the last 100 meters toward the finish line especially challenging for those trying to hit automatic qualifying marks. Macomb Lutheran North claimed the boys’ title, while Goodrich won for the ladies.
100 Meters
North Branch's Penelope McNutt returns to the state finals for her second year in the 100-meter dash, finishing as runner-up in 13.65.
200 Meters
Will Haskins of Macomb Lutheran North won a regional title in the 200-meter dash in 23.91, with teammate Isaac Miller right behind in 24.12.
400 Meters
Saige Cole cemented herself as the fastest female freshman for Yale in the one-lap race, finishing in 61.89 seconds to qualify for a trip to the state finals.
800 Meters
Finishing fifth last year and missing the AQ by fractions of a second, this race was Thomas Kann’s senior year redemption story. Comfortably running a strategic race and sprinting to an inside-lane finish in Cole Hocker style, Kann claimed his first individual regional title in a season-best of 2:02.2. If you’re not familiar with Cole Hocker, watch this Olympic recap.
1600/3200 Meters
Joshua Macri (MLN) came close to the distance double championship, winning the 1600 in a showdown to the line (4:35.74) and finishing second in the 3200 by hundredths of a second when he made a bold charge (10:05.81) on the final stretch.
Eva Thompson of Cros-Lex had to battle the wind and a slew of Goodrich distance girls to qualify: she finished third in the 1600 in 5:12, her fastest time yet this season, and then did it all over again in the 3200, taking third in 11:27. Thompson will return to the state finals hoping to repeat her all-state honors in both events as the sole Pioneer athlete competing.
110-Meter Hurdles
The favorite going into regionals was St. Clair’s Colin Boullard, and he didn’t disappoint, winning easily by close to a second (16.32) into the headwind. Evan O’Brien was second for Macomb Lutheran North and also qualified for the state finals.
100-Meter Hurdles
With Yale’s Sadie Dysktra already qualified in the 100 hurdles and opting not to compete at regionals, the field was a bit more open. Ella Swoish of North Branch claimed second place in 17.80 to qualify.
300-Meter Hurdles
Boullard also qualified in the 300s, taking second running 42.27.
The girls’ race went as predicted, with Dykstra taking first in 46.05 and Armada’s Brooklyn Khon taking second in 47.99: both automatically qualified on place and time.
4x100 Meter Relay
Haskins and Miller teamed up with Jack May and Charles Bates to earn Macomb Lutheran North another regional title in the 4x100-meter relay in 44.83. Armada was second in 45.45 (TJ Seiler, Jackson Malburg, Anthony Alvarez, and Jak Klee).
4x200 Meter Relay
With top seed Imlay City a DNF, the door was open for another team to earn a state berth. Armada was second again with the team of Seiler, Malburg, Alvarez, and Klee to qualify another sprint relay for the Tigers.
4x400 Meter Relay
Marysville’s 4x4 earned the Vikings their only state meet qualification: Ty Busen, Corbin Scheffler, Trey Cummins, and Hunter Likins were the runners-up in a tight team race for the last AQ of the day, with the third-place team less than a second behind.
Yale’s girls’ team ran 4:09 to take first (Dykstra, Julia Ferguson, Cole, Medeline Sepsey), while Armada’s Allison Mansfield, Claire Sniesak, Cristina Semian, and Khon were second in 4:12.
4x800 Meter Relay
MLN’s Josh Macri, Xavier Roman, Jack McMahon, and Vasilios Kirchhoff won easily in 8:31, while St. Clair just edged out Cros-Lex 8:39 to 8:41. Korbyn Thornton, Ethan Kreger, Brayden Prieskorn, and Jerry Westrick will take the Saints’ relay back to the west side for another round at the state meet.
Shot Put
It was all North Branch’s Eli Bickel in the shot put ring, outdistancing his nearest competitor by close to seven feet. He threw 53’-3.5”, while Andrew Starrs of Macomb Lutheran North qualified in 46’-6.75”.
The Broncos continued their domination in the girls’ throws with Aubree Deshetsky winning in 42’-01.5” and setting her PR in the process.
Discus
Bickel took another title in the discus, throwing 162’-05” to Zack Haywood’s 147’-1” for Yale. Caden Lohr of St. Clair met the automatic qualifying standard by throwing 143’-05” for third.
Deshetsky earned her second championship title, throwing 128’-11’ to win the ladies’ discus.
High Jump
Caleb VanSingel had a monster jump from 5’-10” last week to a new PR of 6’-2”, and it came at just the right time, earning him a regional title and state meet qualification: his best jump last year as a junior was 5’-6”.
Pole Vault
Kieran Whitlam repeated as regional champ for the second year in a row at 13’, while VanSingel qualified in the vault along with the high jump, finishing second in 11’-03”, edging out Yale’s freshman Hunter Cole with fewer misses at the same height. VanSingel had not even vaulted until this season.
Freshman Madison Starnes earned Richmond its first and only qualification for the day, jumping 8’-0” to finish second in the girls’ pole vault.
Long Jump
Avery Cody of St. Clair took second in 20’-3”, a PR and only his second career jump ever.
MLN’s Samantha Whitlam jumped her personal best of 16’-9.5” and earned a regional title to return to the D2 state finals as a sophomore; she will represent the Mustangs as the singular qualifier for the ladies’ team.
Jenna Dobbs was fourth in the 400 in 61.38, but her time was fast enough to meet the automatic qualification time of 62.2 and send her to the D3 finals as a freshman.
Owen Beindit (Algonac) and Colton Grzyb (Almont) battled for the regional title in the 800-meter run, with Beindit ultimately winning in 2:09.55 to Grzyb’s 2:09.90, a PR. In the women’s race, Kate Bennett repeated as regional champ for the third year in a row, running 2:29. New Haven’s Emma Reimer was second and also qualified in 2:32.
The BWAC was well represented in the distance events, with Julian Walker taking second in the boys’ 1600 (Algonac; 4:42) and freshman Taylor Stanczak in the girls’ (Almont; 5:37). For the 3200, Maxwell Durham won a regional title in 10:19 for New Haven, while Almont’s Laila Evola snagged the runner-up qualification spot in the girls’ race (13:06).
Chase Battani set his personal best and the Almont High School record in the 110-hurdles, winning in 14.81. His teammate Brody Corneau qualified on time out of the fourth place spot (16.00). Marine City’s Allie Markel was second in both the 100 and the 300 hurdles (16.86/49.66) to earn her first trip to the state finals. She was also a runner-up in the long jump with a leap of 15 feet.
Tim Miller, Matthew Bacholzky, Nolan Maxlow, and Battani teamed up to earn a spot for Almont in the 4x200 relay state final by finishing second in 1:32.83. The Lady Raiders were second in the 4x800 relay, with Greta Schwarberg, Amanda Fitchett, Evola, and Stanczak running 10:51. Almont’s boys were second in the 4x800 as well, with Jamin Siewert, Jacob Biolchini, Adam SaintOnge, and Grzyb running 8:58. Algonac won the event in 8:57 (Beindit, Walker, Clint Malcolm, Nathan Clemons).
Marine City swept the boys’ shot put: Noah Northrup was first (42’-8”) and Camron Hart second in 40’-7”. Northrup qualified again in the discus with a toss of 122’-7”.
Pole vault was a girls’ area sweep, with Madison Niedermaier winning in 8’-6” for Almont and Averi Havercamp in second for Marine City (7’). For the boys, Jorma Schlegel (Marine City) won in 11 feet, his PR, and Gabriel Hibner of Almont was second in 10’-6”. John Coverdill was the regional runner-up in the boys’ high jump at 6’.
Kai Fisher of Memphis was third in the 100-meter dash with an automatic qualifying time of 11.40.
Freshman Liam Knuth of Cardinal Mooney Catholic qualified in the 1600-meter run in a second-place finish of 4:59. Evan Jacobs was second in the 3200 for the Cardinals in 10:53.
Dryden will be represented by boys’ 110-meter hurdler Brendan Peter (2nd/16.40 PR) and girls’ 300-meter hurdler Caila Fitchett (2nd/49.79).
Dryden won and Cardinal Mooney was second in the girls’ 3200-meter relay (11:44 and 12:35, respectively). Cardinal Mooney’s boys were second in their race in 9:03 (Jacobs, Liam Knuth, Cullen Knuth, John Bailey).
Abigail Glynn will throw the discus for Austin Catholic at the D4 state finals with her qualifying throw of 72’-7” for second place. Olivia Zellers will high jump for Dryden with a runner-up finish in 4’-2”.
MHSAA Finals -- May 31
D1 – East Kentwood HS - Meet Info
D2 – Hamilton HS - Meet Info
D3 – Kent City HS - Meet Info
D4 – Hudsonville – Baldwin MS - Meet Info
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