Local Blue Water Area track and field athletes kicked off their holiday weekend with some personal bests and late-season performances before the state finals on June 1.
Macomb County Championships
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Photos courtesy of a variety of parent/school/athlete Instagram accounts.
The Macomb County Championships feature 38 schools in various divisions, from D1 to D4. Schools from Macomb County in the Blue Water Running coverage area include Anchor Bay, Armada, Macomb Lutheran North, Macomb Athletic Club for Homeschoolers (MACH), and Richmond. Athletes must meet the A or B standards (list found here https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/521324/info) to compete.
In the Division 1 category, Anchor Bay was fourth overall for girls and fifth for boys. The rest of the Blue Water Area schools fall into the D2-3-4 competition. Macomb Lutheran North won both the boys' and girls' team titles. Armada girls were third and Richmond 13th; on the boys’ side, Armada was seventh and Richmond ninth. MACH finished in tenth place. All-county status is earned by placing in the top three in each division, once overall results are broken into the various divisions (this is not indicated in overall results as they are not separated by division).
Anchor Bay’s Thomas Westphal ran 1:51.68 to break his school record in the 800 as well as a 36-year-old Macomb County Meet record, set at 1:53.7 in 1988 by Rick Gledhill of Chippewa Valley. He later teamed up with Jonah Konarz, Brandon Ziehmer, and Aiden Champagne to take second in the 4x400-meter relay in 3:30.59. For the 110-meter hurdles, Konarz was third in 15.2 (PR), while Richmond’s Joseph Pacitto was 21st in 16.72. Gunnar Wessel of MACH was 24th in the 800 in his PR of 2:09.94.
In the 3200-meter run, Brewer Snay of Macomb Lutheran North was 4th (9:49.21 PR) and Greg Vogt of Anchor Bay was 5th (9:49.97 PR). The sprint relays saw the MLN Mustangs setting two school records: the 4x100 in 44.19 (6th place) and the 4x200 in 1:30.68 (2nd). Jack May, Hudson McDonald, Clay Thomson, and Isaac Miller ran the 4x100 while May, McDonald, Will Haskins, and Miller ran the 4x200. Roman Cody, Haskins, Marino Martoni, and May also placed fourth in the 4x400 in 3:31.5.
The 4x800 relay had Lutheran North taking fourth (8:31) and Anchor Bay taking sixth (8:36). Jack McMahon, Vasilios Kirchoff, Joshua Macri, and Grant Garner paced the Mustangs, while Aaron Osterman, Gabe Rusch, Greg Vogt, and Aidan Leslie ran the relay for the Anchor Bay Tars.
While full pole vault results were not available at the time of this article, Kieran Whitlam of Macomb Lutheran North won all divisions with a vault of 13-3. This is almost a two-foot improvement over his best vault last season. Other field event results included Andrew Starrs of MLN who took fourth in the discus (143-04 PR) and fifth in the shot put (47-6.5 PR). Cameron Gramzow of Anchor Bay was fifth in the discus with a throw of 136-04. In the adaptive events, Luke Bowman of Anchor Bay won the shot put (20-09), 100 meters (18.68), and 400-meter dash (67.52) and set personal bests in all!
In the girls’ competition, there were big personal bests in the 400 meters by Anchor Bay’s Iyanna Brown (3rd; 62.2) and ML North’s Samantha Whitlam (5th; 63.5), both freshmen. Armada’s Ava Baltierra saw time drop in her 800 best, taking third in 2:25. Kayla Lange of Anchor Bay also took a third-place finish in the 3200-meter run in 12:17 (PR). Faith Wessel of MACH was fifth in 12:23 (PR). Baltierra teamed up with Brooklyn Khon, Claire Sniesak, and Darrah McKenzie to take second in the 4x800 relay (10:24) while Lange joined her 4x800 team of Mary Wright, Lauren Thomas, and Maddie Leslie to run 10:49 for fourth place. Lutheran North was sixth in 10:50 (Bianca Cicchetti, Bella LaPerriere, Evelyn Buckley, Avery Stallman). Baltierra was also part of the fourth-place 4x400 with Khon, Brianna Feys, and Cristina Semian (4:20).
In field events, freshman Riley Agee had the highest finish in the shot put for area throwers, placing 6th in her best throw of 33-2 for Armada. Richmond’s Lainee Wagner was seventh and Anchor Bay’s Korin Hutton was eighth, both throwing 32-09. Hutton was also sixth in the discus (97-0) while Wagner was seventh (95-11). High jumper Alysia Goudelock was fourth with a jump of five feet, while Armada’s Valeria Ricossa was sixth with 4-9. Autumn Pratt of Lutheran North was sixth in the pole vault at 8-0.
Blue Water Meet of Champions
Friday, May 24, 2024
The Blue Water Meet of Champions was held at the Walt Braun Viking Stadium in Marysville, featuring the top eight relays and the top 16 individuals in the Blue Water Area. Algonac, Almont, Cros-Lex, Imlay City, Marine City, Cardinal Mooney, Marysville, Memphis, North Branch, Port Huron/PH Northern, Richmond, St. Clair, and Yale all participated.
Almont’s Chase Battani and North Branch’s Grace Clemens were named MVPs of the meet. Battani was second in the 100 (11.38), fourth in the 110-hurdles (16.19), and pole vaulted 14-6 to win by over a foot and a half. Clemens won the 100 (12.6), 200 (26.12), and 400 (first sub-60 in 59.96), and was second in the long jump (16-2.5). Imlay City freshman Penelope McNutt made a strong statement in her first year, taking second in both sprint events to Clemens (13.0/26.96). Casidhe Flesher of Marine City was second in the 400 in her best of 60.61 and freshman Madeline Sepsey of Yale was third in a PR of 61.66. Another freshman, Kai Fisher of Memphis, won the boys’ 200-meter dash in 23.5 and finished second in the 400 in a PR of 53.05, just fractions of a second from Matthew Bacholzky’s winning 53.03 (Almont). Marine City’s Evan Martin (3rd; 53.37 PR) and Algonac’s David Clemons (4th; 53.76 PR) were close behind. Vasili Kasparian of Port Huron Northern finished third in the 100 with a big PR of 11.56. Alex Jamison and Kasparian both had time drops in the 200 meters as well, placing second and third for the Huskies.
Cardinal Mooney’s Tyler Lenn (boys' 800/1600) and Cros-Lex’s Eva Thompson (girls' 1600/3200 SR) both had a distance double victory. Marysville’s Trent Glass (2nd; 1:59.25 PR) and Cardinal Mooney’s Isaac Zammit (3rd; 2:00.55) ran their personal bests in the 800 behind Lenn. Gio Pardo-Keegan of Yale ran his personal best in the boys’ mile to finish second (4:26) and Eliot Whitney of Imlay City did the same in the 3200 (2nd; 10:21.97). Whitney also ran a PR in the 1600 to take fourth (4:40). Tye Kirschner of Cros-Lex won the 110-high hurdles in his best of 15.21, narrowly edging out Colin Boullard of St. Clair in his PR of 15.54. Laila Evola of Almont ran a huge personal best, dropping over seven seconds to take second in the girls’ 1600 to Thompson in 5:43.
In the throwing events, Eli Bickel of North Branch and Janae Hudson of Marysville were dominant yet again, each sweeping the field in the shot put and discus. Owen Jacobs, Noah Northrup (Marine City), and Noah Wiggin (PHN) all threw personal bests to take second, third, and fourth, respectively, in the boys’ shot put. It’s worth mentioning that one day after competing at the Macomb County Meet, Richmond’s Lainee Wagner was back in the throwing circle, setting personal bests of 107-9.5 in the girls’ discus and 34-8.5 in the shot put to take third in both. Yale’s Sadie Dykstra was a triple champion, winning the long jump and both hurdle races: she is undefeated in all three events in regular season competition.
BLUE WATER MEET OF CHAMPIONS EVENT WINNERS
Event | Boys (scroll to see girls on right) | Girls |
100 | Austin Brown - Marine City. 11.37 | Grace Clemens - North Branch. 12.6 |
200 | Kai Fisher - Memphis. 23.5 | Grace Clemens - North Branch. 26.12 |
400 | Matthew Bacholzky - Almont. 53.03 | Grace Clemens - North Branch. 59.96 PR |
800 | Tyler Lenn - Cardinal Mooney. 1:57 | Morgan Newton - Cros-Lex. 2:34 |
1600 | Tyler Lenn - Cardinal Mooney. 4:18 | Eva Thompson - Cros-Lex. 5:23 |
3200 | Blake Ferguson - Yale. 10:00 SR | Eva Thompson - Cros-Lex. 11:24 |
4x100 | Unknown on results | Almont - Genesis Fisher, Lauren Webster, Montserrat Coronel, Lola Battaglia. 53.8 |
4x200 | Marine City - Grant Westrick, Ryan Ickes, Bodie Ramsey, Parker Atkinson. 1:32.89 | North Branch - Sarah Munro, Lily Hurd, Katie Gill, Clara Gyomory. 1:53.54 |
4x400 | Port Huron Northern - Luke VanderHeuvel, Alex Jamison, Kenny Thomas, Grant Gonser. 3:33.12 | Marine City - Allie Markel, Mattison Marlat, Claire Karczewski, Casidhe Flesher. 4:24.78 |
4x800 | St. Clair - Dylan Distelrath, Vinny Schweihofer, Jerry Westrick, Jack Howell. 8:33 | Cros-Lex - Morgan Newton, Abagayle Barkley, Eva Thompson, Brynn Hurley. 10:29 |
110/100 Hurdles | Tye Kirschner - Cros-Lex. 15.21 PR | Sadie Dykstra - Yale. 15.62 |
300 Hurdles | Brennan Francek - Marysville. 41.46 | Sadie Dykstra - Yale. 46.61 |
Shot Put | Eli Bickel - North Branch. 45-7.5 | Janae Hudson - Marysville. 42-8 |
Discus | Eli Bickel - North Branch. 143-9 | Janae Hudson - Marysville. 135-5 |
High Jump | John Coverdill - Marine City. 6-1 | Keirra Taube - Yale. 5-4 |
Long Jump | Ty LaForest - Yale. 19-8.5 | Sadie Dykstra - Yale. 17-2.25 |
Pole Vault | Chase Battani - Almont. 14-6 | Rebecca Moeller - Deckerville. 10’ |
Comentarios