Welcome to the final stretch of 2024! As we finish another incredible year of local athletics, I’d like to take a moment to look back on the highlights and achievements of the Blue Water Area and how local athletes have shown us what it means to push limits, break barriers, and strive for greatness. In this article, we will spotlight the standout performances, record-breaking moments, and inspiring stories from cross country and track and field in our community this year. We’ll start by recapping the major accomplishments from the state finals for track and field, some season highlights from around the Blue Water Area, and then work our way into cross country season through the fall. So, lace up your shoes, prepare to sprint into the new year, and join me as we celebrate the best of Blue Water Running from 2024.
TRACK AND FIELD
YALE GIRLS: with only FOUR athletes competing, Yale finished in an astonishing second place overall as a team at the D2 state meet, earning 39 points to champion Dearborn Divine Child’s 46.
Sophomore Sadie Dykstra was undefeated the entire year in the 300-meter hurdles, the 100-meter hurdles, and the 4x400 relay in the regular season before states, was first in the long jump all but one time in the entire season and won four BWAC league titles, and regional events to qualify for the state finals. At the state finals, she won the long jump (18-0.5), the 300 hurdles (45.00 PR), was second in the 100 hurdles (15.19 PR), and teamed up with Keirra Taube, Julia Ferguson, and Madeline Sepsey to take fifth in the 4x400-meter relay (4:06.99 PR) - that relay also set a new BWAC record. I had the opportunity to chat with her after her state championship experience, so take a listen to episode 13 of the podcast.
Junior Keirra Taube spent quite a bit of the 2024 season ranked as one of the top high jumpers not just in Michigan, but in the nation. She was also undefeated for the majority of the season and closed out her junior year with a second-place finish in the state and a school record of 5’-6”. Keirra is a great hurdler, too, qualifying for state in the 100s and 300s to go 1-2 with Dykstra. Find out more about Keirra on episode 2 of The Blue Water Running Podcast.
EVA THOMPSON: the distance star from Cros-Lex dropped huge personal bests her junior season right when it mattered most, taking sixth in 1600 in 5:01.73 and earning the last 3200-meter All-State spot (8th; 11:02.92). She set BWAC records in both the 1600 (5:12.54) and 3200 (11:34.38).
THOMAS WESTPHAL: 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. After lots of runner-up finishes at XC and track states, including a second-place finish in the 1600 in 4:06 this spring that reset his school record, he finally clinched his first state title by winning the 3200 meter run in 9:07: he also owns the school record in that event in 8:55. He has gone on to compete collegiately for the Spartans at MSU. He joined me in episode 14 of the podcast to chat about his state title.
LUKE BOWMAN: Wheelchair racer Luke Bowman won the shot put, 200, and 400-meter titles and was second in the 100-meter dash for the Tars in the adaptive events at the state meet. It’s very exciting and inspiring to see Luke embodying these events in track and field and serving as an ambassador for the sport to help create awareness for a variety of athletes.
CARDINAL MOONEY: Senior Tyler Lenn of Marine City Cardinal Mooney repeated his 2023 win in the 1600-meter run, making him a back-to-back D4 champion in 4:16.43. He placed fourth in the 800 (1:58.62) and helped his 4x800 relay team to a sixth-place finish in 8:21. Teammate Isaac Zammit, also a senior, joined him on the podium three times: sixth in the 1600 in 4:28.73 (PR), a 3200 eighth-place finish in 9:54.38, and as part of the 4x800 team with Lenn, Evan Jacobs and Jack Luzynski. Lenn chatted about his multiple state titles on episode 4 of the podcast. Lenn is running for Grand Valley State University while Zammit is at Saginaw Valley State University.
MARYSVILLE: Undefeated in both shot and disc the entire season (minus one meet), senior Janae Hudson traded one state title for another: last year she was first in the shot put, but for 2024 it was a win in the discus and a runner-up finish in the shot. Her efforts were 45-4 (a new best) in the shot put and 140-3 in the discus to climb to the top of the podium in both throwing events. Hudson alone earned Marysville 18 points to finish as an eighth-place team. She was on the pod in episode 3 and now competes as a thrower for SVSU.
Senior Brennan Francek was All-State for the Vikings in the boys’ 300 hurdles, taking seventh in 40.06, in which he was almost a full second faster than he’d raced before. He won the North Branch County Press Invite, the MAC Gold Championship, the D2 Regional title, and the Blue Water Meet of Champions.
NORTH BRANCH/GRACE CLEMENS: Senior Grace Clemens visited the awards stand at the state meet twice, with a seventh-place finish in the 100 (12.65) and 25.43 (PR) in the 200-meter dash. She had a very successful senior year as the BWAC and Blue Water Area Meet of Champs MVP. She finished first or second in every race 100, 200, or 400 she ran in before states and was also first or second in the long jump at every regular season competition. She has gone on to compete for Tennessee Wesleyan College this year. She’s on episode 11.
Sophomore AUBREE DESHETSKY of North Branch was All-State in the discus and shot put: she took sixth (124-3) and fifth (39-5), respectively. She set a new BWAC record in the discus at 127’-1 and won the shotput there as well. She was part of the 4x100 meter relay with Clemens, Sarah Munro, and Rowan Conley to set a new school record at the Davison Twilight Invitational in 51:06. This relay also won regionals.
ETHAN DINANATH: The North Branch senior sprinter was BWAC MVP, winning the 100, 200, 400, and 4x400 relay, and qualified for the state meet in both the 100 and 200, with PRs of 10.9 and 22.7. Ethan was on episode 5 of the podcast and now competes for Rochester Christian College.
LYLA MULLINS of Austin Catholic won the D4 state meet in both the shot put and the discus. She was first in the majority of her competitions throughout the season and improved to bests of 39-6 in the shot and 120-1 in the discus: her discus improvement was 45 feet from 2023-2024.
OLIVIA REYNOLDS: Dryden’s girls had a strong team showing at the D4 state meet, led by Oliva Reynolds. She was fifth in the 200 (26.62 PR) and third in the 400 in 59.14, also a PR. She joined Sophia Peter, Delaney Wolle, and Keirra Miller in the 4x200 relay to take the last All-State spot in 1:50.86. The same ladies teamed up in the 4x400 to take sixth (4:17.94), making Reynolds four-for-four on the podium for the Cardinals. Reynolds now competes for Oakland University.
CHASE BATTANI: Junior Chase Battani of Almont was third in the pole vault, clearing 14-0 to earn D3 All-State status. He won the BWAC and was named the MVP at the Blue Water Meet of Champions, where he won the pole vault by over a foot and a half there in 14-6. He was undefeated in pole vault the entire regular season before regionals and states and later vaulted 15 feet at the MITCA meet.
MATTHEW BACHOLZKY: Sophomore Matthew Bacholzky of Almont qualified for the state finals in all four of his events: he was a back-to-back regional champ in the long jump, leaping this year to the win in 20-3.25, his best. Bacholzky was also part of the second-place 4x400 relay (3:39.59) and the winning 4x200 relay (1:33.25). He snagged another state qualification in the open 400, where he was second in 52.48, a PR. He was the BWAC champion and Davison Twilight Invitational champion in the long jump as well. He is featured on episode 6 of the pod.
TYE KIRSCHNER: Cros-Lex’s Tye Kirschner won the 110-high hurdles at the BWAC Championships, Marysville Invitational, Blue Water Meet of Champions, and Thumb Championships. He won three out of those four meets in the 300 hurdles and was a state qualifier in both events. At the state meet in the 110 hurdles, he was only one place from making all-state, finishing ninth. Kirschner now competes for the University of Olivet.
Junior pole vaulter KIERAN WHITLAM of Macomb Lutheran North won all divisions at the Macomb County meet with a vault of 13-3. This is almost a two-foot improvement over his best vault last season and he spent the spring track season winning every vault competition he entered before the state meet, including the D2 regional championship. In October, he vaulted 14 feet indoors.
ELI BICKEL of North Branch and ANDREW STARRS of MLN
The back-and-forth between these two throwers was all season, with sophomore Bickel winning the shot and disc in the BWAC and winning the shot at regionals, while junior Starrs won the discus and was second in the shot. Their personal bests are almost identical.
BOYS 3200 M Run: Distance running in Michigan has always been top tier and with a record number of qualifiers, it required the finals of the 3200 to be split into two heats at the state meet. Local runners consistently pushed each other, with lots of personal bests being set this year in the area. Along with Westphal’s D1 state win, Brewer Snay of Macomb Lutheran North won regionals with St. Clair’s Dylan Distelrath taking second, both with PRs in the 9:40s. Anchor Bay’s Greg Vogt dropped under 9:50 at the Macomb County Championships and teammate Zachary Rubicz did at the D1 regional, too. Distelrath is on episode 8 of the podcast talking about the 3200.
4x800
Cros-Lex girls: Eva Thompson, Morgan Newton, Brynn Hurley, and Abagayle Barkley broke the BWAC record, now set at 10:02, and then re-set a school record of 9:46 by taking second at regionals. They were first or second in every regular-season meet in this relay.
Yale boys: Undefeated the entire season, including regionals, Giovanni Pardo-Keegan, Acer Campbell, Wyatt Murtos, and Blake Ferguson ran their best of 8:02 to take 10th at the state meet.
GIO PARDO-KEEGAN: Yale's Giovanni Pardo-Keegan, a senior, won the BWAC 800 meters in 1:59.56, 1600 in 4:41, the 4x800 relay (8:44) and helped his team to a runner-up finish in the 4x400 (3:36). Pardo-Keegan was just fractions of a second from breaking the 800 record, as it stands at 1:59.32, and was a regional champion in the 800 in 1:59.
BOYS’ 800 METERS
The boys’ 800 meters continues to feature fast times from area athletes. At the D2 regional at North Branch, Pardo-Keegan of Yale narrowly won in 1:59.06 over an incredibly fast field: the top four finishers were all under two minutes and within less than a second of each other at the line, with a total of five athletes meeting automatic qualifying times for the state meet. Blake Ferguson of Yale was second (1:59.4), Trent Glass of Marysville third (1:59.70), and Jack Howell of St. Clair fourth (1:59.97). On the D1 side, seniors Luke VanderHeuvel and Grant Gonser of Port Huron Northern both broke the 2-minute mark this spring: Luke’s PR was 1:58.74 and Grant’s was 1:59.01. They were featured together on episode 9 of the podcast.
For the girls’ 800, Samantha Whitlam of Lutheran North deserves a mention here - she was second at regionals in 2:22 and was one of only six freshmen to race the 800 at states, finishing her season with a PR of 2:21.
KAI FISHER -MEMPHIS: He was the only freshman in the top 30 rankings for the 200-meter dash in D3, the first sprinter from Memphis to qualify for the state meet, and he did it all without a track. Kai won the 100 and 200-meter dashes at the Algonac Friday Night Lights Invitational and was the Greater Thumb League East Conference Champion in the 200 and 400 and runner-up in the 100 and high jump. At the Blue Water Meet of Champions, Kai took the title in the 200-meter dash in 23.5 seconds. He’s on podcast episode 12.
JOHN COVERDILL - Marine City: John was undefeated in the high jump the entire 2024 season, winning the MAC Blue (PR 6-3), Blue Water Meet of Champions, and Regionals.
CROSS COUNTRY
UTICA: Utica’s Harper Wesley (junior) and Luke Morehouse (senior) both earned All-State honors, with Wesley taking 15th in 15:37 and Morehouse taking 28th in 15:44. The team finished 15th, their second-best finish in program history. Wesley is the first Utica cross country athlete to earn All-State honors twice, and this was the first time two Utica runners were All-State at the same time. Wesley won the individual Macomb County Meet title in 15:37 and the UHS Chieftains took the team win, as well.
ROMEO: When you have the defending D1 XC state champions in Macomb County, the outcome is no surprise. At the county meet, the girls’ race was all Romeo: they swept the entire first seven places, earning a perfect score of 15 and taking every first-team All-County spot. All seven varsity runners were well under 19 minutes with a team spread of 43 seconds between the top five: they’ve dominated this meet for nine consecutive years. They swept their D1 regional as well. Winning the D1 state title this year by almost 100 points, Romeo crushed the team competition, making their championship titles back-to-back. With a team spread of 27 seconds, the Bulldogs placed six of their seven varsity runners in the top 30 all-state spots. Then, running under the moniker of Bruce Township, the Bulldogs represented the midwest region at Nike Cross Country Nationals, taking sixth as a team.
BWAC
ALGONAC: Julian Walker of Algonac ran undefeated in the BWAC all year, and with teammate Owen Beindit close behind, brought the Muskrats back into team contention. Walker dropped 11 seconds to take third in the D3 regional race at Columbus, running a personal best of 16:38. Walker and Beindit helped the Muskrats to a fifth-place team finish. Beindit was seventh in 17:00, a personal best by 23 seconds. Beindit was running in the mid-19s last year, so he has made incredible improvements this season, and both he and Walker are only juniors. Walker is on episode 22 of the podcast.
ARMADA GIRLS: Led by second-place Brooklyn Khon (20:03) and huge PRs by multiple teammates, the Armada Tigers took the girls’ BWAC team title for the first time since 2017 with 42 points over Yale and Cros-Lex, who tied for second with 52 each. Allison Mansfield’s PR before this league jamboree was a 25:09 and she ran a 22:37 to help the Tigers claim the team win.
YALE GIRLS: Saige Cole of Yale, who finished fourth in the BWAC in 20:48 and was the only freshman in the top five, will return next fall as the highest finisher, as the top three places (Thompson and Hurley of Cros-Lex and Khon of Armada) all graduate. Teammate Lillian Bender (sophomore) was fifth in the BWAC and seventh in the region, with Cole taking eighth. Both girls dropped several minutes throughout the season and are on the cusp of breaking the 20-minute barrier. Yale was sixth in the league last year and seventh in 2022, so they look to be the BWAC team favorite next year.
YALE BOYS: The Bulldogs won the BWAC team title handily for the eighth consecutive year with 24 points to runner-up Algonac’s 83. Senior Wyatt Murtos was second in the BWAC and took third place at regionals, dipping under 17 minutes to run his PR of 16:58, which he did again at the state meet. He capped off his career for the Bulldogs with a best by 14 seconds, taking 41st in 16:43 at the MITCA meet. He is featured in episode 17 of the podcast.
CROS-LEX Sophomore Connor Pepin stunned the field at regionals with a thirty-second PR to finish fourth in 17:00 and earn his first trip to Brooklyn. Pepin spent most of the season in high 17s to mid-18s and didn’t even run cross country last year, so this was a big accomplishment for the Pioneer.
EVA THOMPSON: Her senior campaign left no doubt that she was the dominant favorite in the Blue Water Area and one of the best in the state, frequently front-running all alone. Her only second-place finish locally this year was to defending D4 state champion Kaylie Livingston at the Brooks Mid-Season Spectacular. With twelve first-place meet finishes in 2024 (and 27 meet and invitational wins throughout her career), Thompson is a two-time regional champion and BWAC MVP. Thompson put the icing on her career cake, blazing the MIS course to a top-ten finish at the state meet on November 2 in a ten-second personal best: she was seventh in 18:19. She also took 34th in the MITCA meet with a time of 18:17. She recently signed to compete at Central Michigan University next fall.
Josh Macri came into the 2024 cross country season with a personal best of 17:49 from his freshman season last year. He has since dropped his PR to 16:16. He won several invitationals, including The Lake St. Clair Earlybird Invitational, the Algonac Muskrat Classic, the Autumn Classic Invite, the Dakota Carnival of Races, and the Catholic High School League Jamboree, and has been runner-up at quite a few more. He was named to the Macomb All-County team for his seventh-place finish at the county championships in 16:29, leading his team to the small-school D2/3/4 division trophy. Macri accomplished the goal he had focused on most of the season: D2 regional champion. Macri won by 15 seconds in 16:24 and was pushed from the runner-up position by teammate Xavier Roman (16:39 PR), Macomb Lutheran North went 1-2 and won the team title with 42 points, narrowly edging out Yale, who was second with 44. Macri was the top Blue Water Area runner in the second elite open race at MITCA, as well as posting the fastest time of the day for a local athlete. He finished 11th in 16:16, just equaling his personal best. Roman dropped 12 seconds to run his best of 16:27, placing 21st.
St. Clair claimed the third-place team qualification at regionals, scoring 72 points and making another run at MIS for the 25th year in a row. That’s a quarter-century of sending athletes to the best competition in the state. Macri is in episode 26 and St. Clair is in episode 17 of the podcast.
Samantha Whitlam ran her first sub-20 5K in 19:46 to finish 17th at the MCC and earned All-County honors, leading her team to a D2/3/4 small team championship trophy. Macomb Lutheran North won the girls’ regional team trophy, taking first with 66 points, led by runner-up Whitlam in 19:47. She took 12th in a PR of 19:24 at MITCA.
ANCHOR BAY: Transitioning to a new head coach at Anchor Bay, Greg Vogt and Aaron Osterman had a big season this year with both running significant personal bests. Vogt qualified for the D1 state meet by taking 9th at regionals and won the Marysville Invitational. He ran his personal best at the MITCA meet, taking 24th in 16:28. Just missing the qualifying spot for the state meet, Osterman still won the Dakota Run Fast invitational, was runner-up at Marysville, and dropped almost a minute from last year. He ran his PR of 16:24 to take 14th at the MITCA meet. Podcast episode 23 features Greg.
Port Huron Northern: Haley Sharp and Samantha Langolf had huge improvements this season and both qualified for the state meet in a tough regional with Romeo. Sharp went from a 21:18 to a 19:52 over a year and Langolf went from a PR last year of 20:47 to a 19:17 at the state meet.
Catholic League: Freshman Cassidy Bowers (Austin Catholic) ran in the mid to low 20s most of the season, won the Algonac Muskrat and Fox and Hounds invitationals, qualified for the state meet, and was 38th, only 8 places from D4 all-state as a freshman. Fellow Crusader Nico DiPonio was 60th at regionals as a sophomore in 2022 and dropped that to an 18:16 by his junior year, then another huge PR this fall as a senior with a 17:10, only the fifth time he’d even broken 18 in his career. Both of his PRs each year were by significant margins at the state meet and he didn’t even compete his freshman year. DiPonio was the top D4 boy’s finisher from the Blue Water Area.
Sophomore Stella Behnan of Marine City Cardinal Mooney ran a PR of 24:14 last year as a freshman and despite battling an injury for a few weeks, was 48th at the D4 state meet in 20:37.
MACH: Sisters Alannah and Faith Wessel, who run for the Macomb Athletic Club for Homeschoolers, had a fantastic season. Alannah claimed five invitational wins this fall with a PR of 19:07 and was the only freshman to earn All-County honors at the Macomb County Championships. She also won the post-regional open race (PROM) at regionals in 19:07. Faith (sophomore) has dropped almost a minute off her season’s best from 2023, running a PR of 20:09 and finishing right behind her sister for runner-up honors at the Dakota Carnival of Races and the PROM race. You can listen to an interview with both sisters in episode 28 of the podcast.
DRYDEN - The boys’ team won a regional championship, led by Logan Romain, who has improved from a freshman PR of 20:34 to a junior-year best of 17:32. He was sixth at regionals and the rest of his team went 13, 15, 16, and 21, with freshman Levi Fitchett as their second man.
On the girls’ side, Junior Cara Prusakiewicz ran her first sub-20 minute to win an individual D4 girls regional title and then dropped to a 19:50 personal best to earn D4 all-state status in 23rd place, which is her school record. She was the highest finisher for D4 athletes from the Blue Water Area. She is featured in episode 25 of The Blue Water Running podcast.
SC4/MCC:
Macomb Community College and St. Clair County Community College both qualified athletes to compete at the National Junior College Cross Country Championships. The MCC men secured a top-ten finish, placing tenth out of 41 teams, while the SC4 men finished 12th. The MCC women had two athletes competing, while SC4 had three women runners in the field of 317. Dylan Penberthy of MCC was 23rd (26:13) and twin brother Brandon Penberthy was 33rd (26:34).
The Macomb Community College Monarchs men’s and women’s teams earned first-place honors at the MCCAA Eastern Conference Championships. Ava LaMilza won an individual championship (20:03) and was named the MCCAA East Runner of the Year, but unfortunately due to an injury could not continue competing the rest of the season.
SC4’s Lily Lemanski set a school record this season for the women, running a 5K best of 19:40. Acer Campbell dipped under the 26-minute mark in the men’s 8K, running 25:57: Campbell dropped almost two and a half minutes throughout the season. SC4 coaches Andrea Rheaume and Max Whittredge are featured on the podcast in episodes 31 and 32.
That's a wrap for 2024! It's been an incredible year, with many talented young athletes making their mark on the sport. As we head into the new year, I’m excited to see what's in store for our local athletes. Keep dreaming, keep working, and I will see you out there soon.
Here’s a quote from Amby Burfoot, the Boston Marathon winner in 1968 and the editor-in-chief of Runner’s World for many years. “Running has taught me, perhaps more than anything else, that there's no reason to fear starting lines... or any other new beginnings”.
I want to thank everyone who has supported Blue Water Running this year. It’s been a true honor and privilege to get to know you and be able to showcase your accomplishments to the community and beyond. Thanks again to our listeners for tuning in. If you missed any of our episodes this year, be sure to check them out on the website under the podcast tab or by searching for The Blue Water Running Podcast on your favorite podcasting app. Don't forget to follow Blue Water Running on social media to stay up-to-date on all the latest news and updates from local track and field and cross country in the Blue Water Area on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and YouTube. If you’d like to partner with Blue Water Running to advertise your business and promote local runners, please reach out via the website or social media links!
I wish you a happy and healthy 2025. Work hard, set big goals, and believe that this new year is another opportunity to chase your dreams.
