high school track : All posts

rankings: Regional champions fill track and field top five

Saline High School senior Natalie Wysocki competes in the girls 300 meter hurdles during the Division 1 Regional Track and Field Meet at Saline High School Friday, May 17, 2013.

Andrew Kuhn | AnnArbor.com file

Washtenaw County boys track and field teams went to three different regional sites to compete last weekend. And they came away with a clean sweep.

Saline and Chelsea boys track teams win third straight SEC titles

The Saline and Chelsea high school boys track teams won the respective divisions at the Southeastern Conference championships on Wednesday.

Courtney Sacco | AnnArbor.com file photo

Fresh off their third straight regional title, the Saline boys track and field team added another three-peat to the program with its third straight Southeastern Conference Red Division championship Wednesday afternoon in Dexter.

Prep Roundup: Skyline girls soccer one win from league title and more Tuesday results

• For complete Tuesday results, visit Mlive's High School Sports Network

Spring Fever: Freshman sprinter leads team to track state finals and more notes

The 100- and 200-meter dashes are typically races dominated by seniors at the high school level. So when Willow Run High School freshman Brandon Morgan won the 200 and finished runner-up in the 100 at the Division 3 regional championship at Erie Mason High School on Friday, his coach was encouraged.

Chelsea boys track notches first regional win since 1969

Berkley Edwards runs the 100-meter dash at the Golden Triangle invite earlier this season.

Courtney Sacco | AnnArbor.com file photo

The Chelsea boys track team captured its first regional championship since 1969, recording victories in 10 events Friday at Livonia Ladywood.

With gallery: Saline takes boys and girls track regional titles, Pioneer finishes runner-up

That Tre Brown was yelling in frustration after a being edged out at the finish line of Friday's Division 1 track and field regional is a testament to just how far he’s come.

rankings: Saline baseball earns No. 1 spot, hopes for league title in makeup with Temperance Bedford

Saline payers gather before the start of a 2012 quarterfinal game.

Jeffrey Smith | AnnArbor.com file

The Saline baseball team had to call the second game of its April 26th doubleheader against Temperance Bedford with the score tied 7-7 after six innings.

Now, it’s hoping to make the trip south sometime next week to finish that game, with a league title on the line.

Saline's Randi Bennett sets school shot put record six months after torn ACL

Technically, she’s still in recovery until June. But that hasn’t stopped Randi Bennett from breaking records in May.

with gallery: Golden Triangle meet attracts top Michigan track talent to Saline

Good competition has a way of attracting more good competition. And earlier this week, Saline found out it would be hosting some of the nation’s best runners at its 17th annual Golden Triangle Invite.

team of the week: Saline girls track one of the state's largest, most successful programs

• Related: Even with 130 members, Saline girls track team stays united as one
• Sunday: Six months after ACL tear, senior Randi Bennett back to throwing again

When Brian Boze competed for the Saline track and field team in the 1980’s, he had a different coach every year. He saw firsthand how detrimental coaching turnover can be in the development of a program.

team of the week: Even with 130 members, Saline girls track team stays united as one

Saline girls track coach Brian Boze talks to his team after their Tuesday meet against Huron.

Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com

• Related: Saline girls track grows into one of the largest and most successful programs in Michigan
• Sunday: Six months after ACL tear, senior Randi Bennett back to throwing tear

team of the week: Saline track cruises past Huron in matchup of top SEC teams

Members of the Saline girls track team run against Huron Tuesday.

Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com

The Huron High School girls may have bested Saline High School at last year’s Division 1 girls track and field state meet, finishing in second while the Hornets tied for fourth.

Saline girls track wins record-setting Team of the Week poll

We’ve done 27 total high school polls during the 2012-13 school year, from football Game of the Week polls to basketball Game of the Week to spring sports Team of the Week.

Poll: Vote for the top performance by a local athlete during Saturday's MHSAA tournaments

For coverage of these events, visit our High School Sports page.

Training partners Cindy Ofili (Huron), Drake Johnson (Pioneer) shine at Division 1 state track meet

Huron's Cindy Ofili pulls ahead in the girls 100-meter dash finals at the Division 1 state track and field meet Saturday at East Kentwood High School. It was one of four first-place finishes for the senior on the day.

Sally Finneran | MLive

KENTWOOD -- He's foolish. She's fierce.

Both are among this state's finest track athletes -- thanks to each other.

Huron High School senior Cindy Ofili won four girls state championships Saturday during the Division 1 track finals at East Kentwood High School. Pioneer senior Drake Johnson added one, despite a hamstring injury.

It was a nice haul for the pair, who are offseason workout partners. They also both are headed to the University of Michigan next year, where Ofili will run track and Johnson will play running back for the football team.

Bryce Bradley wins 3,200 state title, leads Chelsea to 3rd place at D2 track final

Chelsea High School senior Bryce Bradley won the 3,200-meter run and was second in the 1,600 run to lead the Bulldogs to a third-place finish at the Division 2 state track and field championships Saturday at Houseman Field in Grand Rapids.

Washtenaw County athletes ready to sprint, jump for state track titles

Pioneer's Drake Johnson takes a big lead in the 300-meter hurdles during a regional meet at Saline. The win gave him the best qualifying time in the event for Saturday's Division 1 state finals at East Kentwood High School.

Jeffrey Smith | AnnArbor.com

Five Washtenaw County students are top seeds at the MHSAA Division 1 track and field championships, which will be held Saturday at East Kentwood High School.

For three of them, being the top seed in a single event wasn't good enough.

Based on their performances at a regional tournament, Huron's Cindy Ofili, Pioneer's Drake Johnson and Ypsilanti's Austin Sanders are among the favorites to win multiple state titles.

Ofili has the best qualifying time in the 100 dash (11.6 seconds), 100 hurdles (13.3) and 300 hurdles (44.6).

Johnson, the two-time defending 110-meter state champion, has the best qualifying time in that event (13.9 seconds) and in the 300 hurdles (38.3).

Sanders has the best times entering the 100 (10.3) and 200 (21.5) dashes.

Two other Washtenaw County athletes -- Saline's Steve Bastien (long jump) and Huron's Maya Long (400) -- also have top qualifying times.

(Related story: One year after her father's suicide and shooting of her mother, Maya Long seeks refuge on the track)

In total, 93 individuals and 29 relay teams from Washtenaw County qualified for the Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3 state meets, including 41 girls that will be competing in the D1 meet.

Here's a look at all local qualifiers, and their seed based on regional performances:

One year after her father's suicide and shooting of her mother, Maya Long seeks refuge on the track

Ann Arbor's Katrina Long kisses her daughter, Huron High School senior Maya Long, at a recent track meet as her daughter Monae, 5, stands and smiles.

Jeffrey Smith | AnnArbor.com

The 400-meter dash is a short enough race to need sprinter’s speed, but long enough to need a distance runner’s mental fortitude. Runners who fly around the final turn often end up looking like they're running in sand for the final 50 meters.

"Push through the pain," Marlow Long used to tell his daughter, Maya Long, about that fateful final stretch.

When the Ann Arbor Huron High School senior runs the 400, she says she can still hear her father yelling, as though he’s standing at the fence, cheering for his baby girl. "Push through the pain."

She also thinks about him whenever she climbs into the green 1999 Chevy Malibu he bought her when she got her driver's license, and at multiple other moments of mundane daily life.

“I just think about him all the time,” Maya said. “He was very involved with everything that I did.”

In the early morning of May 28, 2011, Marlow Long shot Maya's mother, Katrina Long, in the neck and shoulder and then turned the gun on himself, ending his life at the age of 37.

Marlow always told Maya to push through the pain.

He never told her how strong the pain could be.

Chelsea, Saline boys track teams win SEC titles as state finals approach

ADRIAN -- Redemption was the name of the game for the Chelsea High School boys track team at the Southeastern Conference championships Thursday.

After a disappointing performance at the regional championship last weekend, Bulldogs coach Eric Swager made it clear what the goal was for his team.

“I told the guys, 'Hey, if you want to win a league title, you have to perform well as a team,'" said Swager.

His team responded. The Bulldogs ran away with the White Division championship, scoring 174 points to nearly double second-place Adrian (97).

In the Red Division, Saline claimed a title with 188.5 points. Monroe was second with 119 points.

Swager looked at the SEC championships as a good warm-up for states next weekend.

“Especially when you came off a regional, as a team, that they weren’t real happy about, to come off of that and have a positive going into states is a good thing," he said. "This is how it’s supposed to be at the end of the year.”

Huron hurdler ties state record. Saline sweeps boys and girls team titles at D1 MHSAA track regional

Saline's Abby Rentschler runs in the 1,600-meter race during an MHSAA Division regional Friday at Saline High School. Pioneer's Katie Hoevet won the race, but the Hornets ran away with a team title.

Jeffrey Smith | AnnArbor.com

Cindy Ofili is not interested in simply becoming a state champion hurdler for her Huron High School girls track team. Instead, Ofili has a bigger goal in mind.

“I definitely want to get under 13.6 (seconds) so I can get the state record,” Ofili said of the 100-meter hurdles event.

She came close to breaking that record when she tied former Pioneer High School runner Candice Davis’ nine-year-old record time of 13.66 seconds at a Division 1 regional held at Saline High School Friday.

After tying the record, Ofili thinks she can still be better.