Two-Sporter Chavez Enjoys Double Success
February 8, 2021
By Doug Donnelly
Special for Second Half
CLINTON – Nathan Chavez took a job at a farm because he wanted to learn more about biology and chemistry. He developed a green thumb.
He joined the Clinton soccer team and helped it to the program’s first District title.
And Chavez was on the cross country team that this fall finished 10th at the MHSAA Finals.
Whatever Chavez touches, he seems to turn to gold.
“I don’t think I have a competitive nature,” Chavez said. “I just enjoy it.”
As calm and collected as Chavez is, he seems to excel at everything he does. In the classroom he takes mainly AP classes and had an adjusted GPA of 4.3 as the first semester of his senior year concluded
He takes everything in stride. But don’t let that fool you, says his father, Clinton varsity boys basketball coach Jeremy Chavez.
“He’s got a lot going on and works really hard,” Jeremy Chavez said. “I’m very proud of him.”
Chavez lives in Tecumseh but started attending Clinton in the second grade. He started running cross country in high school and has been a steady performer for the team, which has been on the cusp of a big Finals finish the last couple of seasons.
He placed just outside the top 10 at the Lenawee County Athletic Association meet and 17th at the Lenawee County meet. At Michigan International Speedway, Chavez finished 117th overall with a time of 17:39.14, which helped Clinton place in the top 10 in Lower Peninsula Division 3.
“Our team has been developing for four years,” he said. “It was great to see it all come together.”
Chavez never could decide which sport he liked better – cross country or soccer. Instead of choosing between the two, he decided to be a dual-sport athlete in the fall. The soccer team lost several seniors from a year ago, and Chavez was unsure what to expect. Clinton, however, won 10 matches and turned some heads with that first District championship.
The District Final was tied 2-2 at the end of regulation and two overtimes, but Clinton won it in a dramatic shootout, sending the team to the Regional for the first time.
“It definitely went better than I expected from last year,” Chavez said. “We did really well this year, all season. We lost a ton of seniors, so I really didn’t know how it was going to go.”
Chavez is grateful his parents – Jeremy and Leslie – allowed him to compete in both sports.
“I have a great support system at home,” he said. “They are very supportive of me in whatever I do.”
Dual-sport athletes typically have to choose which will have priority in the event of a conflict. Chavez said that was never an issue.
“When it came to the more important events, it seems like I could always do both,” he said. “Every year that I did it, it went smoothly.”
He’s glad he didn’t have to choose between the two.
“I started out by running cross country, but over the years I ended up playing soccer. I don’t really have a favorite,” he said. “I just like both sports equally. I feel like I was able to show my talents at both.”
Besides helping those two fall teams bring home hardware, Chavez was celebrated a bit on his own by earning academic all-state honors in both sports, which is no small fete. Not only was he practicing or participating in two sports every night and just about every Saturday, he also had to maintain his high GPA.
“During the season it always seems more hectic,” he said. “I always try to get as much homework done in my free time at school. I always studied on the bus, and there were a few all-nighters too. … My teachers are all very understanding, especially during the season that I dual-sport. They understand.
“When I’m in the moment, I don’t notice how much I really put into it.”
While he won’t be playing a winter sport, Chavez is already gearing up for track season, which is just around the corner. He’ll try to help earn more hardware for a school district that has seen a ton of sports success in recent years.
Chavez was recently accepted into the University of Michigan, something that has been a goal of his for some time. He’s pretty sure he wants to go into chemistry or biology, which is one of the reasons he began working at a Britton farm a few years ago.
“I just enjoy everything,” he said.
Doug Donnelly has served as a sports and news reporter and city editor over 25 years, writing for the Daily Chief-Union in Upper Sandusky, Ohio from 1992-1995, the Monroe Evening News from 1995-2012 and the Adrian Daily Telegram since 2013. He's also written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Clinton’s Nathan Chavez charges through a stretch in a cross country race. (Middle) Chavez (5) runs down the ball during a soccer match this fall. (Photos courtesy of the Chavez family.
Benzie's Jones Caps Legendary Career with 4th Title, Hart Makes History with 1st
November 5, 2022
BROOKLYN – Runners at Hunter Jones’ level don’t get racing advice from just anybody.
In the days leading up to his bid for history at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final, the Benzie Central senior chatted with the most legendary distance runner to compete at the Michigan high school level.
Jones’ coach thought it would be a good idea for him to talk with former Rockford star Dathan Ritzenhein, a three-time Olympian whose time of 14:10.4 at Michigan International Speedway in 2000 has never been approached.
“I had a phone call with him a couple days ago,” Jones said. “He just kind of coached me through what to do. It’s pretty cool we have that connection and we are 1 and 2 in the state.
“He just told me don’t worry about time. His advice was just go out and red-line the whole time, just go hard the whole time. I did that. My legs were pretty tired in the middle. I couldn’t push as much as I wanted to.”
Jones hoped to make a run at Ritzenhein’s course record, but strong winds at MIS threw that pursuit out the window. He had to be satisfied with putting his name in the record books as the first boy to win the LP championship four times under the MHSAA Divisional format and breaking the Division 3 record of 14:52.8 set by Ovid-Elsie’s Maverick Darling in 2007. He is the third runner to win four MHSAA Finals boys titles and second in Lower Peninsula history, following only Central Lake’s Ryan Shay and his four Class D championships from 1993-96.
Jones’ time of 14:46.50 surpasses the time of 14:49.62 by Hartland’s Riley Hough in 2020 as the No. 2 performance all-time at MIS.
Jones was aware of Ritzenhein’s legend well before he began targeting some of his times.
“I’ve known about him since I was probably in seventh or eighth grade,” Jones said. “Just looking at his times, that’s crazy. To get this close, I’m extremely happy.”
Jones comes from the same part of the state as Shay.
“To have that up-north connection with Ryan Shay, it’s great because there’s not a lot of people up there compared to a metro area like Detroit and Grand Rapids,” Jones said. “It’s great that someone where maybe they don’t have as many advantages as other people is doing well.”
Jones cleared the field by more than a minute. The race for second place was considerably more dramatic, as Clayton Ackey of Hart outleaned Parks Allen of Ithaca by three hundredths of a second with a time of 15:52.14. Jones was already in the middle of an interview when they battled to the line.
Jones never lost to a Division 3 or 4 runner during his four seasons racing in a Benzie Central uniform. He won all 11 of his races this year and 51 of 54 races during his career. His only career losses were to top Division 1 and 2 runners.
“I only had two races this year that I really had any competition,” he said. “The rest of the time, it was me winning by 40 seconds-plus. It is what it is. Hopefully my time holds up as the fastest today so I can get the Mr. Cross Country award.”
Hart won the team championship with 116 points, beating runner-up Traverse City St. Francis by 31. St. Louis was third with 161. The team title was Hart’s first and came after the Pirates finished runners-up in 2020 and 2021.
Hart had three runners crack the top 12 overall and the top seven in the team race. Following Clayton Ackley were senior Wyatt Dean in eighth in 16:20.05, senior Seth Ackley in 12th in 16:27.51, senior Caleb Bitely in 44th in 17:17.71 and senior Easton Vander Zwaag in 116th in 17:58.80.
St. Francis had its five scoring runners crack the top 74 overall, with its first runner 23rd-place Josh Slocum.
PHOTOS (Top) Benzie Central’s Hunter Jones throws up the customary four fingers to symbolize his four championships as he crosses the line at MIS on Saturday. (Middle) Hart’s Clayton Ackley, right, and Ithaca’s Parks Allen run stride for stride together toward the finish. (Click for more from Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)