Chesaning Puts Away Win in Final Event
By
Wes Morgan
Special for MHSAA.com
June 3, 2017
COMSTOCK PARK – The boys on the Chesaning track & field team are emotionally spent.
A Saturday saturated with stress gave way to pure bliss as the Indians kept grinding all the way to a Lower Peninsula Division 3 championship at Comstock Park.
Their lead dwindled to a single point, 43-42, with only the 1600-meter relay remaining. The Indians finished in fifth place — the most memorable fifth-place performance, perhaps, in the program’s history.
Chesaning ended the day with 47 points, followed by Hillsdale (42) and Frankenmuth (30).
Hillsdale’s Spencer Eves made things very interesting as his 6-foot, 7-inch performance to win the high jump boosted the Hornets to within a point of the lead with one event remaining.
However, knowing exactly what needed to be done in order to finish off the team title had Chesaning’s mile relay team focused. The mission was pretty clear at that point.
“We had to beat Hillsdale,” Sam Forsyth said. “So we went to work.”
Paxton Ruddy, Hayden Giesken, Forsyth and Zach McFarlan pieced together a time of 3 minutes, 24.03 seconds for fifth place. Hillsdale was 18th and the rest is history.
Chesaning produced a critical victory in the 800 relay when McFarlan, Brady Fraiser, Brandon Keys and Forsyth crossed the line in 1:29.55.
Forsyth gained even more points for the Indians with a first-place distance of 21-6½ in the long jump and a third-place performance in the 200 (22.88). McFarlan was third in the 400 with a personal-best time of 49.32, and the 400 relay team of Anthony Aquado, Fraiser, McFarlan and Keys landed on the all-state team with a seventh-place time of 43.93.
Ruddy also cleared a height of 6 feet, 6 inches for third place overall in the high jump.
“We knew coming into the meet that we had a chance at being in the top two,” Forsyth said. “But nothing is guaranteed. No matter what you are ranked in an event, you can never completely count on anything in track.
“Today was probably the most stressful and also the most successful day of my life. I couldn’t be happier with the outcome of the meet. Winning titles in the 4x200 and the long jump is great, but bringing home the team title meant the most by far.”
There was certainly a pattern Saturday with wins coming in pairs for others in the field.
Wyoming Lee junior Thomas Robinson couldn’t be stopped in the sprints as he won the 100 in 10.84 and the 200 in 22.04. Bridgman’s Brian Patrick, a senior, dethroned defending 800 champ Anthony Evilsizor (Constantine) with a time of 1:53.81 in personal-record fashion. Patrick also went on to claim the mile championship with a dominant victory (4:11.50) that was a personal record as well.
Evilsizor, who is headed to the Marine Corps now that his high school career is over, tipped his cap to Patrick.
“I just tried to stick on his back to the end and see what happens,” said Evilsizor, whose time of 1:55.50 was a season best. “He didn’t die out. I knew he was the one coming for me. He’s put in the work. I’m not going to complain. It has been fun. I’m happy with second place.”
The hurdle races belonged to Houghton Lake’s Jackson Blanchard, a junior who ran a personal best to win the 110 hurdles (14.81) and his fastest time in the 300 (38.50).
In the throws, Frankenmuth senior Dan Stone muscled his way to a shot put championship with a distance of 60-9¾ (personal best) and a discus title with a throw of 171-00.
PHOTOS: (Top) Chesaning's Sam Forsyth launches during the long jump, which he won to help his team to the overall title. (Middle) Wyoming Lee's Thomas Robinson holds off Forsyth and others in the 200. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Team of the Month: Berrien Springs Boys Track & Field
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
June 29, 2022
With two elite standouts comparable to the best pairs on any team statewide, and a deep group of sprinters capable of scoring major points, Berrien Springs track & field coach Johnathan Rodriguez had a feeling this could be a special spring for his boys team.
He scheduled tougher for that possibility, and planned everything pointing toward the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final on June 4.
But Rodriguez didn’t breathe easily until that morning at Ada Forest Hills Eastern.
“I think the whole month, I think I was on pins and needles thinking of everything that could go wrong or wondering if we were ill-prepared or if we didn’t run them enough,” Rodriguez said. “And then we got to the meet that day, and they were just fresh and jumping around and happy, and we’re loose. They did very well.”
Berrien Springs – the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for June – capped its season that day with its first MHSAA Finals boys track & field championship.
The title also was the first for the school in any sport since 2006, when the Shamrocks’ baseball team won the Division 3 title.
“We weren’t big on trying to win every meet. We were just thinking, all right, let’s try to be healthy for that state meet. So we were kind of smart in how we handled things and just scheduled things out so we can peek at the right moment,” Rodriquez said. “And I think it’s kind of a gamble that made us all uneasy, but they were just on fire that day.”
The boys track & field team had finished LP Division 3 runner-up in 2018, its highest Finals finish since coming in second in 1953. But with enrollment lines driving downward the last many years, Berrien Springs found itself it a much different spot beginning in 2021. The Shamrocks went from one of the largest schools in Division 3 to one of the smallest – the 11th-smallest of 155 teams this season – in Division 2.
Still, Berrien Springs received a strong indication it could compete with anybody this season when it ran at an invitational April 29 in Warsaw, Ind., against a number of larger Indiana schools include state power Carmel. Senior Jamal Hailey won the 100 and 200 meters, the 400 relay finished second, and senior James York was third in high jump as the Shamrocks hung with competition similar to the best they’d see in Michigan this spring.
Berrien Springs also possessed the right strengths to succeed in a championship format. The Shamrocks won their Regional by 37.5 points May 20 in part because the sprint group took nine top-eight places in the 100, 200 and 400 and won the 400 and 800 relays. The same formula worked as they won the Berrien-Cass-St. Joseph Conference championship meet the next week.
At the Finals at Forest Hills Eastern, Hailey won the 100 (10.77) and 200 (22.11) and York won the long jump (22-10). The 400 relay of senior Junyoung Chung, York, sophomore Jake Machiniak and Bailey won the 400 relay (42-44), and senior CJ Porter, Young, freshman Zander White and York placed eighth in the 800 relay (1:31.11). Freshman Noah Jarvis just missed scoring with a ninth place in the 400 (50.99).
With points spread out across several contenders, Berrien Springs’ 41 won the meet by eight.
Hailey finished the season undefeated in the 200 and with only one non-win in the 100, a runner-up finish at an early-season invitational. The 400 relay also was undefeated except for that second place in Indiana. York was undefeated in long jump except for finishing second in the Regional and league before coming back to win at the Finals. The 400 relay won every time he was a part.
Berrien Springs has had some recent success in other sports, particularly with Hailey leading a football team that went 10-1 last fall. This spring’s championship could be a catalyst for more Finals-level success in the near future across other sports.
“I hope so. I think that every kid that we had qualify (for the Finals) was a multi-sport athlete kid, and I think our 4x1(00) team, everybody on there was a three-sport athlete guy,” Rodriguez said. “Our athletic department works well, like our football guys lift with football two days a week and then come after track practice, so we have that nice working partnership with all the athletes.
“Now that we’ve shown that we can get there, I think it’s (shown) the kids at our school that hey, we can beat the bigger schools. We can hang. Track did it. Maybe we can do it next.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2021-22
May: Houghton boys golf - Read
April: Plainwell girls soccer - Read
March: West Bloomfield girls basketball - Read
February: Cadillac girls skiing - Read
January: Hartland hockey - Read
December: Midland Dow girls basketball - Read
November: Reese girls volleyball - Read
October: Birmingham Groves boys tennis - Read