Cooper Closing In On Fantastic Finish
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
May 2, 2017
OAK PARK – As good as he is as a runner, Cameron Cooper understands he can’t do it alone.
Running one last high school season guided by knowledgeable veteran coaches and with a friend to help set their team's pace, the Oak Park senior is sprinting toward a captivating conclusion to his high school career and with more exciting possibilities ahead.
Cooper, 18, helped the Knights win the 2016 MHSAA Division 1 title, the program’s first boys track and field championship since 1972, as he placed first in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:51.68.
He then became just the second runner to go under 1:49.5 indoor when, while running with the Motor City Track Club, he placed first at the New Balance Nationals (March 10-12) held in New York City. His time of 1:49.46 eclipsed his personal-best of 1:49.7. Robbie Andrew of New Jersey owns the indoor record of 1:49.21 run in 2009.
Minutes after running the second-fastest time in the half mile, Cooper said he thought he could run faster – and he believes a time of 1:46 is attainable now that he’s competing outdoors.
“Outdoors, you can run faster,” Cooper said, noting there are only two turns on outdoor tracks instead of four at smaller indoor venues.
Although his times don’t reflect this outdoor advantage yet, Cooper is finding his fastest stride as the season’s most important meets draw near. Cooper has won all of his races this spring – individually or as part of a relay – and his top 800 time of 1:51.79 is only a tenth of a second slower than last season’s MHSAA championship performance.
Mentoring and hard work
Cooper began running competitively at the age of 8 with the Detroit PAL (Police Athletic League). He ran the sprints before his coach, Reggie Osborne, moved him to the 400 and 800 runs at age 10.
“When I was younger, it was way easier,” Cooper said. “In high school now, it’s more competitive. There (are) better runners.”
Cooper said there’s no secret to his success. Sure he’s a gifted runner, but it’s the hours of training that enable him to compete at such a high level.
His coaches at Oak Park – longtime Detroit Public School League coach Bob Lynch, now in his third season at Oak Park, and his protégé, Brandon Jiles – both work with Cooper almost daily. Officially, Lynch is the boys track coach and Jiles coaches the girls team, but in essence they team to coach both squads.
Jiles won the Class A Finals 800 in 1999 at Detroit Mumford with Lynch as his coach. Mumford won the Class A team title that season. The Mustangs would win three more MHSAA Finals titles (Division 1, 2002-04) with Lynch.
Then there’s Chris Richards, a Detroit Pershing graduate, who works with the sprinters on both teams. Although Richards doesn’t work directly with Cooper, his presence allows Lynch to spend more time with a runner like Cooper.
“Lynch’s specialty is the sprints,” Richards said. “I don’t know where, all of a sudden, he became an expert on the half mile and mile.”
That was said partly in jest. Lynch is highly regarded in the sport and has worked well with all athletes in running events whether they’ve been hurdlers, sprinters or distance runners.
Lynch has coached many greats, Olympian Marshall Dill for one, and he said Cooper is one of the best he’s had.
“It’s the work he puts in,” Lynch said. “Whatever I make him do, he does it. But I have to push him. His older brother (Corey Jones) influenced him. (Jones) was decent as an age-group runner, but he wasn’t a great runner. He worked hard to be where he was at.”
Jones ran for Lynch when he was the head coach at Detroit Mumford. Five years older than Cooper, Jones continues to have a positive influence on his brother.
“He wasn’t that talented,” Cooper said of his brother. “He’d run a lot on his own. Just seeing his work ethic made me want to run. He still works harder than I do. I do a lot of stuff on my own, too, like pushups and stuff. Corey had to work harder just to get his times. I have more talent, so I don’t work as hard.”
Even so, Cooper, who also placed fourth in the 1,600 at the Division 1 Final a year ago, understands he needs to work harder to reach his goals.
It’s not easy. When you add that he’s also one of the state’s top milers, Cooper’s work regiment can be overwhelming. To train for the 800 he’ll run 400 meters, then 600 meters, then 200. Then he’ll repeat that sequence. When training for the 1,600, he’ll run 1,200 meters, 1,000 meters and, again, repeat that. By week’s end he’ll run 15 miles or more, not counting what he does in meets.
Last weekend at the Jackson Invitational, Cooper ran the 800 in that season-best 1:51.79, one of the top times in the state. He also ran the 1,600 in 4:18, also one of the state’s top times this spring. Cooper is also the anchor on the 1,600 and 3,200 relay teams, and both ran well in Jackson according to Jiles.
Running mate
Dewan Hawthorne is another senior on a veteran team. Hawthorne is a hurdler and also runs the first leg on the 3,200 relay. Hawthorne qualified for the Division 1 Finals in both hurdle events and placed ninth in the 300 low hurdles last season. Cooper and Hawthorne, along with sprinter KeVeon Clark, are the three athletes Lynch is counting on to set the standard for the other runners – and to score points.
Cooper and Hawthorne feed off of one another and are often seen running laps together in practice.
“Our team is stronger this year,” Hawthorne said. “We have some new guys, but me and Cameron are the big two. We both run cross country, and that helps us going into the indoor season. When the outdoor (season) comes, we’re ready.”
This season’s important meets are coming on quickly. Oak Park will host the Oakland Activities Association league meet on May 11, and the Knights will compete at the North Farmington Regional on May 19. Qualifiers will compete at the Division 1 Finals at East Kentwood on June 3.
After that, Cooper and Hawthorne plan on competing in college, and neither has made a firm commitment to a university. Cooper has narrowed his choices to Clemson, Florida, Louisiana State, Oregon and Texas A&M. Hawthorne is deciding between Michigan State and Morgan State.
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Oak Park's Cameron Cooper runs his leg of the 3,200 relay during a tri-meet against Royal Oak and Ferndale this season. (Middle) Dewan Hawthorne (left) and Cooper. (Top photo courtesy of Darrell Washington.)
The Throws of a Record-Setting Season
May 3, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
While other kids have basketball hoops in their driveways, Cullen Prena and his sisters have a discus ring.
“I wish,” Cullen said Wednesday when asked if it was so.
You won’t find shot put craters in the family's lawn either.
But drive past the Prenas’ home when his sisters are home from college, and there’s a chance you’ll catch the Walled Lake Central junior and his Big Ten thrower siblings, Kari (University of Michigan) and Kelsey (Michigan State), talking over their craft.
“My sisters got me into it,” Cullen said. “It was a random summer day, and they were going to Central to throw. They asked me if I wanted to go with, and I said ‘Sure.’
“Ever since then I’ve been all into it. It’s basically taken over my life.”
Those first tosses came in the summer before Prena entered seventh grade. Five years later, he’s making a bid to go down as Michigan’s top high school thrower of all-time.
The fifth-place finisher in discus at last season’s MHSAA Division 1 Final Meet, Prena quickly has established himself as a heavy favorite this spring. He receives a Second Half High 5 this week after throwing an incredible 187 feet, 7 inches to win discus at Saturday’s Oxford Invitational, on top of also winning the shot put with a toss of 52-1.
Earlier in April, Prena topped 180 feet in discus two more times, in the process breaking both his school and then the Oakland County records that had both stood for at least 29 years according to a report by the Oakland Press.
And here’s the kicker: Prena’s top discus throw last season was a solid – but compared to now, mere – 159-9.
“His increase over the course of time, the average spectator can’t see it. But from sixth grade, he’s been training,” said Walled Lake Central boys track coach Nebojsa Stojkovic, who also works with the team’s throwers.
“You know how to gauge kids based on worth ethic and what their bodies are able to do. When freshman year he threw 144 feet, I knew the talent that was coming up.He’s got God-given ability that’s different from everyone else.”
That combination has made Prena something to behold this season.
His work ethic has benefited him with an increase in strength, evidenced by 30-40 percent improvements in all of his weight room lifts over the last year. Prena formerly played football, basketball and baseball, but decided to focus solely on weight training for track this school year in part after tearing a meniscus during his sophomore football season.
And then there’s two natural gifts for a thrower – Prena is double-jointed, allowing him increased flexibility for a stronger whip motion on his discus tosses. He also gets additional power from a wingspan that measures longer than his 6-foot-2 height.
He threw well at indoor competitions during the winter, and was tossing the discus consistently in the 170s when outdoor practice began this spring. In his team’s first meet, against White Lake Lakeland, he threw the discus 177 and then a best of 184-7, and also tossed the shot put 52-10 – more than three feet better than his previous outdoor personal-best in the latter event.
“It was hard to sleep (at night) after a meet when you throw a great throw like that,” Prena said.
Aside from some tires during workouts, Prena hasn’t tried tossing other heavy objects. “Other than my parents and my sisters; that’s about it,” he said, joking, of course.
But he's in serious pursuit of the MHSAA Finals record for discus. Prena’s best toss this season would’ve won every MHSAA Final dating back to 2003 and all seven of last season’s Finals (four Lower Peninsula, three Upper) by at least a foot.
That Finals record of 197-11 belongs to former Portage Northern standout Joey Sarantos, who set it in 2001. Prena must improve another 11 feet – which seems like a logical next step after this spring's gigantic 28-foot jump.
“Last year’s state meet ... didn’t quite go the way I wanted it to, and it’s been in the back of my mind since then,” Prena said. “Coming off of weight training, I kinda expected (the improvement). But you don’t know until you see the stuff. And then I started realizing it, and it was setting in that this is real. This is ridiculous."
PHOTOS: (Top) Walled Lake Central's Cullen Prena warms up before the discus throw that would break the Oakland County record. (Middle) Prena surveys the scene before another discus toss. His best this season is 187-7. (Photos courtesy of Walled Lake Central and David Mexicotte.)