Jesuit Emerges from Meet Full of Close Finishes with 1st Team Title Since 1993
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
June 4, 2022
ROCKFORD – Jaiden Reed had faith in the Detroit U-D Jesuit 1,600-meter relay team.
Despite the fact the Cubs qualified into the slowest of the three race heats out of the Regional, Reed knew Cameron Hendrix, Bryson Wade, Nick Johnson and Devin Grantham would come through.
His faith was rewarded.
The foursome finished the first heat with a time of 3 minutes, 21.67 seconds, a time that held up enough through two more heats to clinch the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals title.
“I’m excited – my emotions are everywhere right now,” Reed said. “I was looking, and it was a one-point lead from what we were looking at. It’s just a lot of emotions. My heart was racing. It stopped, it was skipping beats. But I knew they were going to do it. I knew they were going to pull through. Even without our original four, I still knew they were going to do what they had to do.”
Thanks in part to that third-place 1,600 relay, U-D Jesuit finished with 41 points, 10 ahead of second-place Farmington.
The Cubs thought they had a one-point win, as East Kentwood’s 1,600 relay team was the initial winner, which would have made the top two scores U-D Jesuit 40, East Kentwood 39. But the Falcons were disqualified from the race, and finished tied for third with Clinton Township Chippewa Valley at 29. Rochester Adams rounded out the top five with 24 points.
It was the second team Finals title for the Cubs, with their last coming in Class B in 1993.
“They started talking about it in the winter, ‘What’s the goal? It’s a state title,’” U-D Jesuit coach Carl Brock said. “So to be able to manifest it, it’s something special for them. State meets, everything has to go well and you have to have some luck, and that happened today. For Jaiden to not win the 100 or the 200 (he finished second and fourth, respectively) and us still win the team title, something had to break in our favor, and it did.”
The Cubs did not have an individual champion, but won both the 400 and 800 relays. Reed was joined by Johnson, Grantham and Hendrix on both relays, which won in 42.39 and 1:28.06. The 1,600 relay team finished third after the East Kentwood DQ.
“Watching them develop their brotherhood,” Brock said. “Watching them come together as family. Some of these kids have traveled all over the country running with one another. They’ve stayed in hotel rooms together, they’ve developed that brotherly bond. They’re running for each other, and that’s what it’s all about.”
The only athlete to win multiple individual titles Saturday was Clinton Township Chippewa Valley’s Shamar Heard, who claimed both sprint crowns. He won the 100 in 10.77 and the 200 in 21.32.
There were plenty of surprises on the day, though, and plenty of tight finishes.
One even needed a camera review, as East Kentwood freshman Malachi Mosley eked out a victory over Oak Park’s Josh Flake in the 400. Each runner finished with an official time of 48.85, but Mosley was four thousandths of a second better.
“I just went out there and had to run my race,” Mosley said. “I was supposed to be in Lane 7, they moved me to Lane 2, and I was just really surprised. When I realized I could have a chance to catch those top people, I just pulled ahead. I tried to push myself harder than I ever have, and it worked. I was able to catch him.”
The 800 featured another tight, exciting finish, as Utica’s Trent McFarland used a final kick to pass Davison’s Brady McAardle in the final 20 meters, and win in 1:52.03. That race got an unexpected early spark when Saline’s Jason Whitton put up a 1:54.81 in the first heat, a time that only McArdle had bested during the season. He ended up finishing sixth.
“A kick is all heart, it’s all effort,” McFarland said. “Usually I’m known for giving my all at the end. The race went just to plan, I did it perfectly, paced it perfectly. I knew I had to take off that last 300 meters. I saw I was in position for the win in the last 100 meters and I just went. (Whitton) definitely added a little bit of pressure. But me and the other top runners in the group, we talked, we knew what we were going to do. We all wanted to go 1:53, 1:52, and it worked out for some of us.”
Hartland’s Riley Hough won the 1,600 in his final meet, finishing with a time of 4:07.61, less than a second ahead of Seth Norder of Grand Haven who was second at 4:07.99.
Hough was in an equally tight top two in the 3,200, but this time he came in second to Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills’ Benne Anderson, who won the race in 9:02.89, less than a second ahead of Hough.
Kalamazoo Central’s Kayenn Mabin won the 110 hurdles in 14.27, 0.02 ahead of Ypsilanti Lincoln’s Melik Williams.
Rochester Adams’ Armon Howard won the 300 hurdles in 37.32, in a race that saw four runners at 38 flat or lower.
Detroit Cass Tech’s team of Renard Richmond, Michael Davis-Hawkins, Aydan Myers and Tamaal Myers II won the 1,600 relay in 3:20.24 after the East Kentwood DQ. That was also a photo finish.
Northville won the 3,200 relay in 7:44.71 with a team of Brandon Latta, Brock Malaikal, David Whitaker and Brendan Herger.
Battle Creek Lakeview’s Andrew Berryhill won the shot put with a toss of 57 feet, 9 inches.
“I wanted to throw farther,” Berryhill said. “I had a good week of practice in shot put. I was being really consistent all week at 56, 57, so I knew I had it.”
Farmington’s Jake Steslicki won the discus with a throw of 174-1. Canton’s Nathan Levine won the high jump with a jump of 6-8. Muskegon Mona Shores’ Demitri Roberson won the long jump with a jump of 23-6.75. Temperance Bedford’s Ethan Lingle won the pole vault, clearing 15-9.
PHOTOS (Top) Detroit U-D Jesuit completes an exchange during the 1,600 relay Saturday at Rockford High School. (Middle) Utica’s Trent McFarland surges toward the finish of the 800. (Click for more from Jamie McNinch/Run Michigan.)
Goals Grow as Gladwin's Klein Seeks to Follow School Record with Big Finish
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 24, 2024
Logan Klein wanted to leave his mark on Gladwin athletics – and one could argue, as a starting offensive lineman on the 2022 Flying Gs football team which won the Division 5 title, he had already done that.
But Klein was looking for more, so that spring, he switched from baseball to track & field, and went after it.
“Really, I mean, I wanted a school record,” Klein said. “I had played baseball for freshman and sophomore year, and I knew I wasn’t getting it in baseball. I was good, but I wasn’t that good. I did (track & field) in seventh grade, and I was pretty good. I was really close in junior high (to school records) but then in eighth grade, we had COVID.”
In his first year back in the sport, Klein achieved his goal, setting the Gladwin school record in the shot put and throwing his way to a third-place, all-state finish at the 2023 Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals.
Now, with a little more seasoning under his belt, he’s looking for even more.
“The big goal is to be a state champ,” he said. “The second goal, with how I’ve been throwing in the (discus) lately, I think I can be all-state in both events. That’s a really big one for me, too.”
Klein’s immediate success as a thrower didn’t come as a total surprise, as he really was quite good in seventh grade. He’s also a 6-foot-3, 270-pound athlete who, as mentioned, was a starter on a state championship-winning football team. The baseline was there.
He also had a willing teacher in teammate Logan Kokotovich, a 2023 Gladwin graduate who was a captain and Klein’s teammate in football, and the Gs’ top thrower prior to Klein’s arrival.
“(Klein) threw in junior high and he was pretty good, and then last year he started off real strong,” Gladwin boys track coach Buddy Goldsworthy said. “After lots of work on just technique stuff, he realized all the things he was doing wrong, then he just started throwing 50 footers. One person that helped make a good transition was Logan Kokotovich – he was good at football, too, and good friends with Klein. He showed Klein how to do a couple things better.”
On May 5, 2023, at the Nike Trax Invite at Meridian, Klein first threw over 50 feet in competition. Five days later, at the Jack Pine Conference meet, Klein had his school record, throwing 51 feet, 9 inches, smashing the old mark of 50-5 set in 1988.
“I was starting to get up into the 50s, and I knew it was going to happen in the next meet,” he said. “I had been on a PR streak.”
He broke it again in his next meet, the first of four times he has eclipsed his chart-topping mark – which now stands at 55-4¼.
“He’s a big, strong kid, and he loved throwing in junior high,” Goldsworthy said. “We knew that he could be that guy. Now, we didn’t know he would be that guy so quickly. That was a pleasant surprise for us. He loves throwing. He spent a lot of time during the summer saying, ‘Hey, can we go up and throw? Can I take a shot or disc home this weekend and just throw?’ ‘I know you’re going to be gone on vacation, but can I have a shot to work on throws?’ He’s a real student of the game.”
Klein said he’s fallen in love with throwing, and there is certainly a part of him that wishes he had started as a freshman, knowing the massive leap he’s taken in such a short amount of time.
But his being so new to the sport makes him a very intriguing prospect for college coaches, if he chooses to go that route. There has been some communication, but Klein hasn’t decided yet if wants to follow up on throwing at the next level or go into the workforce by becoming an electrician, something that is waiting for him if he wants it.
“I was definitely not planning on (throwing in college),” he said. “I was actually a four-year starter for football, so that’s what I thought I was going to do. I’ve only been doing this for two years now, and I definitely can grow a lot more. A couple colleges have talked to me, and that’s what they were saying, that I really have a lot more potential.”
While he mulls over that decision, he’s working toward reaching those end-of-year goals he’s set, and also bringing along the next wave of Gladwin throwers.
“We talk about it a lot,” Goldsworthy said. “You want to leave a legacy. If you’re a jerk, no one’s going to remember, or they’re going to remember you not in the ways you want. He’s really taken that to heart and he’s the person that people want to be around. He’s going to be remembered that, yeah, he threw 60 feet, but he helped (junior Jacob) Hurst, he helped (freshman Harvey) Grove, he helped (freshman Nick) Brasseur. They’ll remember, ‘We wouldn’t have been as good if we didn’t have Klein around.’”
Klein said coaching also is in his future, whether that’s next year as he starts his career, or later down the line if he chooses to go to college.
With his mark already firmly left on Gladwin athletics, he wants to make sure others can do the same.
“I just like seeing my teammates grow,” he said. “We’ve got a freshman right now that’s really good. I told him, ‘I don’t care if you beat my record. I just want to be there to coach you through it.’”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Gladwin’s Logan Klein prepares to launch during a turn in the shot put circle. (Middle) Klein has high aspirations in both the shot and discus this spring. (Photos courtesy of the Gladwin athletic department.)