Girls Finals: Burning up the record book
June 2, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Rain or shine and everything in between couldn't keep a strong class of MHSAA Track and Field athletes from once again shining in the final girls meets of the season Saturday.
A total of 19 Finals records either were tied or broken during the seven championships events featuring schools from throughout both peninsulas. Three records were new bests for all Finals, regardless of division. And two athletes won four individual titles – another feat rarely seen.
Here's our breakdown of the best from Saturday's meets. It's impossible to include every highlight, of course. But feel free to comment below and tell us what we missed.
Headliner
Few have put together a Finals like Sami Michell’s in Division 3 – and no girl has done so in the Lower Peninsula since 1979. Adding to her three championships in 2011 and another in 2010, Michell won four events – long jump, 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and the 200 – and set three records in the process, including the all-Finals mark in the 300 erasing what had stood since 1984. She’s only a junior, and nearly pulled off the four-title feat last season but finished second in the 200. The last girl to win four events at one LP Finals was Mason County Eastern’s Maria Shoup, who did so at the 1979 Class D meet with victories in the 100 hurdles, 200 hurdles, 800 and long jump.
Record setters
All Finals and LP D3/300 hurdles – Sami Michell, Reed City – 42.23
(All Finals previous was 42.4, set by Benton Harbor’s Carolyn Ferguson in Class A in 1984; previous D3 was 43.84, also by Michell, set in 2011)
All Finals and LP D1/3,200 relay – Kelsie Schwartz, Ersula Farrow, Haley and Hannah Meier – 8:48.29
(previous was 9:05.47, set by Rochester in 2010)
All Finals and LP D1/1,600 run – Erin Finn, West Bloomfield – 10:17.86
(previous was 10:22.75, set by Rochester’s Megan Goethals in 2010)
LP D1/High jump – Keianna Ingram, Southfield-Lathrup – 5-9
(ties previous set by Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Ariel Roberts in 2008)
LP D1/Long jump – Cierra Pryor, Jackson – 19-0
(previous was 18-9, set by Saginaw Arthur Hill’s Monsherri Hall in 2007)
LP D2/100 dash – Sydney Cureton, Detroit Country Day – 11.90
(previous was 11.92, also by Cureton, set in 2011)
LP D2/1,600 run – Sara Barron, Pontiac Notre Dame – 4:51.67
(previous was 4:54.07, set by Corunna’s Jamie Kryzmiski in 2000)
LP D2/400 dash – Kendall Baisden, Detroit Country Day – 54.58
(previous was 54.91, also by Baisden, set in 2010)
LP D2/3,200 run – Ali Wiersma, Allendale – 10:40.22
(previous was 10:40.66, set by Monroe Jefferson’s Beka Smeltzer in 2004)
LP D3/Long jump – Sami Michell, Reed City – 18-6.5
(previous was 18-1, set by Albion’s Juandretta Oliver in 2007)
LP D3/100 hurdles – Sami Michell, Reed City – 13.84
(previous was 14.07, also by Michell, set in 2011)
LP D3/800 run – Annie Fuller, Manistee – 2:13.03
(previous was 2:14.03, set by Albion’s Amelia Bannister in 2007)
UP D1/Long jump – Adeline Grier-Welch, Houghton – 17-3.5
(previous was 17-0.75, also by Grier-Welch, set in 2011)
UP D1/100 dash – Chelsea Jacques, Calumet – 12.55
(previous was 12.58, set by Escanaba’s Stephanie Ostrenga in 2005)
UP D2/Discus – Hunter Perry, Rudyard – 122-10.25
(previous was 120-4.75 by Iron River West Iron County’s Desirae Rasmussen in 2010)
UP D2/High jump – Nicole Vanderlin, Norway – 5-4
(ties previous record, also by Vanderlin, set in 2011)
UP D2/200 dash – Dani Gagne, Norway – 26.42
(previous was 26.47, set by Chassell’s Jamie Dompier in 2009)
UP D3/Long jump – Olivia Soumis, Ontonagon – 16-7.5
(previous was 16-5.5, also by Soumis, set in 2010)
UP D3/200 dash – Jamie Dompier, Chassell – 26.36
(previous was 26.65, set by Rapid River’s Stephanie Boyer in 2001)
Tales of the Trophy
LP D1: Grosse Pointe South continued its impressive two-year run with its second straight championship, this time by 13.5 points over Ann Arbor Huron. The same athletes who keyed the school’s cross country title in the fall did so again Saturday – distance runners Hannah and Haley Meier, Kelsie Schwartz and Ersula Farrow, plus sprinter Caitlin Moore.
LP D2: Detroit Country Day won six events and Dearborn Divine Child just two, but at the end of the afternoon they’d both scored 60 points to tie for the championship. Last season, Country Day was first and Divine Child second, while in 2009 those places were reversed. Country Day’s Brittany Mann repeated as champion in the shot put and discus, and Baisden won her third in the 400. Divine Child balanced the scoring with contributions from 10 entries.
LP D3: Frankenmuth won its third championship in four years and improved on last season’s runner-up finish by beating Benzie Central by 11. Relays were the key: the Eagles won both the 800 and 1,600 with Olivia Shelton, Emily Wee and Angela Ritter running on both, helped by Sydney Bronner on the 800 and Lauren Peterson on the 1,600.
LP D4: Fowler won its second straight after runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2009, edging Traverse City St. Francis by four points with a total of 54. Relays were the key for these Eagles as well. They won the 3,200 and 800 relays with seven athletes (Elizabeth Thelen was the only common runner between the two) to balance out wins by St. Francis’ Lauren Buckel in the 400 and 200.
UP D1: Marquette repeated and won its fourth in the last five seasons by edging Negaunee by seven points. Shayla Huebner and Jessica Fluette were half of the winning 1,600 relay and also won individual events. Fluette also was on the winning 3,200 relay.
UP D2: St. Ignace won its third straight and fourth in five seasons with 142 points – 46 more than runner-up Norway. The Saints won five events including a relay, with Sarah Cullip the star. She won the pole vault, 1,600 and 3,200.
UP D3: Brimley also repeated and won its fourth in five seasons, edging Eben Junction Superior Central by 12 points. Brimley won just four events, but got scoring from 12 entries.
So long, seniors
Cindy Ofili, Ann Arbor Huron – Won the 100, 200 and 100 hurdles and ran on the winning 800 relay at the LP Division 1 meet.
Kyra Jefferson, Detroit Cass Tech – Won the LP Division 1 200 championship for the third straight season, giving her four individual championships for her career.
Tori DeSira, DeWitt – Won the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles at the LP Division 2 Final, giving her five individual championships for her career.
Sara Barron, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep – As well as setting a LP Division 2 record in the 1,600 (see above), Barron repeated as champion in the 800.
Dani Gagne, Norway – In addition to setting the UP Division 2 record in the 200, she also won the long jump, 100 and 400, giving her 10 championships total during her career.
Megan Kangas, Norway – Joined her teammate as a repeat champion, winning the 100 hurdles to finish her career with four MHSAA championships total.
Lauren Spanger – Eben Junction Superior Central – Won the UP Division 3 400 title for the third straight season and the 800 for the second time in three seasons.
Click for links to all results.
PHOTO: Competitors race to advance to the 100-meter championship race during Saturday's Division 4 Final. (Photo courtesy of RunMichigan.com. Click to see more.)
Spartans' Sprinter Driven to Finish Fast
May 1, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Sarita Dotson is one of those athletes who always is focused full-speed ahead -- and on those rare days when she's not, she puts on that her usual determined face as much for herself as to be an example for her younger teammates.
But there's an impressive depth to how the Battle Creek Lakeview junior explains what has driven her to become one of the state's fastest high school sprinters this spring.
She likes to keep her past races in the past. But for the occasional practice when Dotson needs an extra boost, she will recall last season, when she qualified 14th in failing to make the MHSAA Division 1 Final in the 100 meters and also fell just three spots short of making the semifinals in the 200.
Or she can draw on something closest to her heart, like her relationship with her grandfather, Grover Dotson.
"He really sets the bar high for me, in a lot of things in my life," Sarita said. "He moved here from Tennessee with 30 dollars in his pocket. That makes me think."
Dotson also has set a high bar for herself -- and is taking some speedy steps toward achieving lofty goals in the next month.
Dotson received one of Second Half's High 5s this week after earning the Most Valuable Female Athlete award for the second-straight season at Friday's Eldon Draime/Al Geisler Memorial All-City Meet at Battle Creek Harper Creek. She won the 100 (12.5 seconds), 200 (25.5) and long jump (16 feet, 3.5 inches) and ran on the winning 800 relay as her team also won the meet championship by more than 100 points. She also won those three individual events and was part of a first-place 800 relay the weekend before as Lakeview won its own Bill Dolezal Invitational.
Her times already are surpassing those she ran at last season's MHSAA Finals, when she posted a 12.51 in the 100 and a 25.99 in the 200 prelims. and Dotson hasn't even warmed up in the 100 yet -- she ran an 11.99 to win her Regional earlier in 2011.
Those times have brought her personal high bar into focus. Dotson has her sights set on the Lakeview records set by three-time MHSAA champion Erica Mann, who owns the school's fastest 100 in 11.81 seconds and the fastest 200 in 24.2 and went on to run at Michigan State University.
Ironically, it was Mann who first let Lakeview coach Becky Pryor in on the next talent headed her way after seeing Dotson run at one a club meet.
“(Mann) said, ‘Hey Coach, this girl is going to be pretty good.’ I asked what grade she was going to be in and she said ‘fifth,’” Pryor remembered. “I said, ‘Fifth? Really?’
"Even at that point, you could tell she was an athlete.”
Dotson humbly admitted she's always been fast: "In elementary school, I would race against all the boys, and I would always win," she said. But the winning carried over to her first competitive races in third grade.
She still looks up to Mann, who Dotson calls a "beautiful athlete inside and out." But although their physical traits differ -- Pryor said Mann was taller with long legs, while Dotson has more of a typical sprinter build fueled by strength and power -- the coach sees the same drive in Dotson as what pushed her champion predecessor.
"She's very fast, and she works very hard," Pryor said. "She doesn't slack off in practice, and she's a good leader on our team.
"She wants to be competing against the best."
PHOTO: Lakeview's Sarita Dotson (in purple) just missed qualifying for the championship heat at last season's MHSAA Division 1 Final.