Michell Makes History Again in Last Final
June 1, 2013
By Geoff Mott
Special to Second Half
COMSTOCK PARK – Finishing her prep career as the most decorated athlete in MHSAA Girls Track and Field Finals history, the only thing missing for Reed City senior Sami Michell was a trophy.
She managed to knock that off the list late at Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 3 meet at Comstock Park High School.
A year after becoming just the second female to win four MHSAA titles at one meet, Michell won four events again, claiming championships in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles, the 200 dash and long jump.
For those scoring at home, Michell has 12 MHSAA titles, destroying the Lower Peninsula girls record of 10 individual titles for a career.
She scored 40 points for her school and stood alone on the podium to accept the massive runner-up trophy. If rules would have allowed Michell to compete in a couple more events, she might have edged Pewamo-Westphalia, which won its first girls MHSAA team title since a Division 4 crown in 2010. Pewamo-Westphalia finished with 54 points.
“I’m taking this home with me … at least until my open house,” Michell said. “I might look like a one-person team up here, but it doesn’t feel like it. I got a lot of support from the boys team and everybody else.
“It’s so amazing right now. I’ve always wanted a trophy in volleyball or track, and now I have one.”
Michell missed her chance at a trophy in volleyball last fall. She completely tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, had reconstructive surgery in mid-September and spent six months rehabbing the injury so she could defend her track titles.
“I don’t know how I did it again,” Michell wondered after the races. “This has been the worst year with the knee surgery and losing out on volleyball and all the indoor track meets. Then we had awful weather, and it was hard to get ready this spring.
“But I never gave up hope on winning four more titles. Even when the injury happened, I never said I was done. The toughest part of this was the physical part. Mentally it was depressing. (But) I have supportive parents, family and friends help me work through it.”
A year after breaking three MHSAA meet records, Michell was able to win a fourth-straight title in the 100 hurdles with a 14.04-second finish – a full second ahead of the runner-up. After setting the all-Finals record in the 300 hurdles last season, Michell won the title again with a 45.18 finish. She won a third title in the long jump, clearing 17 feet, 3¼ inches.
Her last title of the day came in the 200 dash, an event Michell wasn’t as confident about winning. She was even with Buchanan’s Brianna Dinneen – the 100 dash champion (12.22) – with 50 meters left. She outkicked Dinneen down the stretch, winning the race in 24.98.
“You usually don’t run your best in the last event because you’re tired, but I just felt smooth through the race,” said Michell, who’ll run collegiately at the University of Michigan next year. “I’m so happy with this finish.”
While Michell admitted she never dreamed of 12 MHSAA titles, two runner-up finishes and a total of 16 Finals medals, she was determined to be successful at this stage at an early age.
“I’ve wanted to have this type of finish since I was in sixth grade,” said Michell, a 4.0 grade-point average student who is undecided on a major. “I still have the pink shoes from my freshman year. You always remember your first state title.”
Pewamo-Westphalia picked up big points with wins in the 400 and 1,600 relays and a runner-up finish in the 800 relay. Kenzie Weber, who won the pole vault by clearing 11-foot-7, joined Sasha Platte, Jenna Thelen and senior Tori Klein in winning the 400 relay in 50.85.
“It’s just incredible,” said Weber, a junior. “Our coach did a great job planning our workouts and getting ready for this meet.”
Pewamo-Westphalia coach Scott Werner is in his 13th year coaching the boys and girls and was pleased his girls awarded him his third MHSAA title as coach. Werner, who won a boys Division 4 title in 2008, knew his program was good enough to make the jump to Division 3 this year and compete.
“We have a strong, deep program,” Werner said. “We knew Frankenmuth and Benzie (Central) would be good, and they have some top performers and our kids stepped up to that level. It’s been a tough season with rain and cold during meets, and I think that made our team a little tougher.”
Senior Erica Nurenberg ran the first leg of the Pirates’ title run in the 1,600 relay, helping the team finish in 4:03.56.
“We kept getting rain-outs all year, so once we got to today and it was a nice day, it was like there was nothing to worry about,” Nurenberg said. “This is really exciting, especially to get a state title in the relay. We were really nervous, and we finished seventh last year. But coach said he trusted us to do well, and he was right.”
Manistee sophomore Annie Fuller set the bar even higher for next year after breaking the 800 run Division 3 meet record last spring. She broke her own record while winning the 800 again Saturday, finishing the race in 2:11.77. Fuller also won the 1,600 with a 4:56.11.
“I ran a real good race last week, and the plan was to peak here,” Fuller said. “It was real fun to break my old record, and now I have to shoot for it next year.”
Bridgeport junior Ce’aira Richardson shook off a knee injury to claim the 400 dash title in 56.92. It was her second-best time of the season.
“That’s amazing by itself,” Richardson said. “To have that knee injury and still be able to peak … it brings up a lot of emotions. I’m so proud of myself today.”
Charlevoix sophomore Amber Way also broke an LP Division 3 Finals record, winning the 3,200 run in 10:48.48. Her personal record was 10:52.
“I had a little doubt about winning it coming in,” said Way, who beat runner-up Raquel Serna of St. Louis by 10 seconds. “I knew I could give it a good fight. My first mile time was really early, and I slowed down a bit and I wish I hadn’t.
“I was able to finish strong. It’s an amazing day.”
Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port junior Kayla Deering won back-to-back MHSAA titles in the shot put, winning the event this time with a 42-foot-11½ finish. Yet, she stood at the award stand with a little disappointment.
“I really wanted to clear 43 feet,” said Deering, who finished fifth in the event as a freshman. “In practice I’ve hit 44 feet. I’m not surprised that I won, but I was real surprised to match my personal best right on the dot.
“Where I’m from, nobody can go over 40 feet. I still come here expecting to win. I don’t change the way I compete when I get here. But now I have more motivation to at least clear 43 feet.”
Adrian Madison’s Ashley Bussing easily won the discus with a toss of 135 feet, while Durand’s Marissa Johnson won the high jump, clearing 5-5.
After a third-place finish at last year’s Finals in the 3,200 relay, Grandville Calvin Christian came back on a mission with three returning runners.
Seniors Ashley Jourdan and Raechel Broek, along with sophomore Emma Doorn, welcomed junior Emma Augustyn to the squad, and they captured the 3,200 relay in 9:38.02. Charlevoix finished runner-up with a 9:44.25.
“She was our secret weapon,” Doorn said of Augustyn.
Augustyn, who ran the third leg, is a sprinter by trade and had never run 800 meters until this year.
“I knew we had potential to win this,” Augustyn said. “We all run cross country together, so we’re real close.”
Frankenmuth, which had won three team titles in four seasons, finished fourth overall with 35.5 points. Sydney Bronner, Rachel Crompton, Sarah Beulla and Angie Ritter won the 800 relay for the Eagles with a 1:45.16 finish.
PHOTO: Reed City's Sami Michell leaps a hurdle on the way to one of her four MHSAA championships Saturday at Comstock Park. (Photo by Jackie Gomez. Click to see more photo coverage from RunMichigan.com.)
Tyler Meets Challenges, Aims for Final Goal
May 9, 2018
By Tom Kendra
Special for Second Half
Talia Tyler has showed her competitive fire, really, since birth. But one really good example of how occurred when she was 6 years old.
She had just scored a bunch of goals in a youth game and her father, Jim – partially to keep her humble and partially to be the smart-aleck that he is – quipped to her tongue-in-cheek:
“Too bad you didn’t score any with your left foot.”
Later that day, little Talia was out in the yard with her soccer ball, shooting exclusively with her left foot. The next game, she scored all of her goals with her left foot, each time followed immediately by a glare to her father on the sidelines.
“I always try to challenge myself, in school and in sports, to be the best that I can,” explained Tyler, whose constant striving – not to mention her speed and smarts – has landed her a spot on the women’s soccer team at Columbia University, a Division I school in the Ivy League, located in New York City.
The immediate challenge for Tyler, the senior striker and leader of the Muskegon Catholic Central girls soccer team, and her teammates is to try and improve on last year’s run to the MHSAA Division 4 Semifinals – which capped the best season in school history.
Muskegon Catholic, which is 8-1 overall and a perfect 4-0 in the Lakes 8 Athletic Conference this spring, lost just three seniors off last year’s team which won the school’s first-ever girls soccer Regional title before bowing 2-0 to Kalamazoo Christian in the Semifinals.
Led by Tyler, the Crusaders have made winning the Division 4 championship their No. 1 goal this year.
Tyler, who has six goals and three assists so far, is joined up front by senior Lauren Doriot (who currently leads the team with seven goals), freshman standout Emily Olsen, sophomores Caitlyn Fodrocy and Payton Helton and junior A’lahna Cherry.
Kyra Tyler, a junior and Talia’s younger sister and the last of four standout Tyler athletes at MCC, is the top defender for the Crusaders – along with seniors Kasia Gasior, Roxy Hubl and Zoie Price, who is currently sidelined with a leg injury.
The final line of defense is one of the state’s best keepers in senior Isabelle Bertolone, although she rarely gets to show her ability in regular-season games as the Crusaders normally keep most of the action on the opposite side of the midfield stripe.
“We are loaded enough that we should make another run,” said second-year MCC coach Art Dorsey, who was notably frustrated after a narrow 2-0 victory Monday over conference rival Muskegon Orchard View. “We should be playing much better than we are. We need a little more hunger, a little more sense of urgency.”
Dorsey knows one of the biggest challenges in the entire state is just a few miles away in North Muskegon, which is undefeated and on a District collision course with MCC.
Tyler said the key to winning games in the postseason is mental.
“Girls soccer really comes down to which team shows up focused and ready,” said Tyler, who has served as her class president for the past three years. “Really, one of the biggest keys for us is staying healthy. We will keep working on it and getting better.”
Tyler’s tenacity and grit shines through in key moments in big games, but the first thing everyone notices about the 5-foot-6 senior is her speed.
Tyler is so fast that in her sophomore and junior years she ran track in the spring, in addition to her soccer. In her sophomore year, she finished eighth in the 200 meters at the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals. In her junior year, she qualified for the Finals in four events, but had to miss the meet to play in the Crusaders’ soccer District championship game.
Instead of on the track, Tyler used that speed throughout the tournament to make runs down the edges of the field and put major pressure on defenders. She finished her junior year with more than 20 goals and 20 assists.
“Talia has a complete skill set, and that’s what makes her the best soccer player ever at this school,” said Dorsey. “She can turn it on and get up to her top speed so quickly that it catches defenders off-guard. Then she is smart enough to make the right decisions going to the goal.”
Smarts is another trait that runs through the Tyler family. Talia’s older brother, Ian, plays football at Columbia and her older sister, Annika, is a club soccer player at the University of San Diego.
Talia has maintained a 3.85 grade-point average while taking a steady diet of AP classes and being a four-year varsity starter in both basketball and soccer. She also has racked up more than 200 service hours during high school, many on spring break mission trips.
Her final intangible, which she first displayed as the starting point guard on MCC’s varsity basketball team four years ago as a freshman, is leadership. On a team with plenty of young talent, Tyler is the veteran the other girls look to in crucial situations.
“Looking back to freshman year and everything that we’ve been through together, it’s kind of surreal that now it’s just down to this final sport and this final season,” Tyler said. “It’s great getting this chance to play with my friends and see if we can really leave our mark. That’s our goal.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Muskegon Catholic Central’s Talia Tyler (9) winds up to send the ball downfield during a game this spring. (Middle) Tyler (3) charges ahead during her heat of the 200 at the 2016 MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals. (Photos courtesy of Kristine Tyler.)