No giving up in Southfield's Cross
June 1, 2012
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Latipha Cross was desperate for a boost last Friday, or her high school track career was sure to end a week before what could be its crowning moment.
The Southfield senior was preparing for her favorite race at the Oakland County Championships. The fastest 400 runner in MHSAA Finals history, Cross had finished second at her Regional the week before, after side effects of her lymphoma had “snuck up” again and caused her to throw up.
She'd stood against tipping points her entire life. But now, if she didn't win the county title, she was ready to give up.
“At first I was doubting myself. ‘I can’t do this. I can’t go to states.’ So I gave it one more try,” Cross said. “If I would’ve lost there, I would’ve scratched out for states. Then I beat her, and I felt good afterward. I said I know I can do this. I’ll work harder, stay up. Every since County, I’ve felt like I got an extra burst of energy from somewhere. I don’t know where.”
Cross ran her fastest 400 that day, in a meet-record 55.98 seconds. Just like that, she’s again the runner to chase at Saturday’s Final at East Kentwood.
But that comeback success is just the latest slice of the Bluejays senior's inspiring story.
Cross twice has battled back from cancer – she also defeated melanoma as a junior, despite having it on the day she set her all-MHSAA Finals record. And that was after two months as a sophomore when she didn’t know where she’d be sleeping at night.
She continuously has bounced back – and traveled far to reach her final high school meet before joining Eastern Michigan University's program this fall.
No hurdles too high
Cross has no problem talking about what she’s had to survive in her young life.
But few at her school know of the hurdles she’s jumped just to make it this far.
When she tells people, they say her life is like a movie.
If it was, the opening scene might be the night she slept on the slide at a local park.
Cross lived with her biological parents only during the first months of life, and has since fallen out of touch with them. Later, she was adopted by another family, and then lived with a biological aunt for a short time.
But by her sophomore year of high school, Cross’ living situation was in full upheaval. She stayed with friends from night to night and then on the streets for a bit before eventually ending up at that park.
The bouncing around continued until last fall, when teammate and “little sister” Shauntai Graham brought Cross home.
“I never had a real home until my sister said you’re coming to live with me,” Cross said.
Safe place
Cross believes her winning burst at the Oakland County meet came from her sister Ajanee. Just a few days earlier, May 20, was the anniversary of her death 11 years ago.
“During the 200, everybody in the crowd knew something was different,” Cross said. “I was coming around (the turn) in fourth place, and then all of a sudden, I don’t know what happened. There was a whole 100 left, but I came off the curve and I was done.”
That's the kind of exciting finish she's become know for the last two springs.
Basketball was her first love. But she’s always been fast. Cross started running track when she was 11.
Later, she stopped and focused on hoops instead. But her future began to take shape again two falls ago when she showed up at Southfield, her third high school.
In part thanks to the support of former coach Calvin Johnson (now at Southfield-Lathrup), Cross found her way back to the track – and soon after, into the MHSAA record book.
“When I’m on a track, nobody can hurt me,” Cross said. “They can’t catch me.”
Cross went from unknown to champion in just a few months, breaking that 5-year-old all-MHSAA Finals record last spring by running the 400 in 54.29 seconds.
“A lot of it, I think, is her heart,” said Southfield coach Karla Crum, who took over for Johnson this spring. “She gives it her all every time she goes out on the track.”
And her all is something special, considering what else she had to overcome to achieve that milestone.
Skin deep at first, then deeper
Cross’ melanoma, a form of skin cancer, was diagnosed in August of 2010. She fought it with medicine throughout her junior year and was still working against it when she set the record last spring.
Finally, in July, her doctor told her the melanoma was gone.
Fresh from that accomplishment and her future starting to look bright, Cross trained in the fall for indoor track season. She remembers feeling a pain in her stomach in late September or early October, but just ignored it until she couldn’t – because she collapsed.
This time, her doctor said it was lymphoma, another form of cancer which affects the lymph nodes.
There’d be chemotherapy.
“I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘What? With what I just got through, I don’t know how I’m going to do this.’ I’m going to give up,” Cross said. “But that’s where the family I live with now came in. They said you’ve got to do it. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it, but I did.”
At school, Cross still didn’t say much. “You want to do stuff to help her out, but she’s really quiet. It’s hard to know what she needs,” athletic director Timothy Conley said. To him, Cross’ record is simply “amazing.”
He’s also is the Bluejays’ football coach, and hence spends his share of time in the school weight room. He found out about Cross’ cancer only after asking her why she hadn’t been in to train – and Cross responded that she hadn’t received a release from her doctor.
Cross’ final chemo treatment was in March. When she runs Saturday, she’ll do so with two tumors – one behind her right ear and another behind her stomach. Both are benign and can’t harm her at this point. She hopes to have both removed this summer before she heads to college.
‘Competitive person, competitive mind’
Cross is a team captain this season, and has done all she could despite all she’s had to deal with physically over the last two years.
“She’s more serious than a lot of students,” Crum said. “She’s not silly. She more serious, more mature. I think that has a lot to do with the way she is.”
Cross eased back into running this spring, coming off her latest round of treatments. Her 400 times slowly fell back into fast, and Crum thinks Cross will break the record again this weekend.
She’s been able to focus on that as stability has come to the rest of her life. She’s become a part of the Graham family, and currently is living with Shauntai's older sister Staneisha, who is 23. Cross' grades are up, and she’s excited to get to Ypsilanti in the fall.
Cross plans to study social work at EMU, with a focus on working with children. That wouldn’t have been lost if she’d quit two weeks ago – her future college coaches said they’d still grant her scholarship because of how much they believe in her potential.
And Cross believes in it too. She plans to break 54 seconds Saturday – and leave one more lasting mark on her inspiring legacy.
“I’m ecstatic. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it. Now I’m here,” Cross said. “The way I look at it, I’ve gotta show everybody that I’m still here.
“I’ve been looking forward to it all season, to get to show people that I’ve been down and out, but that doesn’t matter. I’m still here.”
Cross is a recipient of one of this week's Second Half High 5s. Click to read more about her inspirations and career aspirations.
PHOTO: Southfield senior Latipha Cross set the all-Finals record in the 400 meters in 2011, and will look to break it again Saturday at East Kentwood.
Preview: Historic Collection of Contenders Setting Bar High for UP Girls Finals
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 31, 2024
Lineups filled with past champions and emerging stars in all three divisions could make Saturday’s Upper Peninsula Girls Track & Field Finals an event we recall for years to come.
Headlining the day, Lake Linden-Hubbell junior Emily Jokela will attempt to win four individual events for the second straight season and bring her career Finals title total to 11, while fans will watch one last time as nine-time individual event winners Danica Shamion from West Iron County and Lola Korpi from Ishpeming complete their careers.
All three divisions will again be contested at Kingsford High School, with preliminaries leading off the day at 9 a.m. local (Central) time. Tickets cost $11 and are available digitally only via GoFan.
MHSAA.tv will live-stream the meets beginning at 9 a.m. (CDT)/10 a.m. (EDT), viewable with subscription. Check out the Girls Track & Field page for meet information and lists of all qualifiers. Those described as "seeded" below have received those seeds based on Regional performances.
Following is a glance at team contenders and individuals to watch in all three divisions:
Division 1
Team forecast: After Marquette dominated most of the last decade, the Sentinels and Negaunee have taken turns winning Division 1 and finishing runner-up most of the last six seasons. Marquette was first last year by 34 points ahead of the Miners. But Gladstone and Sault Ste. Marie have several high seeds heading into Saturday – and a team title won by either would be the first not claimed by Marquette or Negaunee since Escanaba shared the 2007 championship.
Ella Fure, Marquette sophomore: She made her Finals debut last season by winning the 3,200 and finishing third in the 800, and she’ll run those two races and also is seeded first in the 1,600 (5:37.84).
Danielle Lund, Manistique senior: She’s seeded first in both discus (101-11) and shot put (35-8) and will run on two relays after winning shot put and finishing third in discus, and running on the winning 400 relay and runner-up 1,600 relay in Division 2 a year ago. She also won Division 2 shot put as a sophomore.
Lexi Olson, Ishpeming Westwood junior: The reigning champion in the pole vault will again compete in that event and the high jump, and also run on the 800 relay.
Madison Pekrul, Negaunee junior: After winning the 100 hurdles and finishing second in the 300 as a freshman, she flipped those results with a 300 title and 100 hurdles runner-up finish last spring. She’s seeded second in the 300 (49.43), third in the 100 hurdles (17:37) and will run on the 1,600 relay.
Tessa Rautiola, Houghton sophomore: Her Finals debut in 2023 included championships in the 1,600 and 3,200 relay and a third place in the 3,200 run, and she’s slated to run all three events again with the top seed in the 3,200 (12:28.02) and second in the 1,600 (5:38.85).
Faith Spiroff, Ishpeming Westwood junior: She’s won the high jump the last two seasons and also won long jump and finished fifth in the 100 as a sophomore. She’s top-seeded in the long jump (17-1¾) and high jump (5-4) and will also run the 100 and 800 relay.
Jacie Tuljus, Gladstone junior: She’s seeded first in the 100 (12.73), 200 (27.06) and 400 (1:02.33) and as part of the 400 relay (51.50) after finishing third in the 100 and 200 as a sophomore.
Division 2
Team forecast: Bark River-Harris has won the last two championships, last year 13 points ahead of runner-up Ishpeming. The Broncos will again turn to a pair of standouts this weekend among several others. But the Hematites again feature a big points scorer in the distance races in Lola Korpi, and West Iron County boasts the same potential in the sprints with Danica Shamion – which could make for another tight race at the top.
Mya Hemmer, Ishpeming sophomore: Her Finals debut last season included a championship in the long jump and runner-up finish in the shot put, and she’ll compete in those two plus long jump and also run on the 800 relay.
Mckenzie Hoffmeyer, Bark River-Harris senior: After winning long jump as a freshman and sophomore, she finished second to Hemmer in that event last spring but was also third in the 100, second in the 200 and added a second relay championship to her career total. She’s seeded first this weekend in the 100 (13.19), 200 (26.83) and long jump (13.19) and will run on the top-seeded 800 relay (1:52.43).
Lola Korpi, Ishpeming senior: Regardless of what happens Saturday, she’ll graduate as one of the most accomplished distance runners in U.P. Finals history after already winning the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 her first three years and running on winning relays two of those seasons. She enters this time as the second seed in the 800 (2:33.18), top seed in the 1,600 (5:40.23) and 3,200 (12:28.98) and running on the top-seeded 3,200 relay (11:24.83).
Danica Shamion, West Iron County senior: Shamion is to sprints what Korpi is to distance, having won the 100, 200 and 400 all of her first three seasons and setting the UPD2 Finals records in the 200 and 400. She enters Saturday seeded fourth in the 100, fifth in the 200, but first in the 400 (59.95) and also fifth in the high jump after finishing runner-up in that field event a year ago.
Lauren Zawada, Bark River-Harris senior: Another major scorer for the reigning team champ, Zawada has been on winning relays the last two years – including two in 2023 when she also was second in the 300 hurdles and fifth in the high jump. She’s top-seeded in the high jump (4-10), 100 hurdles (17.61), 300 hurdles (50.76) and will run on the top-seeded 1,600 relay (4:25.07).
Division 3
Team forecast: Lake Linden-Hubbell and Stephenson shared the championship last season, breaking Ontonagon’s two-year hold on the title. Four-event winner Emily Jokela is back for Lake Linden-Hubbell after scoring 40 of her team’s 72 points a year ago, but the standings also could see some shifting with St. Ignace moving in from Division 2 and Newberry showing several high-seeded qualifiers across the meet.
Kaylen Clark, Newberry senior: After running to the 1,600 and 3,200 championships last season, and as part of second and fourth-place relays, she’s top-seeded in the 3,200 (12:53.95) and as part of the 3,200 relay (10:23.81), third-seeded in the 800 and fourth-seeded in the 1,600.
Abi Codere, Lake Linden-Hubbell senior: She won the 100 hurdles for the third time last season, and also was part of the winning 400 relay and runner-up in pole vault. She’ll run on 400 and 800 relays Saturday and is top-seeded in the pole vault (9-8).
Emily Jokela, Lake Linden-Hubbell junior: After winning the 100, 200, 400 and 300 hurdles last season – and the 200, 400 and 300 hurdles as a freshman in 2022 – Jokela is top-seeded in the 100 (13.35), 400 (1:00.75) and 300 hurdles (48.81) and third-seeded in the 200 (27.29).
Nora Keranen, Dollar Bay junior: Last year’s long jump champion will compete in that event plus high jump, pole vault and as part of the 400 relay.
Mariska Laurila, Carney-Nadeau junior: She won discus, was second in shot put and seventh in long jump as a sophomore, and returns as the top seed in the shot put (33-7) and competing in the shot put, long jump and this time as part of the 400 relay as well.
Avery Visnaw, St. Ignace sophomore: She made her Finals debut last season with the pole vault championship, a runner-up finish in the 100 hurdles, fifth place in the 300 and as part of the runner-up 400 relay in Division 2. This weekend she’s third-seeded in pole vault, fourth-seeded in 300 hurdles and fifth-seeded in 100 hurdles, and running on the top-seeded 400 relay (54.56).
PHOTO Ishpeming Westwood's Faith Spiroff competes on the way to winning the high jump at the Mid-Peninsula Conference championship meet May 22. (Photo by Cara Kamps.)