#TBT: Anchor Brings Calumet Back
August 8, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
As we prepare to begin another school year with the first practices for fall sports next week, let’s throw back to an incredible finish from the 2015 Upper Peninsula Division 1 Girls Track & Field Finals.
Then-senior Chelsea Jacques contributed to four first places that day, including an awe-inspiring comeback in the 400-meter relay. Jacques, Calumet’s anchor, took the baton with her team in a distant fifth place and rushed all the way to the front to give the Copper Kings the win in 52.65 seconds, six hundredths of a second ahead of runner-up Marquette.
Jacques also won long jump and repeated as champ in the 100 and 200 sprints during the meet.
PHOTO: Chelsea Jacques powers to the finish during one of her sprint championship wins at the 2015 UP Division 1 Finals. (Photo by Cara Kamps.)
Moment: Michell Comes Back to Win 4 Again
April 23, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Only 12 athletes in MHSAA history have won four individual events at a Track & Field Finals.
This week we'll recall three, starting with one of only three to achieve the rare accomplishment twice.
Reed City's Sami Michell had won four championships as a junior in 2012 at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals. But she faced another major challenge before taking to the track in 2013 -- she had torn her left ACL during the fall's volleyball season and was finishing recovery as spring began.
But what a comeback. She didn't break any of her three Division 3 Finals records set in 2012 (and she still holds all three including the all-Finals record in the 300 hurdles). But she did repeat winning the 200-meter dash, 100 and 300 hurdles and long jump, single-handedly scoring 40 points to make Reed City the team runner-up.
Those four titles gave her 12 individual Finals championships for her career.
“I don’t know how I did it again,” Michell said after the races that day. “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.”
Michell went on to run at University of Michigan and then her final collegiate season at Cal State-Northridge.
Click to check out full coverage of her 2013 Finals from Second Half and see her winning races below from the NFHS Network.