Williams Races to Place with All-Time Best
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 18, 2019
Bridgeport girls track coach Rick Popp said he believes his star sprinter Payten Williams has the potential to be a world champion.
The high praise is something Williams appreciates, as she said it shows her coach has faith in her. But does the senior have that same faith in herself?
Williams was as quick to answer that as she is on the track: “Yes.”
“Payten is crazy fast,” Popp said. “She’s been the fastest girl in the state of Michigan the past two years. When you watch her run, her leg speed is insane. We don’t have a boy that can beat her in the 40 meters. The girl is just crazy lightspeed right now.”
While a world championship is a lofty goal, it’s hard to argue with Popp’s current assessment of Williams, the reigning MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 champion in the 100 and 200 meters. During the past two years, she’s lost just two races, and both came at the MHSAA Finals her sophomore year. She placed fourth in both. She wasn’t unbeaten as a freshman, but she still finished first more than she didn’t and placed sixth at the Finals in the 200.
Her personal best in the 200 meters is 24.26 seconds, which she ran in July 2018 at the United States Track and Field Junior Olympics in North Carolina, placing 10th. That time would be an MHSAA Finals record in all but Division 1. Her personal best in the 100 is 12.06, which she ran at the 2018 MHSAA Finals, when she won by nearly half a second – second place came in at 12.55.
“Every state record should be gone,” Popp said, alluding to Williams breaking them. “Every all-time state record should be gone. When she’s dialed in, she’s lightspeed. She flies off her feet better than most anybody I’ve ever seen.”
Williams said she’s always been fast, but it took good coaching to help her reach these heights. That’s something she said she began to receive while in middle school from her AAU coaches, and that has continued into high school with them and Popp.
As things started to click, Williams started thinking big.
“It felt great – it felt that I was going to become something,” Williams said. “I had a lot of people looking up to me, so I knew I had to keep going further. Making it all the way to the Olympics is something that’s big for me.”
She said she’s made a decision on which college she will be attending, but that she isn’t ready to make an announcement.
Her focus for now is on finishing her high school career strong. That includes breaking the 24-second and 12-second barriers in her respective races, although she was quick to note that the 100 isn’t really her race despite the fact she’s been dominant in it for two years.
“The 200 is my race,” she said. “I just like the race; it’s hard to explain it.”
She said that even after winning the 100 at last year’s Finals, she was more concerned with the 200 she still had to run. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t happy about the double.
“It felt great,” she said. “My mom was like, ‘You’re going to get this. You’re going to become a state champion.’ I was like, ‘No mom, don’t think that.’ But then she was right.”
The times are more important to Williams than winning races. With such lofty goals and recent championship results, focusing on racing the clock could be her best path to reaching them.
“I just focus on getting to the finish line and how I run,” she said. “I don’t think about anything else. I just think about myself and the track.”
Williams has yet to run an outdoor race this season, but she did win a pair of indoor races at Saginaw Valley State in late March, claiming the 60 meters in 7.74 seconds and the 200 in 25.41.
She said she’s been off to a slower start this season, as she’s had to devote more time to her family, specifically helping care for her grandfather. While she didn’t want to elaborate, she did say that she’s getting back to practicing full time and expects to have another strong season.
There’s plenty for her to work for, including repeat championships, state records, getting closer to her Olympic dreams, and her family.
“I’m pushing myself by using my strength as my motivation,” she said. “And I’m doing it for my granddad.”
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) Bridgeport's Payten Williams, far right, surges through the finish in winning the 200 meters at last year's Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals. (Middle) Williams, middle, leads the 100 as contenders power through the final paces of that sprint. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)
Elk Rapids' Smith Back on Course Just 2 Months After Severe Leg Injury
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
August 30, 2024
Leighton Smith’s freshman year was nothing short of amazing as she competed for Elk Rapids High School’s first girls golf team in the fall and capped it off in the spring with a track school record and bragging rights as the fastest 400-meter runner in Northern Michigan.
But events this summer were even more astonishing.
A horse riding accident in June left the 15-year-old fighting for her life, experiencing multiple surgeries and then recovering through physical therapy.
To top it off, she returned to the links Thursday representing the Elks at the Petoskey Invitational played at the Bay View Country Club. Smith shot a 100 as the Elks placed seventh. Her score was tied for the team’s best and featured four pars.
It was an impressive next step, to say the least.
No one could have been prepared to endure what Smith experienced this summer. And no one could have been better prepared to do it than the Elks sophomore, according to doctors, her coaches and her parents.
She underwent five surgeries in six days. The first surgery was done by Dr. Justin Hollander and Munson Medical Center. Dr. Hollander placed a titanium rod in her right leg to stabilize a severe femur fracture.
Smith developed compartment syndrome, which is extremely painful and happens when there’s too much pressure around the muscles and that pressure restricts the flow of blood, fresh oxygen and nutrients to muscles and nerves. That pain and lying in a hospital bed began to impact her mental health but Smith and her parents, Melinda and Don Smith, knew she had the capacity to get through her complications.
Medical personnel, including Dr. Hollander, were extremely impressed with her determination, drive and attitude throughout.
“When you’re in a situation like this you have try your hardest to keep the most positive mindset and thoughts you can, because the mentality you have is what is really going to affect how you handle the whole situation,” Leighton Smith said.
Following that first surgery, she underwent multiple life and limb-saving surgical procedures called fasciotomies in both Traverse City and Grand Rapids. A fasciotomy involves cutting fascia to relieve tension or pressure in order to treat the resulting loss of circulation in acute situations.
“I am not used to being in a bed against my will,” Smith noted. “I was stuck there – you don’t realize the things you take for granted until you’re stuck there like that.”
Don Smith also serves as co-coach of the Elks girls golf team with Mike Newhouse. He witnessed his daughter’s horse riding accident and was there every step of recovery.
He couldn’t be more thrilled about what he witnessed in Petoskey as a father or coach.
“It is great to see her back and looking forward to the future,” Don Smith said. “We went from time in the hospital where you’re scared to even hear what the answer was going to be about sports and anything in life, and to be able to participate in golf here two to three weeks into the season.”
The sophomore has received MHSAA approval to use a cart during competition as a medical necessity, and she may be able golf in enough events this fall to participate in her team’s Regional in Tawas and possibly qualify for the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final in Battle Creek.
“Leighton has greatly exceeded my expectations,” Newhouse said. “I initially thought she might lose the season, and if she could get back by midseason it would be a slow return. But her performance today far exceeded anything I expected.”
Golf really isn’t her favorite sport. Horse competition and track meets top that list. She is set to defend her 400-meter title next spring at the Traverse City Record-Eagle Honor Roll season-ending meet, and she is the only Elks student-athlete participating in rodeo, doing so through the Manton High School chapter of the Michigan High School Rodeo Association.
“I have a positive attitude and I don’t take it too seriously, but seriously enough that I can play the game,” she said of golf, while noting her primary motivation for being on the team is her father’s love of the game. “It is a good skill to have to be able to play golf, but it is definitely third on my list for sports.”
Third on the list is fine for her coaches.
“Dad will take it top three,” Don Smith noted while recalling moments after the final surgery at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. “The vascular surgeon talked with us for about 20 minutes and finally without us asking, he said she was going to be able to resume a normal life with sports and everything.”
And she has been back on a horse too.
“Now I am able to ride by myself pretty well, so I take him out every now and then and ride around the yard,” she said. “I think every time I get on, my Dad has a mini-heart attack – I think he’d prefer I never get on a horse again.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Leighton Smith, left, consults with Dr. Justin Hollander during her recovery from horse riding injuries this summer. (Middle) Smith tees up a drive for Elk Rapids this season. (Below) Smith shares a moment with her horse. (Photos provided by the Smith family.)