After the MHSAA Regional meet at South Lyon East High School last Saturday, the Notre Dame Track and Field teams will be sending a total of eleven athletes to the Division 2 State Finals. Qualifiers include nine individuals and one relay team. The girls 4x800m relay team started things off with an exciting second place finish.
Sophomore Lexi Case, junior Claire Seitzinger, junior Abby Rankin, and freshman Jennifer Ohlsson worked together to take more than 25 seconds off the team’s season-best to punch their ticket to the State Finals. Ohlsson is also a first time individual qualifier after finishing second in the 3200m run in a personal record 11:50.85. Junior Lauren Neiheisel qualified in two events, winning regional titles in both the 800m and 1600m runs with times of 2:26.91 and 5:19.56, respectively. Neiheisel will return to the State Finals where she hopes to repeat as an All-Stater. Case also qualified in the 800m run, finishing second with a personal best 2:29.97. Junior Destiny Sandle achieved her own regional championship by winning the shot put with a throw of 34’ 3.75”, a personal record.
For the boys, senior Brendan Fraser earned a regional title by winning the 3200m run in 9:43.17. Junior Niko Fraser was close behind, finishing second in 9:43.83 to earn his first trip to the State Finals. Senior Andrew Blockimade it to the 100m dash final and came away with a second place finish in 11.52. Blocki will also make his first appearance in the State Finals. Freshman James Ohlsson secured the first regional title of his young career by winning the 1600m run in 4:39.20. Lastly, senior John Paul Terzano not only claimed a regional championship of his own in the discus, he also broke the school record with a throw of 141’ 4”.
The boys 4x100m relay team of junior Thomas Below, junior Alex Gaboury, sophomore Nolan Mylenek, and Blocki narrowly missed qualifying, finishing fourth just 0.14 seconds away from a qualifying slot.
Other athletes placing, scoring, and earning medals on the day were sophomore Luke Cummings (7th, 400m, 55.64), junior Eric Silver (8th, 400m, 55.77), junior John Pieper (3rd, 800m, 2:04.15), sophomore Brian Torres (8th, discus, 106’ 10”), sophomore Michael Winarski (8th, long jump, 17’ 7.75”), junior Anna Miklas (8th, 400m, 1:09.02), senior Jennifer Redoutey (7th, 300m hurdles, 56.02), junior Jillian Karolski (4th, discus, 78’ 03”), and junior Madeline Scherle (5th, long jump, 14’ 6.75”).
Next up is the Oakland County Championships on Friday night at Novi High School, a final tune-up before the MHSAA Division 2 State Finals at Zeeland High School on June 3rd.