Benzie Phenom's Story Continuing to Unfold on Track
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
May 14, 2021
As the phrase “history in the making” originated, someone simply had to know there would be a long-distance runner in Northern Michigan named Hunter Jones.
Arguably, he is history in the making.
And, track enthusiasts have a chance to preview some of the history the Benzie Central High School runner will make. Emphasis on will. He already has made history in so many ways.
He is only a sophomore. And, the history he makes will have at least one asterisk —for the 2020 Michigan high school track season that wasn’t.
The Benzie track team is offering its next preview glimpses of history-making Monday at the Titan Last Chance Meet at Traverse City West. The next opportunities after that will be on the Benzie track, during the Northwest Conference meet May 21 and the MHSAA Regionals on May 25.
This history-in-the-making story to watch over the next month is Jones’ likely accomplishment of winning his first MHSAA individual track championship June 5 at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals at Jenison High School. Perhaps the only reason he hasn’t achieved that first title before is COVID-19 cancelled his freshman season.
Many onlookers believe Jones will do that in the 800. They also believe after re-hydrating, resting, stretching and foam rolling, he’ll hit the track again shortly after and win another state title in the 1,600.
And, they further believe, he’ll write even more history after a brief recovery to win the 3,200 and finish with three Finals championships in one day.
Jones is preparing for the Finals by competing is all three of those events in the same day in the remaining meets. He and his coaches are challenging him by adding a 400 in all of those meets including the Finals.
He may run the 1,600 relay in the Finals should his team qualify. So four state championships are not out of the question. He tried the four events earlier this week and narrowly missed winning all four in an eight-team meet on Benzie’s track. He started the open 400 a bit slow and finished less than one second behind Kingsley’s Gage Hessem.
“I don’t know if anybody — I don’t know if I — truly, truly appreciate what this kid is,” acknowledged Asa Kelly, the Huskies’ longtime distance coach and a former college runner. “We knew he was going to be good for a long time, but how good is the question, right?
“We’ve had multiple state champions and loads of all-state kids, but nobody quite like him,” added Kelly, who has coached the boys cross country team to three Division 3 Finals titles. “He’s got this insatiable desire to win.”
At the age of 16, Jones is already in the history books. He owns school, meet and event records. He also has cross country course records. When he runs cross country in the fall, he’ll be pursuing a third Finals championship to go with his Lower Peninsula Division 3 titles won as a freshman and sophomore.
He is also a national champion. He won the sophomore division in the 3,200 of the National Scholastic Athletic Federation indoor track event in Virginia this spring.
“I want to be a state champion in at least three events,” Jones offered as one of his goals for his first track season. “It doesn’t matter what it is – at least three events.
“I have to run four events, so I think it will be challenging for me to go to each event and try to win,” he continued. “I think it is a good goal to try to win those.”
His others goals for this season? He wants to break the school records in the 800 and 1,600. He broke the school record in 3,200 last week in Farmington running an 8:59.
Another of his Benzie coaches, Traci Knudsen Kelly, has no doubt Jones will he will win three Division 3 Finals championships this June. She should know. She competed in the Big Ten as a member of the Indiana University cross country, indoor and outdoor track teams after setting records and winning state titles in 400, 800 and 1,600 runs at Suttons Bay High School.
“It’s a rare kid that comes along like him,” she noted. “I mean, I have never seen a high school kid like that.
“Between just the internal drive ... the will to win, the work ethic ... I mean, he’s the whole package.”
Jones’ brother Rick and sister Sarah are among the standouts in Benzie’s rich track and cross country past. Hunter recalls watching his siblings compete, and as he started running he was winning races as a second grader against fifth and sixth graders.
“I used to be deathly scared of racing, and I would almost cry before races,” Jones recalled. “It was weird going up against people that were like double my height.”
Not so anymore for the decorated runner whose future may not have any limits.
“The fact that he is sophomore is what a lot of people forget,” said Asa Kelly. “He is so young yet, and he’s got so much in front of him.”
Yup, history in the making.
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) Benzie Central’s Hunter Jones warms up during a track meet this season. (Middle) Jones, with Benzie coaches Asa Kelly, left, and Traci Knudsen Kelly. (Below) Jones crosses the finish line during the Cross Country Finals at Michigan International Speedway. (Track photos by Tom Spencer. Cross country photo courtesy of Benzie Central's cross country program.)
Southfield Christian Boys Win Final Event to Clinch Program's 1st Finals Title
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
May 31, 2025
HUDSONVILLE – Win and make school history.
That’s what it came down to for Southfield Christian in the pressure-packed final event of Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals at Baldwin Middle School.
The final heat of the 1,600 relay proved to be the deciding factor as the Eagles earned the dramatic victory and their program’s first Finals team title.
“We were down by three points, and we knew that we had to get first and they (Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep) had to get third,” Southfield Christian senior Brock Morris said. “I talked to my team and told them that this is going to be the last race that we will ever have, so go out and get a win.
“Crossing that line first was exhilarating, and I’m just excited to win, and make history and build a path for others to follow.”
Four points separated the top three teams entering the final race with Hackett owning a slim lead over Southfield Christian and Hillsdale Academy.
Morris joined fellow seniors Dylan Taylor-Wilkerson, Robert Brown and Jadon Staten in the clinching relay as they combined to clock a winning and personal-record time of 3 minutes, 24.36 seconds.
“We knew going into it that it was going to come down to us having to win, and I just told our guys, who are all seniors, this is the last race of your career so you have to put it all out there,” Eagles coach Andrew McFerrin said. “If you want to be state champs, you have to win this race. And that's what they went out and did, and I’m proud of them.”
The Eagles’ previous best finish was runner-up in 2019.
“We just had the pieces this year, and we were able to put it together,” McFerrin said. “I knew coming in we had fast guys, and they had to want it. They made it happen.
“It was nerve-racking throughout the day watching us go up and then down, and the 200 really helped us when we got first, third and seventh. That put us up and then we were just hoping and praying that we were going to pull it out, and that's what we did.”
Morris also anchored the winning 800 relay team and won titles in the 200 (22.31) and 400 (49.30).
“Brock is an outstanding athlete,” McFerrin said. “And just seeing how he has developed from his freshman year to now has been an absolute pleasure.”
The Eagles finished with 60 points, edging Hackett by one. Hillsdale Academy took third with 50 points, and 2024 champion Fowler (44.5) was fourth.
“To be honest, I didn't think it was going to come down to the final event and I thought Southfield Christian was going to have it from the get-go,” Kalamazoo Hackett coach Charissa Dean said. “But these boys battled their little hearts out, and I couldn't really ask them to do any more. They had a phenomenal day with PRs all over the place.”
Junior distance runner Marek Butkiewicz led Hackett with a pair of wins in the 1,600 and 3,200 and was part of the winning 3,200 relay.
“The mindset was if I just do what I've been doing the whole season, then I'm coming away with what I came away with,” Butkiewicz said. “I knew I was going to end up with leads in both of them.”
Two other athletes also repeated as Finals champions, with Fowler’s Brady Feldpausch winning the 110 hurdles and Morrice’s Oliver Long securing top honors in the shot put.
Fruitport Calvary Christian senior Bradley Richards, competing as part of a cooperative with Muskegon Catholic Central, won his second high jump title after previously finishing first in the event in 2023. The Cornerstone University basketball and track commit cleared a personal-best 6-10¼.
PHOTOS (Top) Southfield Christian's Brock Morris, middle, crosses the finish line first in the 200 on Saturday, just ahead of Riverview Gabriel Richard's Derek Lesko to his left and teammate Jadon Staten to his right. (Middle) Hackett's Sean Siems and Royal Oak Shrine's Abenezer Cerone lead the 800 championship race; Cerone would go on to finish first. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)