Cardinals Cap Unbeaten Season with 1st Title
June 12, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
As coach Jeff Erickson searched the hallways for athletes to bolster his boys track & field team, he let them know up front this was not a sport where they’d get tons of attention and hype.
This season, those 28 athletes instead earned an MHSAA Finals championship.
With a few football players here, some basketball players there, and a boost from the cross country program started only four years ago, Whittemore-Prescott routed its Lower Peninsula Division 4 Regional opponents by 98 points and then claimed the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association Division 4 team championship over Memorial Day weekend.
Technically, those accomplishments earned the Cardinals the MHSAA/Applebee’s Team of the Month award for May. But it’s impossible to not also mention what Whittemore-Prescott accomplished the following weekend, on June 3 – the Cardinals won their first MHSAA Finals boys track & field title, by five points over Manton, and without an individual event champion.
“For a Division 4 school to be as deep as we were, we had kids come out this year that really helped us out and added to our depth,” Erickson said. “We had the banquet (last week), and I told the kids the difference between us and everybody else was our number two and number three (in each event). Everybody is going to have one or two good kids, and sometimes that’s enough to win a state meet … but we had our share of really good kids, and our key was our number two and number three.”
Whittemore-Prescott won every meet it participated in this season.
The 187 points scored at the Regional not only led to the large margin of victory, but were the most scored by a boys team at any Regional this spring. The Cardinals then won the MITCA team meet by 202 points with first place finishes in four events: junior Michael Eagen in long jump, junior Zane Aldrich in the 1,600 and by the 400 and 800 relays.
The MHSAA Finals are scored a little differently than MITCA’s team meet, taking more into account a team’s elite performances – but the Cardinals’ depth still showed through.
Although there were no individual winners, Eagen was second in the long jump, a half-inch out of first. Senior Azaiyah Bell took fifth in the 100 meters, and junior Bradley Lomason was sixth in the 400. Senior Hunter Kensa was seventh in the 800, and Aldrich was fourth in the 3,200. The 1,600 relay of senior Ian Driscoll, Bell, sophomore Ridge Schutte and Lomason took second, only a half-second back, and after the same group placed third in the 800 relay.
“I thought we had a chance to be very, very good, but believe it or not we lost a lot from last year,” said Erickson, referring to his team that finished sixth in LP Division 4 in 2016. “But teams lose kids every year. It’s really about trying to fill those voids and seeing into the future. We go after the (MITCA) team meet, because to be in the position (to win) you have to have three pole vaulters, three hurdlers, and that’s helped us to have that depth. We always try to have a back-up plan.”
Erickson, a 1989 graduate of the school, also had an advance plan to build up the program – although all of the pieces fell into place perhaps more smoothly than could have been imagined and with a few beneficial surprises along the way.
Groundwork was laid when Erickson started an offseason “Iron Club” for athletes from any program – for example, the softball team has been one of the biggest participants as Cardinals from all sports take advantage of another chance to put in extra work. Among those Erickson recalled recruiting to the Iron Club was now-senior Nick Stern, who won Regional titles this season in both the discus and shot put.
Another significant piece was the formation of the cross country program in 2013. Erickson, then the athletic director and track & field coach, was approached by then-sophomore Clayton Lange about starting the team. Erickson told Lange he’d do so and coach if Lange could find six classmates to fill out the roster with him – and when Lange did, Erickson and assistant Leroy Oliver got that program rolling.
In addition to Oliver, Erickson found more valuable help. Al Kushion joined his track & field staff after 31 years coaching at McBain. Doug Grezeszak, a MITCA Hall of Fame coach at Ogemaw Heights and Whittemore-Prescott alum, also came on to assist. Tim and Jody Yorton joined to instruct the throwers; Jody had been an All-American at Ferris State.
And Erickson’s contributions can’t be overstated. He originally took over the program on short notice while serving as athletic director in 2007 when his coach at the time was called into active military duty. Add in his roles in the formation of the cross country program and as a recruiter in the halls both for his team and the Iron Club. And then consider that this was his first school year not at the school – he moved on before last fall to the Clare-Gladwin Regional Education Service District, about an hour drive from Whittemore-Prescott.
That daily trip meant relying more on his assistants. It also meant pushing Iron Club later into the afternoon, which meant athletes often went home and came back to work out – and Erickson said this team was especially committed to doing so.
“It was kind of a unique story from the perspective of that, and the kids and what they were able to do,” Erickson said. “What the kids were able to accomplish, it was such a great thing.”
Past Teams of the Month, 2016-17
April: Frankfort baseball - Report
March: Flushing girls basketball - Report
February: Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central girls skiing - Report
January: Powers North Central boys basketball - Report
December: Dundee boys basketball - Report
November: Rockford girls swimming & diving - Report
October: Rochester girls golf - Report
September: Breckenridge football - Report
PHOTOS: (Top) Whittemore-Prescott’s boys track & field team stands together with its first MHSAA Finals trophy in the sport. (Middle) The Cardinals’ Zane Aldrich leads the pack during the 3,200 at the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals at Grand Rapids Houseman Field. (Photos by Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)
Britton Deerfield Boys Following Bigger Numbers to Championship Results
By
Doug Donnelly
Special for MHSAA.com
May 6, 2026
Each week during boys track & field season, Dustin Longnecker gathers his Britton Deerfield team in his classroom. They call it the “War Room.”
Longnecker and his Patriots stand in front of the white board and go through the upcoming track meet or invitational event-by-event, figuring out where they can score the most points. The fact that BD is even focused on dual meets is a complete change of thinking for Longnecker.
“I’m so blessed,” he said. “I could go on and on about this group. I’ve never had numbers like this. My first year I had eight kids on the boys and girls team combined.
“One year I had this phenomenal sprinter, a high jumper with turf toe and some throwers. I’ve never cared about dual meets because we just couldn’t compete.”
As Longnecker says, this is “the good old days” for BD.
The Patriots finished the Tri-County Conference with a winning record at 3-2-1 and head into Friday’s league meet with a good shot at third place. They won a home invitational Friday against some established programs from the Lenawee County Athletic Association and Cascades Conference.
“Before the season Erik (Johnson) asked me what kind of trophy to get for the Bob Beckey Invite. I said I didn’t care because we’d never sniff that,” said Longnecker, referring to a conversation with his athletic director. “Turns out, we won. It was so great for the kids. We score up to eight places and had all sorts of kids contribute. That was the great thing about it. It is more special when everyone contributes.”
The Beckey Invite was named after longtime coach Bob Beckey, who died in 2016.
Ottawa Lake Whiteford coach Jay Yockey coached at BD previously and was elated to hear BD took home the trophy.
“Bob was also a great guy and coach, and he loved track, but he loved our athletes more,” Yockey said. “So, to see BD win an invite that is named after him is incredible. Bob had a saying that he used often when he was happy. He would say, ‘I’m tickled pink.’ Now he probably would be embarrassed to have an invite named after him, but to know the school he last coached at won that invite, I would have to imagine that he would say that he was ‘tickled pink.’”
Longnecker has had to utilize various strategies over the years as a track coach due to BD’s low numbers. For example, he’s seldom been in favor of pushing kids to run in four events in one day. He’s also never concerned himself with winning dual meets.
“We have a winning record in the TCC for the first time in my career,” he said. “I never thought I’d say that. We just don’t win dual meets. We haven’t had the numbers. This year, the kids have been all about it. We have a really strong freshman and junior class. The great thing about it is that it is really from top to bottom. The kids are still getting better.”
Typically, Longnecker is focused on getting kids to qualify for the MHSAA Finals and run record times at BD.
This year he can do both.
“I was a two-miler in high school,” he said. “I’ve never had a kid who would run it here. This year, I have Donovan McCarthy who runs it. He doesn’t like it, but he likes scoring points.”
McCarthy finished third in the 3,200 at the Beckey Invitational in a great finish.
“He fought a kid from Hudson the whole way,” Longnecker said. “Performances like that is why I love this group.”
The Patriots 400 relay is knocking on the door of a Finals-qualifying time. Freshman Elijah Fortune is a talented athlete who vomited twice and took a nap in the parking lot before returning to the track and helping his team win that race.
BD could get multiple distance runners to the Finals, and all four throwers have had an impact this season, especially senior Andrew Bunker.
“He’ll have both records before the season is over,” Longnecker predicted about Bunker.
Bunker has been an amazing story in his own right. He weighed less than 200 pounds when the Britton Deerfield 8-player football season ended in 2024. He’s now up to 275 and will play college football. He’s become a fitness guru, counting every calorie and working out daily with a stringent routine.
“I try to stay clean,” he said. “I track my protein, carbs and fat. I try to eat as clean as I can. You can’t always eat clean 24/7. I’m in high school. I just do the best I can – a lot of chicken, eggs and rice. I think in that first year we went through dozens and dozens of eggs. (My brother and I would) come home and just devour eggs after the gym – eggs, rice and chicken. You just have to eat what you can.”
Longnecker said Bunker has turned into a great team leader for track, too.
“He’s such a cerebral kid. It’s rare to be around a kid who is that committed to anything,” the coach said.
For Britton Deerfield, which has a high school enrollment of 125, the track numbers might stay high for the next few years. Longnecker credits the middle school coaches with helping kids get interested – and stay interested – in track & field.
“We have a good nucleus right now,” he said. “I think next year we’re going to be just as solid.”
Doug Donnelly has served as a news and sports reporter at the Adrian Daily Telegram and the Monroe News for 30 years, including 10 years as city editor in Monroe. He's written a book on high school basketball in Monroe County and compiles record books for various schools in southeast Michigan. He is now publisher and editor of The Blissfield Advance, a weekly newspaper. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS (Top) The Britton Deerfield boys track & field team gathers around coach Dustin Longnecker after winning its Bob Beckey Invitational. (Middle) Patriots throwers (from left) Drew Bunker, Zach Gonzalez, Kurina Dotson and McKenna Allshouse show off their trophy and medals won at the Clinton Throwers Meet. (Photos courtesy of the Britton Deerfield athletic department.)