Monroe St. Mary's Boys Finish Meteoric Rise with 1st Finals Team Title
By
Todd VanSickle
Special for MHSAA.com
May 30, 2026
KENT CITY – This was a season of first for the Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central boys track & field program.
And for the first time in school history Saturday, the Falcons won a Finals championship, scoring 39 points to claim the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 title.
Elk Rapids (32) took second and Reed City (31) was third.
“What an amazing day,” said SMCC coach Roman Smith. “This is very exciting. This is the first year our boys have even won a league meet. We went from being winless to state champions. It is pretty special. We have special group of kids.”
Monroe St. Mary’s 400 relay team earned a first place (42.20). The team included Cole Reinhardt, Gavin Swartout, Vince Harris and Brady Reinhardt.
“We had a plan going in to it,” Smith said. “As a coach you look at what your kids can do and seed times, and you hope that they live up to that.”
Monroe St. Mary’s first-year coach felt comfortable with how his relay teams were expected to perform, but knew it would take more to pull off a team championship.
“We knew we had to have some special things happen with our individual medalists, and those things happened,” Smith said. “When you have a kid seeded 23rd and he ends up with a third-place finish in the 100 meters, it really helps when it comes to points.”
Smith was referring to Gavin Swartout, who ran 10.82 seconds in the 100 meters for third place. Wyatt Dehring, of Clinton, won the sprint (10.75).
“I just told my kids to run your marks; go run the times you know you can run and let the chips fall,” Smith said. “It was a battle towards the end. When people were saying we won mathematically, I didn’t believe it. I didn’t want to talk about it.”
Elk Rapids slid into second place late in the meet.
“We are a young group and worked hard to get here,” said Elk Rapids’ coach Cameron Ward. “This means everything. It is still a surprise. It was a great team effort, and hopefully there is more to come.”
The Elks’ were led by freshman Garett Godden, who took second in the 100 meters (10.79) and 200 meters (21.80), the latter after he ran a personal best in the prelims (21.66). All told, he competed in four events.
“With all this running, your legs get so tired,” Godden said, who was making his first Finals appearance. “(This meet) is definitely bigger and a lot more people. It gives me adrenaline.”
The Elks also won the 1,600 relay (3:23.58) with Noah Liggett, Miles Prabhaker, Gavin Hamilton, and Godden. The same team took second in the 800 relay (1:30.07) behind Adrian Madison’s Wade Garza, Bryson Ballantyne, Derrell Tillman and De’Lante Garrison (1:30.01).
Jonesville’s 3,200 relay team (8:01.99) rounded out the relay winners with a team of Nicholas Fowler, Collin Fucile, Ashton Potwin and Caleb Blonde.
In the field events, Montague’s Isaac French won the shot put (54-1), and Bronson’s Brayden Fritz threw the discus 164-2 to claim the title. The top high jumper was Tayeden Redding, of Warren Michigan, with a clearance of 6-6, and Tucker Wiginton, of Springport, pole vaulted a winning height of 15 feet. Reed City senior Jack Deitsch repeated in the long jump (23-5¼).
Charlevoix’s Hunter Eaton ran a personal best to win the 1,600 meters (4:16.08).
“At the 600-meter mark, I was like let’s hammer down and see what happens,” Eaton said. “I was going into today fearing nobody. Try to win. That was the goal.”
It was his third individual Finals title. Last year, he also won the 1,600, and he was the Division 3 cross country champion in the fall.
Eaton also finished fourth in the 3,200 (9:34.53). Logan Youngman, of Hillsdale, won with a personal best performance (9.26.08). Monroe St. Mary’s Christian Craanen took second with a personal best (9:29.35).
Lansing Catholic’s Leland VanAlstine won both the 300 hurdles (14.19) and 110 hurdles (14.42). Detroit Edison senior Dennis Jackson repeated as the 400 champ with a season-best time (48.11) and finished second in the 200 meters (21.80) after finishing fourth last year. Landon Rogers, of Red Arrow (Three Oaks River Valley/New Buffalo), won the 800 meters (1:56.15). Central Montcalm's Zade Kooistra finished first in the adaptive 100 and shot put.
PHOTOS (Top) SMCC's Brady Reinhart, center, runs the final leg for his team's winning 400 relay Saturday. (Middle) Elk Rapids' Garett Godden sets the pace for the winning 1,600 relay. (Click for more from Mary Wilson and John Willoughby/RunMichigan.com.)
No Individual Event Wins Needed as Parma Western Clinches 1st Finals Team Title
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
May 31, 2025
HAMILTON – Parma Western boys track & field coach Lucas Sponsler never has been happier to see one of his relay teams finish second.
Entering the 1,600 relay at Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals, Sponsler knew his team needed to finish sixth or higher to overtake River Rouge, which held a two-point lead but didn’t have a team competing in that last race of the afternoon.
As it turns out, that closing event was a perfect reflection of Western’s day.
Western took second to win its first Finals team title by six points, with 44 total, despite not winning a single event throughout the competition.
Depth and versatility in running and field events allowed Western to prevail.
“That’s pretty sweet,” Sponsler said. “I felt like our team was built a lot more for team states. We knew we were built for this because we had a variety of strong athletes.”
While Parma Western made history by winning what Sponsler said was just the third state title by any sports team at the school, River Rouge also had reason to be proud.
After registering just one point at last year’s event, the Panthers took a major jump with their best Finals finish.
Leading the way for River Rouge were seniors Jaiden Melton and Donpaul Keith. Melton won the 100 meters in 10.62 seconds, while Keith won the 200 in 21.66. The two also were part of River Rouge’s winning 800 relay, which came in first with a time of 1:27.89.
“Those guys, they did everything they could and it was amazing for them,” River Rouge head coach Mike Carson said. “We bounced back and we showed up in the individuals, and we showed up in the relay. I’ll take a team runner-up.”
The multiple-event winners on the day individually were Marshall senior Jack Bidwell and Battle Creek Harper Creek junior DJ Wood.
Bidwell won 1,600 meters in 4:14.95 and the 3,200 meters in 9:12.13, using a lethal finishing kick to surge ahead at the finish line.
“I like to use my kick a lot, so I pushed on that today,” said Bidwell, who will run in college for Michigan. “I’ve kind of just always had a kick. I like to say it’s my mentality a lot. It’s like, ‘Why not?’ … I feel like that pushes me a lot and has helped me get to a lot of places I’ve been.”
After not competing at the Finals last year, Wood swept the hurdles events taking the 110 race in 14.15 seconds and winning the 300 hurdles in 39.24.
“I felt really confident doing it,” Wood said. “I put in a lot of work and really cared about it.”
Another standout performance came from Stevensville Lakeshore sophomore Kaden Griffiths, who broke a meet record in the long jump with a leap of 24-¼ .
PHOTOS (Top) Parma Western sprints to the finish in the 1,600 relay; the Panthers' runner-up finish in the race clinched their team title. (Middle) Marshall's Jack Bidwell, left, raises his hands in victory as he crosses the finish line. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)