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.)
St. Joseph Boys Make Every Point Count in Clinching 1st Finals Since 1997
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
June 3, 2023
ROCKFORD – Entering the final event of Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final, the 1,600 relay, St. Joseph was in first place – but by the slimmest of margins.
St. Joseph had 35.75 points, while Rockford had 35, Clinton Township Chippewa Valley had 32, and Ann Arbor Huron had 30.
Bears head coach Todd Rose knew his team was in the second heat before faster teams after, but his for sure needed to be faster than Rockford.
“I don’t teach them to worry about who they are running against,” Rose said. “Just run within themselves and run how we teach them.”
St. Joseph did that behind the team of Shay White, Will Fiesbeck, Eli Toney and Alex Moyer, finishing fourth in the event with a time of 3:21.50 to earn a meet-best 40.75 points – clinching the program’s first Finals team championship since 1997.
Chippewa Valley was runner-up with 38 points, while Rockford was third at 36 points.
St. Joseph senior Gerald Capaccio scored 18 precious points for his team, most notably winning the discus with a winning throw of 167-2. Capaccio said he was in second going into his last throw.
“I just had the mindset that everyone can have a big throw, and it just has to be me that gets the big throw,” Capaccio said. “It happened on my final throw.”
Capaccio also was second in the shot put with a throw of 56-11¼.
In addition to Capaccio earning big points in the shot put and discus, Rose gave credit to high jumper Joshua Scott for finishing in a tie for seventh in that event. That gave the Bears two points, and they proved to be especially important as the team won by less than one.
It’s rare when a runner does something that hasn’t been achieved since before automobiles were invented, but Ann Arbor Huron senior Braxton Brann had that distinction.
Brann won the 110 hurdles and the 200 dash, becoming the first athlete to win those two events at the same state meet since 1895 – three decades before the MHSAA was formed.
“It’s great to be in that kind of conversation,” said Brann, who will run in college at Ohio State.
First, Brann won the 110 hurdles in a time of 13.77. He said that was the event he was most concerned about.
“I haven’t really been consistent, so I just wanted to be that,” Brann said.
Feeling much more comfortable and at home in the 200 dash, Brann ran a winning time of 21.12.
“Everybody comes in looking at the stats of everybody else,” he said. “I saw I was in the best position to win. But I knew I had to run by butt off against this great field and come out with a win.”
Just about everyone in the stadium did a double-take when Northville’s 3,200 relay time was posted. The team of Brandon Latta, Brock Malaikal, David Whitaker and Brendan Herger set a new all-Finals record with a blistering time of 7:35.32, which was the best time in the nation this year.
Herger said when he got the baton on the anchor leg, he knew his teammates set him up incredibly well. But even he and Northville couldn’t have foreseen this.
“I had to run 1.54 to get it, and then I ended up running a bit faster than that,” Herger said. “I was so happy. I love my boys so much. It was great to share the moment together.
Herger also ended up finishing second in the 800 meters with a time of 1:52.19 behind Utica’s Trent McFarland.
Detroit U-D Jesuit senior Jaiden Reed won the 100 (10.74), and Clinton Township Chippewa Valley junior Shamar Heard won the 400 (47.78). Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills senior Benne Anderson won the 1,600 (4:05.44), and Grand Haven junior Seth Norder won the 3,200 (9:04.68). Kalamazoo Central senior Kayenn Mabin won the 300 hurdles (38.31). Rockford in the 400 (42.01), Chippewa Valley in the 800 (1:26.41) and Oak Park in the 1,600 (3:18.90) also won relay titles.
Battle Creek Lakeview senior Andrew Berryhill was champion in the shot put (58-¼), and Saline senior Dolan Gonzales won pole vault (16-0). Ann Arbor Huron junior Andrew Harding won the high jump (6-7), and Canton sophomore Quincy Isaac won the long jump (22-11). New Baltimore Anchor Bay sophomore Luke Bowman competed in the adaptive 100 (19.65), 200 (35.66) and 400 (1:14.39).
PHOTOS (Top) St. Joseph celebrates its LPD1 championship Saturday. (Middle) Ann Arbor Huron's Braxton Brann finishes one of his two race wins. (Below) Northville makes the final exchange of its record-setting 3,200 relay. (Photos by Jamie McNinch [top two photos] and Carter Sherline/RunMichigan.com.)