Preview: Team Contenders Seek to Make Stars Align at LP Boys Finals
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
May 29, 2026
Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Boys Track & Field Finals again will bring together a serious collection of star power at four sites across the Grand Rapids area.
But adding to an intriguing day is the relative unpredictability of the team title races. A large variety of schools have won championships over the last several years in all four divisions, and forecasting which might climb the podium this weekend remains a difficult task.
All four LP Finals will begin with pole vault and long jump beginning at 9 a.m., followed by race semifinals and the 3,200 relay at 10 a.m. and the rest of the running finals starting at noon. Tickets cost $11 and are available digitally only via GoFan.
MHSAA.tv will live-stream all four meets beginning at 10 a.m., viewable with subscription. Check out the Boys Track & Field page for meet information for all four sites and lists of all qualifiers. Those described as "seeded" below have received those seeds based on Regional performances or meeting early qualification standards. (Although not noted for most, several individuals below also will run on contending relays.)
Below is a glance at team contenders and individuals to watch in all four divisions:
Division 1 at Rockford
Team forecast: We’re up to six teams that have won LPD1 championships over the last five seasons (with Fenton and Rockford tying for first in 2021). Belleville is the reigning champ and has some points potential again this weekend. But Detroit Catholic Central’s star power across several events could be a difference maker, with Oak Park, East Kentwood and potentially Grand Haven and Northville among others that could have the right mix of standouts, depth and variety to make a run at the team title.
Zacchaeus Brocks, Detroit Catholic Central senior: He’s one of the nation’s top high school hurdlers and seeded first in the 110 (13.26) and 300 (36.23) by notable margins, but is seeking his first title after his 2025 ended early because of an injury.
Wendell Childs Jr., Clarkston junior: He’s seeded second in the 800 (1:51.49) after winning that race a year ago.
Beckett Crooks, Ann Arbor Pioneer senior: The reigning 3,200 champion is seeded fourth (9:03.74) and won’t run another individual race as he’s scratched from the 1,600, where he also would have been seeded fourth.
Reece Emeott, East Kentwood senior: He’s looking to cap his high school career with a third-straight Finals championship in the pole vault and has the top-seeded vault (16-0) by three inches.
Samson Gash, Detroit Catholic Central senior: He won the 100 in an all-Finals record 10.41 seconds last season and also finished third in the 200, and he enters this weekend seeded second in both in 10.51 and 21.53 seconds, respectively.
Luka Hammond, Grand Haven senior: The reigning 1,600 champ is seeded first in that race (4:08.29) and the 3,200 (8:58.33) and fifth in the 800.
De-Mani Roberts, East Kentwood sophomore: He could make a splash entering as the top seed in the 400 (47.55), third seed in the 200 (21.55) and sixth seed in the 100.
Division 2 at Hamilton
Team forecast: Parma Western became a first-time champion in this division a year ago, and Harper Woods may be the next with two top-seeded relays and more possibilities in sprints and hurdles. Flint Powers Catholic is seeking a first title as well and has three top-three seeded relays and potential points in sprints, hurdles and distance. Frankenmuth has won three team titles, its most recent in 2021, and might have the right mix with strong relays and a variety of events covered individually.
Declin Doroh, Stevensville Lakeshore junior: He finished second in the high jump last season but may be on the cusp of history with his statewide-best 7-0 at his Regional just an inch shy of the all-Finals record that has stood since 1989.
Ryan Good, Parma Western junior: Last season’s runner-up in the 800 has finished lower than first in an individual race just once across three events this spring and enters top-seeded in the 800 (1:50.11) and second-seeded in the 1,600 (4:16.30) after scratching from the 400, where he would have been seeded fifth.
Kaden Griffiths, Stevensville Lakeshore junior: He’ll return to the long jump pit seeking a third-straight championship and after winning last season’s by nearly 20 inches.
Zachary Overmyer, Edwardsburg senior: He won the high jump just ahead of Doroh last season and has continued to impress, seeding fourth for this weekend.
D.J. Wood, Battle Creek Harper Creek senior: He swept the hurdles championships last season and is seeded first in both the 110 (14.18) and 300 (tied at 38.44).
Division 3 at Kent City
Team forecast: Hanover-Horton tied for 33rd at last season’s Finals, but looks to have the power at relays and elsewhere to make a massive jump this weekend. Lansing Catholic could do the same after finishing ninth a year ago, and Ann Arbor Greenhills may make some noise with two top-seeded relays among a strong group on the running side.
Jack Deitsch, Reed City senior: The reigning champion in the long jump enters with the top Regional jump (22-10¼) plus is seeded second in the 100 (10.77) and will run the 200.
Hunter Eaton, Charlevoix junior: The fall’s Division 3 cross country champion also will look to repeat in the 3,200 and carries the second seed in that race (9:33.24) plus the second seed in the 1,600 (4:18.52) and sixth in the 800.
Dennis Jackson, Detroit Edison senior: He won the 400 last season and returns seeded first in that race (48.26) and fourth in the 200 (21.95).
Chaze Lorenz, Hart senior: He ran on three high-placing relays last season, including the champion 800, and could add a few individual titles seeded first this weekend in the 100 (10.67) and 200 (21.72) and second in the 400 (49.10).
Nolan Schaap, Kalamazoo Christian junior: He could make a big jump in his hurdles races, seeded first in the 300 (39.40) after finishing 14th a year ago and seeded fourth in the 110 after placing 15th during the 2025 prelims.
Division 4 at Hudsonville Baldwin
Team forecast: Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep finished just a point behind champion Southfield Christian last season and most recently won back-to-back Division 4 titles in 2022 and 2023. Distance dominance could bring the Irish to the top of the podium again this weekend. Eau Claire, Manchester, Reading and Royal Oak Shrine also are intriguing possibilities on the board.
Marek Butkiewicz, Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep senior: The two-time Finals champion in cross country also has won the 3,200 the last two seasons and the 1,600 last spring. He’s seeded first in the 1,600 (4:14.83) and 3,200 (9:05.33) and third in the 800 (1:57.79).
Abenezer Cerone, Royal Oak Shrine Catholic senior: The reigning champion in the 800 is seeded first in that race (1:52.24) and the 400 (49.33), fourth in the 1,600 and also has qualified in the 200.
Grant Johnson, Manchester senior: He finished third in the 110 hurdles and fifth in the 300 last season but enters this weekend seeded first in the 110 (14.84) and sixth in the 300, and he’s also expected to long jump.
Oliver Long, Morrice senior: The two-time reigning champion in the shot put is seeded first (56-9) by nearly five feet, and also fourth in the discus.
Dawson Scharer, Hillsdale Academy senior: He won the 300 hurdles and finished second in the 110 a year ago. He is seeded second in both in 39.06 and 14.92 seconds, respectively, and he’s also scheduled to run the 200.
PHOTOS (Top) Royal Oak Shrine’s Abenezer Cerone leads during the 800 meters at Friday’s Oakland County Championships. (Middle) Grand Haven’s Luca Hammond, followed by Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Beckett Crooks, pushes toward the finish during the Diamond 1,600 at Romeo’s Barnyard Invitational this season. (Photos by Dave McCauley, at Oakland County, and John Brabbs at Romeo/RunMichigan.com.)
Longtime Coach Lukens Remembered for Building Champions, Changing Lives
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
September 27, 2024
The results speak for themselves as there were conference, Regional and MHSAA Finals championship and runner-up finishes.
But those accomplishments are not necessarily why Don Lukens will be remembered by most. It will be for the lives he touched and successes his student-athletes found after graduation.
Lukens impacted two communities separated by 200 miles during multi-decade coaching tenures for multiple high school programs.
Lukens died Sept. 15 at age 90. He was well-known across the state for his coaching as he spent 27 years teaching at Kalamazoo Loy Norrix, where he coached with Ted Duckett, and 33 years coaching at Traverse City Central with John Lober. Duckett, now 78, and Lober, 82, are still coaching today.
Tico Duckett, one of the most accomplished running backs in Michigan State University football history, is one of thousands of kids Lukens recruited into the running world. Duckett, who went on to play in the National Football League, credits Lukens for recruiting first-time track athletes from challenging life situations and turning them into college scholarship recipients.
Lukens knew how to get the best individual performances out his athletes, recalled Duckett, whose high school running career ended with a hamstring injury sustained during Regional preliminary sprints.
“I can tell story after story of kids that he plucked out of class, and they are successful today,” said the first MSU back to rush three times for more than 1,000 yards. “Between him and my dad, they would take kids that had no direction, no future, no hope and bring them in and teach them track and teach kids what you put into it is what you’re going to get out.”
Lukens had graduated from Western Michigan University where he’d participated in football and track. During his 38 years coaching track, Lukens’ teams posted a dual meet record of 220-24, won 20 conference championships, nine MHSAA Regional championships, a Lower Peninsula Class A title and finished runners-up twice.
Lukens’ cross country teams also were impressive with a record of 198-60 during his 34 years of coaching. They won 14 conference championships and 12 MHSAA Regional titles.
Tico Duckett has memories of being recruited to the sport as a child while his father served as an assistant coach at Loy Norrix.
“Coach Lukens would say, ‘I can’t wait ’til you get here,’” the former MSU star fondly recollected. “Coach Lukens loved track – he breathed and ate track.”
Loy Norrix hosts the highly-competitive Don Lukens Relays every May. Duckett attended this year’s meet as he often does. It was Lukens’ ability to recruit and coach track that made the Knights stand out across the state.
“Loy Norrix track was special,” said Duckett, proudly noting the Knights’ dual-meet dominance. “When we would go places and get off the bus, people would literally say, ‘There’s Loy Norrix,’ and they would literally talk about us, and we would show ’em on the track and we backed it up.”
Inside the halls and walls of Loy Norrix, the Duckett name is engraved on trophies and next to track & field records earned by Tico Duckett and his brother TJ, who also went on to play professional football. Ted Duckett took over the head coaching duties when Lukens retired and moved to Platte Lake in Benzie County.
Word traveled fast that Lukens had arrived in Northern Michigan, and he immediately was asked to help Benzie Central by another legendary coach, Pete Moss, who died in 2019.
Lober ran across Lukens at a meet at Benzie and recruited him to coach distance running at Traverse City Central – which at the time had just five athletes committed to participate in those races.
Central had a prior history of success in sprints and field events, but the Trojans won the 1992 Class A title as their distance runners had become competitive enough to start contributing points at the Finals.
“We started coaching together in 1989, and we had 30-plus glorious years together,” Lober said. “We ended up qualifying right off the bat for the state finals, and we went 16 years in a row.”
Lober too was known for his recruiting to the sport.
“When we talked with kids, I’d be talking in one side of the kid’s ear and Don would be talking in the other,” Lober said with a laugh. “By the time we were done, the kid didn’t have a prayer of not joining the team.”
Lukens continued at Central until 2021, stepping aside as he ended 62 years of coaching.
Cody Inglis, now a senior assistant director for the MHSAA, served as Central’s athletic director while Lukens coached. He was well aware of Lukens’s coaching at Loy Norrix as he grew up a distance runner for nearby Portage Northern.
Inglis noted most of Northern Michigan knew very little of Lukens’ resume prior to his coming north. Inglis was coaching and serving as athletic director at the time for Suttons Bay when Lukens first joined the Trojans.
“People in Traverse City didn’t understand the success he had at Loy Norrix,” Inglis said. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, Traverse City Central was good, and they’ll be even better’ and it’s no secret that the reason their cross country program took off was because of Don Lukens.”
Lukens won the inaugural Coaching Legacy Award at the 2019 Traverse City Record-Eagle/John Lober Honor Roll Meet. Going forward, the award will be named after Lukens.
Lukens is survived by his wife Rosinda, daughters Paige Gray of Gladwin, Wendy Pohl of Kalamazoo and Donyelle Hayhoe of Lansing, and five grandchildren: Brynn Rusch, Ian Gray, Westyn Hayhoe, Travis Hayhoe and Lucas Hayhoe.
The Trojans will host a memorial tribute to Lukens the day after next year’s Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City. A graveside service was held for Lukens on Monday at the Benzonia Township Cemetery.
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) Longtime coach Don Lukens, far left, is pictured during the 2015 LP Cross Country Finals with past Traverse City Central runner John Steen (center) and Trojans coach John Lober, with Jane and Jack Steen standings in front. Jane and Jack Steen are current Traverse City Central runners. (Middle) The Niles Daily Star published this 1976 photo of Lukens (back row, second from right) and coach Ted Duckett (back row, center) receiving the championship trophy at the Daily Star Relays from publisher Bill Applebee. (Top photo courtesy of John Lober.)