Record-Setter Dzurka Dreaming Big, but First Focused on Goal #1: Stay Healthy
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 22, 2026
When it comes to end of season goals, Midland Dow senior Zach Dzurka is keeping it simple: Get there.
To an outsider, that aspiration might seem overly simple for a runner who has the state’s fastest 300-meter hurdles time and is ranked fourth in the 110 hurdles this spring, regardless of division. But after the opportunity to compete at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals was taken away from him a year ago, Dzurka is taking nothing for granted.
“Just try to keep on PRing (setting personal records) and hope to not get injured,” Dzurka said. “I’ve always been super injury-prone for some reason. But the goal is to keep myself healthy until states.”
Dzurka set a pair of Dow records on April 17 at the Graves/Swayze Relay Meet in Midland, running the 300 hurdles in 37.82 and 110s in 14.47. His 300-hurdle time is the fastest in the state so far this year, and just 0.03 seconds off last year’s Division 1 Finals championship time, run by Will Smith of Belleville, who has since graduated.
“I wouldn’t say surprising is the right word; this is totally expected for him,” Dow coach Jenna Oskvarek said. “He’s been working his butt off to make sure he can reach his goals. It was kind of only a matter of time, we knew (times this fast were) going to happen, we just didn’t know when. We couldn’t be happier.”
Dzurka, who also holds the school indoor record for the 60-meter hurdles (8.33), had already claimed the 300 hurdles record a year ago and was unbeaten in both outdoor hurdles events throughout the 2025 season.
But a persistent hamstring injury ended his season early.
“It wasn’t anything so extensive that it was season-ending, but we didn’t want to push it and injure him more long-term,” Oskvarek said. “It was more of a conversation with Zach about, ‘This is why we’re making the decision we are, so what do we need to do to support you to get you back to where you want to be?’ As much as we wanted the team to have success and wanted him to run, it’s not about us. He was completely understanding. There was disappointment, of course, but he knew why we made the decision we made and was totally on board. He could see the long-term reasons.”
Dzurka said the injury was never fully diagnosed, but it also wouldn’t go away.
“One practice I was hurdling and I felt like a mild sharp pain, and it would not stop,” he said. “It hurt each time I would hurdle. I thought it was going to get worse if I kept going. I was doing all the hamstring exercises, but it wouldn’t stop. It was really weird, because it finally stopped, literally the day after (the Finals). That was annoying.”
Dzurka said he has been battling smaller injuries since his sophomore year, when he suffered a bulging disc in his back during a soccer game. In that moment, his feet got crossed up after making a pass, and when he fell to the ground took all the impact on his knees, which triggered the back issue, as well as arthritis.
He believes a lot of the soft-tissue injuries he’s dealt with stem from that back injury, which he’s mostly managed, but does still continue to work through.
“I would look up online how to fix back pain or how to fix bulging discs,” he said. “Then I would just brute-force the exercises until the pain went away. I was a pretty good coach for myself.”
Dzurka gives a lot of credit to Oskvarek and the Dow coaching staff for helping him get healthy – and keep him that way.
“We’re staying hopeful and staying careful as we do with all our athletes, so we can maximize his success and make sure not to run him into the ground,” Oskvarek said.
When healthy, Dzurka continues to thrive on the track in events he wasn’t introduced to until he was a freshman. He recently signed to run at Saginaw Valley State, where Oskvarek believes the resources and training available will allow Dzurka to take another leap forward.
“We always talk about how, especially at Dow, we’ve had such luck with such amazing athletes over the years, but we tell them that if you’re having this much success in high school, once you get to college, it’s just another ceiling to be broken,” Oskvarek said. “We prepare them to know that you’re having so much success here, imagine what you can do in college.”
Dzurka said the 400 hurdles will likely be his specialty moving forward, as he’s already seeing he’s more built for longer races.
“Before the season I said I was going to go sub-14 in the 110s, and that’s something to shoot for,” he said. “But I have super long legs that take a long time to get going, so I don’t know about that. But before the season I was joking with my buddies that I was going to go sub-37 in the 300 hurdles, and that’s actually possible.”
Sub-37 seconds would put him in rare company, as just four Michigan runners have ever done it. And, if he accomplishes his first goal of getting to the Finals in good health, could very likely put him at the top of the podium.
“It really would mean a lot because of how much I know I’ve put into the sport,” Dzurka said. “Even at indoor states, I came in third place this year, and at indoor states last year, I had my first-ever false start. So, getting to redeem myself would be great.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Midland Dow’s Zach Dzurka, with baton, takes off to start a relay race. (Middle) Dzurka, middle, leads a hurdles race during an indoor meet at Saginaw Valley State. (Photos courtesy of the Midland Dow athletic department.)
'Lapeer Through and Through,' Schmidt Surpasses Half-Century in Coaching
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 2, 2025
Manny Schmidt still wants to be at track practice.
After 50-plus years coaching in Lapeer, the man they call Coach Manny has not lost his love for helping student-athletes – and at this rate, he might go another 50.
“I told my wife years ago that the first day I don’t feel like going to practice, that I’d rather be somewhere else, that’s the day I’m done,” Schmidt said. “And it hasn’t happened yet. Obviously, you have bad days and things like that. But track, and right now practice, it just keeps me going.”
Schmidt, who is the head boys track & field coach at Lapeer, began coaching track as an assistant in 1974, and has remained there – and Lapeer East, then back at Lapeer when the schools merged back together – ever since. On Friday, April 11, he will be honored at an event at Lightning Rounds in Lapeer for his years of service to Lapeer athletes. The event begins at 7:30 p.m., following the Lapeer Lightning Co-Ed Relays.
“Manny has been a staple of Lapeer Athletics through many different renditions over the years,” Lapeer athletic director Shad Spilski said. “His willingness to help student-athletes grow and achieve their goals is all he wants out of his athletes. Manny spends, and has spent, countless hours over several decades providing athletes multiple opportunities to hone their skills. He not only coaches, but he is one of Lapeer athletes’ biggest fans and supporters. You will always find him at other sporting events cheering on athletes and his coaching colleagues. He truly is Lapeer through and through.”
Schmidt came to Lapeer to teach English in December of 1972 after graduating from Western Michigan University. He had attended high school at St. Joseph Catholic, and was unfamiliar with Lapeer.
But it didn’t take long for him to fall in love with the school community after receiving the assignment.
“Almost immediately,” he said. “I started in December; the teacher had left and I got the job in December. Three days later, they had a staff Christmas party that I got invited to, and all of my close friends over the years, many of them, I guess, I met at that party.”
Coaching was always something Schmidt wanted to do. He played basketball and ran track in high school, and had a basketball coach who made a big impact on his life. He wanted to do the same for others.
In the spring of 1974, during his first full year of teaching English at Lapeer, he got that chance as the assistant track coach. He has since coached cross country – working to start the Lapeer East girls program in the 1990s – junior varsity football and middle school basketball. He also served as a basketball official for more than 30 years.
“I just liked being part of it,” he said.
Throughout his five decades coaching track, Schmidt has worked with athletes in every event. While middle and long distance are what he’s long enjoyed coaching, he’s currently working with the Lapeer throwers and high jumpers, as head cross country coaches Russ Reitz and Bill Spruytte are also coaching track.
“In our program, we have four of us (Schmidt, Reitz, Spruytte and Anthony Merlo), and we all have equal voice, we all coach together,” Schmidt said. “On any given day, and that’s the nice thing, I could be with anything. I could be with the hurdlers.”
This past year, Schmidt returned to the Lapeer cross country staff as an assistant, saying he was honored that the current coaches respected him enough to call him back.
But for them, it was an honor to have him.
“Working with Manny is like having access to decades of knowledge,” said fellow cross country assistant Christine Cerny. “It is such a privilege to be able to draw from that and learn from that myself. It’s so awesome to be able to coach alongside him after he has coached my kids.”
During his time, Schmidt has coached multiple generations of Lapeer families, including his own. His children Corrinne and Jennifer both ran for him, as did his grandchildren Morgan, Mason and Colton.
And by his side the entire time has been his wife, Val, who worked as a scorekeeper during meets.
“When I started coaching, she would be the person at all our home cross country meets and all our home track meets who sat there and kept track by hand,” Schmidt said. “Probably the happiest person with this new technology is my wife – now she doesn’t have to do it. When we have invites, she’ll do medals and stuff like that.”
Technological changes have been abundant for high school athletes over the past five decades, not just in competition but outside of it. Schmidt recalls returning to Lapeer from away meets and having athletes line up at the school’s two payphones to call their parents.
“Now, when we get back, everyone has called home and their rides are there waiting,” Schmidt said.
Throughout his time, Schmidt has done plenty of winning and coached several athletes who have moved on to compete at the college level. But the relationships he’s created are what he values most.
“Nobody’s luckier than I am with where I taught and where I coached, and who I’ve coached with over the years,” Schmidt said. “You have to look forward to going to work, and I hate to use the word ‘work’ with coaching. It is, I guess. But there’s just so much good with it.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Clockwise from the top left: (1) Manny Schmidt (standing, second from left) coaches the Lapeer White Junior High girls basketball team. (2) Schmidt, top middle, takes a photo with Lapeer’s boys track & field team last spring. (3) Schmidt, left, has coached three of his grandchildren including Morgan Turk. (4) Schmidt, far left, takes a photo with the 2011 Lapeer East cross country teams. (5) Schmidt, standing far right, coaches Michelle Brundage during the 1991 Meet of Champions. (Middle) Schmidt looks on during an event. (Photos provided by the Lapeer athletic department.)