Saugatuck, Dunn Dominate in D4 Repeat
June 4, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
GRAND RAPIDS – There was little question that Saugatuck junior Blake Dunn was the individual star of the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 track & field meet Saturday afternoon at Houseman Field.
Dunn swept the 110 and 300-meter hurdles, both in meet-record times, to lead Saugatuck to the championship just one year after the Indians shared first place with Concord. Saugatuck finished with 66 points to easily outdistance runner-up Evart’s 32. Cassopolis was third with 30.
It was Saugatuck’s third MHSAA championship in the past four years, and the Indians were runners-up in 2014.
“The distance guys let me know that we would have won the meet without Blake,” Saugatuck coach Rick Bauer said. “They get tired of my harping at them and asking why they don’t score as much as Blake. We used to be a distance program that ran track, and now we’re a pretty complete team.”
Dunn dominated the 110 hurdles as he set an LP Division 4 Finals record by winning in 14.33 seconds. He won by more than a second while running into a headwind.
“There was nothing I could do about the wind, so I just did the best I could,” he said. “I’m just really glad that I was able to run a good race.”
Dunn’s double came in the 300 hurdles, which he won in 38.31 seconds, another meet record. That victory was by nearly two seconds, and it was his second consecutive MHSAA title in that event.
“Basically, I try to get out as hard as I can and make those guys try to catch me and see what happens from there,” Dunn said. “I just have to hit the hurdles and keep pushing.”
Dunn is one of the top all-around athletes in the state. He was quarterback on the football team, played basketball and already has decided to play baseball at Western Michigan University. In fact, he had to leave his baseball team, which played in the District tournament Saturday, to compete in the track meet.
“It was a hard choice, but I had faith in my baseball guys that they could come out with a couple of wins,” he said. “It’s awesome that the coaches let me play both sports.
“I’ve been playing football, basketball, baseball and track my whole life, and I think it has helped me keep fresh for every season,” he added. ‘They announced a stat that there are fewer injuries for people who play multiple sports, and I think it keeps my muscles relaxed and loose.”
Bauer was thankful that Dunn was able to be on hand at Houseman.
“That’s a kid who throws 90 miles per hour and probably is going to be in the majors someday; that’s great. Thanks,” he said.
Dunn also ran a leg on Saugatuck’s fourth-place 400 relay, joining teammates Jordan Mitchell, Cole Hartman and Jeff Kohlmeyer.
“The 4 by 100 was kind of a surprise,” Bauer said. “We came in fourth, but we beat our school record by a half a second. That’s the sort of thing you hope happens.”
Saugatuck also was second in the 3,200 as Keegan Siefert, Nick Butch, Orlando Carrion and Zachary Pettinga finished in 8:17.84.
While Dunn had the only individual championships for Saugatuck, the team was loaded with plenty of excellent finishes. Perhaps the most inspiring was the second-place finish in high jump by senior Mervyn Auffret, an exchange student from France.
“We didn’t expect him to score at all, and he ended up in second place,” Bauer said. “I didn’t expect that to happen. He had never tried track until this year, and he didn’t know anything about high jump. He also qualified in the hurdles, so he was a great addition to our team.”
Auffret certainly will return to France with some stories to tell.
“I have told all my friends about the high jump and that I’m good at it, but it was really hard at first,’ he said. “I didn’t know much about it. Really, I didn’t know anything.”
Saugatuck had other strong finishes. In the 3,200, freshman Corey Gorgas was second and junior Pettinga was third. Evan Hotary was fourth in the pole vault (12-9), and Xavier Cardona took fourth in the shot put.
The only other individual double-winner at the meet was Santana Scott of Evart. Scott won the 1,600 in 4 minutes, 22.89 seconds and took the 3,200 in 9:42.83.
Other individual champions in the running events were Billy Wojnowski of Big Rapids Crossroads, who edged Montez Brewer of Concord 11.15 to 11.16 in the 100. Freshman Alec Muck of Sand Creek won the 200 in 22.50, Deion Gaston of Cassopolis took the 400 (50.20) and Daniel Mikovits of Concord captured the 800 in 1:58.50.
In the field events, Jacob Kulhanek of Merrill repeated as champion in the pole vault by clearing 13 feet, 9 inches. Southfield Christian sophomore Blake Washington won the high jump at 6-5, just 1 inch higher than Auffret.
Delvon Hines of Melvindale Academy of Business & Technology won the long jump (20-9.25), Paxton Titus of Brighton Livingston Christian took the discus (162-11), and Jacob Lechner of Harbor Springs won the shot put (13-9).
Relay winners included Melvindale ABT in the 400 (43.75), Muskegon Catholic Central in the 800 (1:31.30), Centreville in the 1,600 (3:28.28) and Hillsdale Academy in the 3,200 (8:13.34).
PHOTO: Saugatuck's Blake Dunn clears a hurdle on the way to an individual title while helping his team to the overall championship at Houseman Field. (Photo by Angie Graham/RunMichigan.com.)
'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.)