Track Champ Eager for Next Challenge
June 30, 2020
By Tom Kendra
Special for Second Half
Aiden McLaughlin’s high school run got cut short, so now it’s time for him to fly.
McLaughlin, who recently graduated from Morley Stanwood High School, was one of thousands of Michigan high school seniors who lost out on their final spring season due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That meant he never got to attempt to repeat his 2019 Division 3 Finals championship in the 800-meter run.
“That was definitely a major goal to try and defend that title,” said McLaughlin, who won that race at Zeeland Stadium with a time of 1:55.1. “But I was really looking forward to being with my teammates for my senior year – seeing how well we could do in our relays and things like that. That was more disappointing for me than the personal stuff.”
McLaughlin never slowed down throughout the lockdown this spring, instead using the time to get physically and mentally prepared for his next challenge. This week, he started his freshman year as a fourth class cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
He was on his way to a District basketball game in March when he learned that he had been accepted into the Air Force Academy, a nomination which has been a huge source of pride for the close-knit Morley community.
“We are all so happy for Aiden and can’t wait to see everything he does from here,” said Michele Young, who recently retired after 32 years of coaching track at Morley Stanwood. “He sets high expectations for himself, and he usually reaches them. He has the heart and mind and soul of a champion.”
Young has coached some great athletes over her 32 years, including Travis McCuaig, who won back-to-back Division 3 Finals championships in the high jump in 2012 and 2013. However, Young said she has never coached a high school athlete as self-motivated and self-disciplined as McLaughlin.
Not that she is entirely surprised.
Young coached both of his parents, Amanda (Bush) McLaughlin and Curtis McLaughlin, who were standout runners and high school sweethearts at Morley in the mid-1990s.
“They were both amazing athletes as well,” Young recalled. “Mandy was a distance runner and Curtis was more of a sprinter; he was very fast. I tell Aiden he is a combination of them. That’s why he can run anything from the 200 to the 2-mile.”
McLaughlin, who was also a four-time all-stater in cross country, excelled most in high school in the 800 meters and also has posted personal bests of 4:24.6 in the 1,600 and 52.3 in the 400.
Getting accepted into the Air Force Academy was a goal for McLaughlin since he attended a running camp there during the summer following his freshman year.
“I loved everything about it, and I made up my mind that I was going to do everything I could to get in there,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin put together quite an impressive resume over his four years of high school, notably earning all-state honors in all three of his sports: cross country, basketball and track. He was also a member of the school’s robotics team, National Honor Society and the Mecosta County Youth Advisory Committee. He waded through the lengthy process of applying to the Air Force Academy; he was nominated by John Moolenaar, the representative of Michigan’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
While most people go to the Air Force to fly, the 18-year-old McLaughlin is going there to run – at least at first. He will compete on the indoor and outdoor track teams, while pursuing a degree in aerospace engineering or astronomical engineering.
McLaughlin said he is nervous and excited, “but definitely more excited than nervous.”
“I like anything that’s a challenge to me,” McLaughlin explained. “Honestly, my biggest goal right now is just to graduate from the Air Force Academy. I know if I do that, I will have a lot of opportunities.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Morley Stanwood’s Aiden McLaughlin will continue his academic and running careers at the U.S. Air Force Academy. (Middle) McLaughlin breaks away during the 2019 Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals 800-meter run. (Photos courtesy of Morley Stanwood athletics.)
North Branch Cousins Carry on Family Tradition with Record-Setting Throws
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 16, 2025
Aubree Deshetsky wasn’t able to be there last week when her cousin, Eli Bickel, broke the 30-year-old North Branch discus record.
She was there, however, when the former record holder, her dad Daniel Deshetsky, got the call.
“I was with my dad at a volleyball tournament in Louisville,” Aubree Deshetsky said. “We wanted (Eli) to break the record. It was cool to see him do that.”
Bickel not only knocked his uncle off the Broncos’ record board with his throw of 160 feet, 4 inches on April 11 at Davison, he joined Aubree as the school’s all-time leaders in the event. She had thrown 131-5 two days earlier, breaking her own school record.
The similarities go well beyond that. Both have committed to Division I universities in other sports. Deshetsky will be playing volleyball at Wofford (South Carolina), while Bickel has committed to play football at Michigan State.
And they’re both still juniors.
“I think for both of them, they’re not done,” North Branch athletic director and throwing coach Al Margrif said. “They’re both really motivated to be able to make their best marks this year. Eli, he puts in a lot of study. He watches a lot of film. He has a cousin that he talks to that’s a (collegiate) throws coach. He’s more technical and a student of discus. Aubree, she’s a super-fast learner. She’s just so athletic, and it just comes out so much.”
Deshetsky is a two-time Finals champion in volleyball, winning titles her freshman and sophomore seasons. She’s also a returning all-state thrower, having taken fifth in the shot put and sixth in the discus at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals a year ago.
That’s despite never really being solely focused on throwing. During her freshman year, she ran the 200, 400 and 800 meters, multiple relays and also high jumped along with her throwing events.
As a sophomore, she cut back on some of those races and the high jump, but was part of North Branch’s 400-meter relay team, which qualified for the Division 2 Finals.
And all along, she’s been playing high-level club volleyball, which takes her around the country.
“I kind of (started throwing) because my dad threw in high school,” she said. “It’s just something my family has done. I was really a big high jumper and 800 runner in middle school and early high school, but once volleyball ramped up more, it was harder to train for those, so I focused more on the throwing side. I got serious into discus last year. But my coach, he literally puts us in events at the meets to get us the most points, so I just do whatever he asks and hope for the best.”
She threw 127-1 at the Blue Water Area Conference championship meet a year ago to claim the school record. That came last May, so to be well ahead of that right now in early April is a good sign for what she wants to accomplish this season.
“I was actually very surprised,” she said. “That meet was my first time throwing outdoors this year. We’ve just been practicing inside, but something that’s helped this year, our school has these foam rings and with rubber discs, I can basically do a full throw into a divider in the gym. But I honestly did not expect to throw that far. I’m kind of aiming for the 140 mark this year. I think starting out at 131 is a good starting point.”
Bickel, who will play on the offensive line at MSU, has been more focused on throwing since middle school. He started tagging along to throwing practices when his sister Natasha, a 2023 North Branch graduate who was Deshetsky’s volleyball teammate, began competing in high school, and realized pretty quickly he had a future in the sport. So much so that he originally thought throwing could be his path to becoming a college athlete.
All along, he had his uncle’s record in his sights.
“It’s been a goal of mine,” Bickel said. “I knew I could do it. Last year was a frustrating year, because I hit that mark so many times in practice, but I never could in a meet. This was my first meet this year – I got cleared on Tuesday (after recovering from a torn meniscus), then the next day I threw 151 and felt good. Then Friday came and my first two throws, I was over-excited, but my next throw, I really connected.”
Bickel is a four-sport athlete at North Branch, as he wrestled and played basketball this winter. Even though he did get injured in January, he said the MSU staff has been supportive of him continuing to branch out.
“They actually encouraged it,” Bickel said. “They wanted people who could stay moving and be athletic on the offensive line.”
His football commitment could mean this is his final track season, however, as there’s a chance he will enroll early at MSU. That put some more urgency into breaking that record this season and getting back to the Division 2 Finals to make up for a disappointing finish a year ago.
He’s certainly on track to do that, as his record-breaking throw is currently the best in Division 2 this spring.
The best throw for Division 2 girls, meanwhile, belongs to Deshetsky.
It’s fitting for cousins who have had simultaneous success for so long.
“Our family is very close together,” Bickel said. “We actually do 4-H in the summer, and they show pigs out of our barn. I go to every one of her volleyball games that I can make it to. On the track side of things, there are times on a Saturday afternoon where I’ll ask her if she wants to go practice throwing, and she’ll do 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) Cousins Aubree Deshetsky, left, and Eli Bickel take a photo together during a successful day last season at the Goodrich Invitational. (Middle) Deshetsky unwinds during a discus throw. (Below) Bickel holds up his discus and shot put. (Photos courtesy of the North Branch athletic department.)