Fowler Girls Add Team Title 12, Addison's Brown Wins 3 to Double Career Count
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
May 31, 2025
HUDSONVILLE – Addison’s Molly Brown lunged toward the finish line, dropped her head and quickly realized she had run her final race.
The senior standout wrapped up a stellar high school career by winning her last event Saturday, the 300 hurdles, and capped the day with three individual championships at the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals at Baldwin Middle School.
“I was thinking about it before the race, and I was like, ‘This is it. let’s make it count,’” Brown said. “I crossed the finish line knowing it wasn’t one of my best races of the season, but I crossed the finish line and my immediate thought was, ‘Thank you God,’ because He’s gotten me here.”
Brown also won the 100 hurdles for the third straight year and the 100 dash, while finishing third in the long jump.
She ended with six career Finals individual titles.
“For me to win three state titles my senior year, I’m just so thankful,” Brown said. “I’m a super competitive person and so I never want to lose, and I wanted to win all four. But this was the best long jump final that I’ve ever seen at this state meet, so I’m happy with my third (place).”
Fowler put forth another dominating effort to win the team title for the second-straight year. The Eagles racked up 70 points for the convincing victory.
Frankfort, which won a pair of relays (400 and 800), placed runner-up with 43 points. Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep edged Addison by one point to take third.
“Last year I didn't share with them that much as far as seed, but this year I was straight up with them and told them we were seeded with a little bit of a lead and so let's go build on it and the finish will take care of itself,” Fowler coach Neil Hufnagel said. “I think we felt more relaxed and had more fun today than we did last year.
“We had four tremendous seniors who all have high goals and expectations for themselves in everything they do, and they really took our team from the start of the year and gave them that leadership and motivation that we needed to get to a high level at the state meet.”
Senior Ella Hufnagel (also Neil’s daughter) was the lone event winner for the Eagles, leaping to a victory in the long jump.
“Our coach said he was going to be more open with us about the seeding,” she said. “And at practice he said that the target was going to be on us, but we should use that as confidence and go out and race like we do every week. We don't have to do anything special to make it happen.”
Fowler’s depth played a major factor, especially in the sprint relays as they placed runner-up in the 400 and 800.
“Ella had a great day, and what freed her up to run four high-quality individual events is tremendous depth on our team,” Neil Hufnagel said. “It’s as much a credit to our sprint corps that could cover the relays and place high in the sprint relays without her and free her up to score team points where we could best use her.”
Fowler now has won 12 Finals team titles.
“Our underclassmen stepped up huge for us, and I’m pleased with how I did,” Ella Hufnagel said. “No better way to go out than ending on back-to-back championships, and to do it with my dad as my coach … I’m forever grateful.”
Mason County Central senior Payton Haynes repeated as champion in the pole vault (10-3), while Johannesburg-Lewiston senior Allie Nowak also made it back-to-back titles with a victory in the 800 (2:18.45).
Unionville-Sebewaing junior Layla Bolzman won the 200 for the second-straight year with a time of 25.74 seconds, and Whitmore Lake sophomore Kaylie Livingston cruised to a repeat win in the 3,200 (11:03.47).
Hillsdale Academy, which took fifth as a team, won the 1,600 and 3,200 relays.
PHOTOS (Top) Addison's Molly Brown, second from right, crosses the finish line first in the 100 hurdles championship race at Baldwin Middle School. (Middle) Fowler's Ella Hufnagel, far left, faces against Alcona's Addi Beatty and Saginaw Nouvel's Claire Long, among others, in the 200 final. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)
Williams Races to Place with All-Time Best
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 18, 2019
Bridgeport girls track coach Rick Popp said he believes his star sprinter Payten Williams has the potential to be a world champion.
The high praise is something Williams appreciates, as she said it shows her coach has faith in her. But does the senior have that same faith in herself?
Williams was as quick to answer that as she is on the track: “Yes.”
“Payten is crazy fast,” Popp said. “She’s been the fastest girl in the state of Michigan the past two years. When you watch her run, her leg speed is insane. We don’t have a boy that can beat her in the 40 meters. The girl is just crazy lightspeed right now.”
While a world championship is a lofty goal, it’s hard to argue with Popp’s current assessment of Williams, the reigning MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 champion in the 100 and 200 meters. During the past two years, she’s lost just two races, and both came at the MHSAA Finals her sophomore year. She placed fourth in both. She wasn’t unbeaten as a freshman, but she still finished first more than she didn’t and placed sixth at the Finals in the 200.
Her personal best in the 200 meters is 24.26 seconds, which she ran in July 2018 at the United States Track and Field Junior Olympics in North Carolina, placing 10th. That time would be an MHSAA Finals record in all but Division 1. Her personal best in the 100 is 12.06, which she ran at the 2018 MHSAA Finals, when she won by nearly half a second – second place came in at 12.55.
“Every state record should be gone,” Popp said, alluding to Williams breaking them. “Every all-time state record should be gone. When she’s dialed in, she’s lightspeed. She flies off her feet better than most anybody I’ve ever seen.”
Williams said she’s always been fast, but it took good coaching to help her reach these heights. That’s something she said she began to receive while in middle school from her AAU coaches, and that has continued into high school with them and Popp.
As things started to click, Williams started thinking big.
“It felt great – it felt that I was going to become something,” Williams said. “I had a lot of people looking up to me, so I knew I had to keep going further. Making it all the way to the Olympics is something that’s big for me.”
She said she’s made a decision on which college she will be attending, but that she isn’t ready to make an announcement.
Her focus for now is on finishing her high school career strong. That includes breaking the 24-second and 12-second barriers in her respective races, although she was quick to note that the 100 isn’t really her race despite the fact she’s been dominant in it for two years.
“The 200 is my race,” she said. “I just like the race; it’s hard to explain it.”
She said that even after winning the 100 at last year’s Finals, she was more concerned with the 200 she still had to run. That doesn’t mean she wasn’t happy about the double.
“It felt great,” she said. “My mom was like, ‘You’re going to get this. You’re going to become a state champion.’ I was like, ‘No mom, don’t think that.’ But then she was right.”
The times are more important to Williams than winning races. With such lofty goals and recent championship results, focusing on racing the clock could be her best path to reaching them.
“I just focus on getting to the finish line and how I run,” she said. “I don’t think about anything else. I just think about myself and the track.”
Williams has yet to run an outdoor race this season, but she did win a pair of indoor races at Saginaw Valley State in late March, claiming the 60 meters in 7.74 seconds and the 200 in 25.41.
She said she’s been off to a slower start this season, as she’s had to devote more time to her family, specifically helping care for her grandfather. While she didn’t want to elaborate, she did say that she’s getting back to practicing full time and expects to have another strong season.
There’s plenty for her to work for, including repeat championships, state records, getting closer to her Olympic dreams, and her family.
“I’m pushing myself by using my strength as my motivation,” she said. “And I’m doing it for my granddad.”
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) Bridgeport's Payten Williams, far right, surges through the finish in winning the 200 meters at last year's Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals. (Middle) Williams, middle, leads the 100 as contenders power through the final paces of that sprint. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)