Keweenaw Classic Provides Indoor Competition as UP Spring Begins
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
April 28, 2022
HOUGHTON — The weather may still be in no particular hurry to warm up, but many Upper Peninsula track & field teams found a way to beat the elements earlier this month.
Michigan Technological University, as it had for many years, was ready to lend a helping hand and hosted its annual Keweenaw Classic indoor meet April 12.
Northern Michigan University also has hosted high school meets inside the Superior Dome for more than 25 years. Those meets, however, have been interrupted by COVID-19.
This year’s event at Tech included a pre-meet clinic for the first time.
“The Tech athletes were very helpful,” said Houghton boys coach Erik Johnson. “With no meets in the Dome, this kind of fills a void. It was absolutely critical to get this in. With 44 guys on the team, any open meet you can get is good. This gives us a chance to compete with schools we often don’t see.”
Baraga coach Tammy Crittenden was also thankful for the opportunity.
“The clinic was very helpful,” she said. “Hopefully, our kids got something out of it. We also brought our middle school kids to the clinic. They do a nice job putting on this meet and helping all the student-athletes.”
L’Anse coach John Jacobson had similar thoughts.
“The clinic was very valuable, and I think we learned a few things,” he said. “We’re very thankful to have this opportunity. A lot of work goes into this.”
Team scores weren’t kept, and shot put was the lone field event.
“We appreciate the opportunity to do shot put,” said Negaunee girls coach Vickie Paupore. “That’s one area I think we’re going to be real strong. It was nice for our younger kids to have this experience. I’m very grateful for our kids to have a chance to compete this early in the season. We still have snow on our track.”
Bark River-Harris sophomore Mackenzie Hoffmeyer, who won the 60 and 200-meter dashes, was grateful to have a chance to compete.
“I was real nervous at first,” she said. “After the 60 I felt little more relaxed. I was in the fifth lane in the 200. I knew I had to go out fast.”
Ontonagon junior Makennah Uotila was also anxious to get the season underway.
“Getting a meet in right now was huge,” she said. “Pretty soon we’ll be doing two meets a week. This was good for conditioning.”
Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie hosted two indoor meets this year with the more recent one taking place April 21.
John Vrancic has covered high school sports in the Upper Peninsula since joining the Escanaba Daily Press staff in 1985. He is known most prominently across the peninsula for his extensive coverage of cross country and track & field that frequently appears in newspapers from the Wisconsin border to Lake Huron. He received the James Trethewey Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 from the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
PHOTO Ontonagon’s Makennah Uotila, here starting the 400 at last season’s Upper Peninsula Division 3 Finals, was among athletes who competed at the Keweenaw Classic. (Photo by Kara Camps.)
West Marching to Finals Hoping to Build on 4th-Straight Regional, League Titles
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
May 23, 2025
Reese Smith is hoping the third time is the charm.
Not that any of the previous efforts by the Traverse City West junior could possibly be considered failures.
And if her third-straight appearance at the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Track & Field Finals next weekend at East Kentwood High School doesn’t result in a championship, it will be filled with love — for her teammates and everything else the Titans accomplished this year.
West, coming off a fourth-straight Regional championship and a fourth-straight Big North Conference title, have high hopes of capturing the 3,200 relay at East Kentwood. The Titans also have their eyes on the 1,600 relay. Smith anchors both.
“I really love the team and the bonds I’ve made with the girls on my team, especially the relays teams,” Smith said. “I feel like we’ve gotten really close, and that makes a difference when you are racing together and working together to get what you want to accomplish.”
West has qualified for 3,200 relay Final all four of Smith’s seasons, finishing 15th two years ago and third last season. Alyssa Fouchey, a senior, also ran on those first three qualifiers. Junior Bailey Wenzlick is back for her second straight, and the team’s fourth is sophomore Tessa Mascari, who will be experiencing her first 3,200 Final as well after narrowly qualifying for the 1,600-meter as a freshman last year.
Mascari also qualified this year for the open 1,600 and 3,200-meter races.
“I love this team, and I am very honored to be running a 4x8,” Mascari said. “We have a really strong team, and we’re definitely all trying to place.”
Smith will also be running the 800 with hopes of bettering her fifth-place finish from a year ago. The Titans also finished 15th in 2024 in the 1,600 relay with Smith, Wenzlick and Fouchey competing. Emily Kelsey is the fourth member of that relay this season.
“We’re pretty competitive in the 4x800, so we’re really trying to place in it,” Smith said. “And, the 800 I really want to place also and the 4x4 we’re not as competitive in, but I am still going to do all my effort in all of them.”
West also qualified sophomore Audrina Redmond in the pole vault and Olivia Kandow in the 100 hurdles. And senior high jumper Madeline Bildeaux is back for her second Finals appearance; she placed seventh last year.
“I am a lot less nervous than last year because I have been there before,” Bildeaux said. “I am going to try to represent myself the best that I can. How ever it goes is just how it was meant to be.”
Bildeaux also looks at the Finals as a bonus to the final chapter of her high school career. The all-state volleyball player is committed to continue playing that sport for Navy this fall.
She is one of six seniors on the West track team. All six were coached in middle school by Libby Shutler, who took over the Titans’ varsity this spring. Shutler ran the middle school program for six years, joined by Daryl Stallworth, who took over the West varsity boys team this season.
Shutler was thrilled to see West continue its conference and Regional championship strings as she transitioned to the varsity, succeeding retired coach Diane Goss.
“I am the first-year coach who was handed a very talented group of young ladies,” Shutler said. “It’s kind of like 54 daughters I have.”
West won both the Regional and conference titles on the track of cross-town rival Traverse City Central. Capturing individual conference championships were Kelsey (200, 26.35; and 400, 59.91); Smith (800, 2:16); Bildeaux (high jump, 5-2) and Redmond (pole vault, 10-0).
Bildeaux against reached 5-2 in the high jump to claim the Titans’ lone individual Regional title. Smith finished second in the 800, and Mascari was second in both the 1,600 and 3,200. Both are looking forward to the challenge of participating in three events against the best competition in Michigan.
“It’s pretty hard especially doing the first and last event,” said Smith, who will run the exact same events she did at the 2024 Finals. “You have to watch what you’re eating all day, make sure you’re getting enough rest in between the events, warming up in enough time and spacing everything out.”
Mascari is glad the 3,200 relay is her first event. She’ll finish with the open 3,200, a distance she hadn’t tried before this season. But the 1,600 field intrigues her the most.
“I have a pretty good heat to compete against,” Mascari said of that event. “If I stay at the top of my heat, I hope to break five (minutes) in the mile. I am really excited to have some good people to compete against.”
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) Traverse City West’s Tessa Macari (2) carries the baton for the 3,200 relay. (Middle) Madeline Bildeaux, left, and Keira Murphy hold up their Regional team trophy as coach Libby Shutler takes their photo. (Photos by Grace McSparron.)