Performance: Lakeland's Grace Stark
June 2, 2017
Grace Stark
White Lake Lakeland sophomore – Track & Field
The Eagles’ speedy standout has made significant strides – literally – this season, cutting more than a second off her fastest 100-meter hurdles time from 2016. How much she’s improved in that race gained the most notice at Friday’s Oakland County Championships when Stark won in 13.54 seconds, earning the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.” If she can repeat that time at Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals, she’ll break the all-Finals record set by Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Candice Davis in 2003.
Stark’s fastest 100 hurdles time as a freshman was 14.64 seconds, and she also ran 11.82 in the 100 dash. She approached the dash personal record as well at the Oakland County meet, winning in 11.86. She’s undefeated in both the 100 dash and 100 hurdles this season, plus won a Regional title in the 200 in a personal-record 24.99 seconds. Stark owns Lakeland’s records in the 100, 100 hurdles and 200 and as part of the 400 and 800 relays, the last two helped of course by a number of talented teammates, including a strong senior class finishing up this weekend.
After developing bursitis in a hip over the summer, Stark took six weeks off from training. She upped her workouts to near-normal in December and competed indoor before showing her advancing speed on the outdoor track. Also a gymnast during elementary and middle school, Stark focuses solely on track now but said her time on the mat helped her improve physically and become more disciplined. She carries a 3.9 grade-point average, showing discipline and determination in the classroom as well.
Coach John Kababik said: "Grace is the fastest sprinter that I have coached in 40 years of coaching Lakeland girls track. What makes her so good is not only the talent she was born with, but the single-minded determination to be the best. She runs track both in season and out as a club runner. Grace was very good as a freshman, but she has improved by a full second over the last year in the hurdles. For sprinters to improve that much is not common. She came into high school fast, but she’s getting better due to the fact she’s so conscious of her technique. She’s just driven. She wants to be better, and she’s so knowledgeable that she’ll talk to me about former Olympic champions and the techniques they used. Grace will continue to break records and improve because that is who she is: that is part of her personality."
Performance Point: “I think I had a better start that day,” Stark said of the Oakland County hurdles race. “I got out to the first hurdle, and actually I’ve been working on my arms – working on not raising over hurdles, but keeping them low and right in front of me. … I thought I’d pulled off a good time, but I didn’t know it was good enough for a state record. I hit the last hurdle, and I didn’t know how much that slowed me down.”
Give it up for Gail: “Gail Devers (a U.S. Olympic gold medalist in 1992 and 1996), she did the 100 and she did the hurdles too, and she’s the big person I look up to. I’ve been told she has a similar body structure to me, so I thought, well, she’s my height, she did the hurdles and the dash, so she’s very similar to me. And she’s someone I’ve been told to watch by my coaches."
Mat time pays off: “(Gymnastics) made me stronger, my whole body. I did a lot of sprints toward the vault table, and I thought that helped. And the technique we had; it taught me a lot about discipline, helped me prevent injuries, all the workouts that we did.”
Fun to be fast: “I like the pressure of (racing). I like being out on the line, going off and being in the race. I like the thrill of it, really. Not knowing who is going to win, how the race is going to turn out. And giving all of yourself to something you care about is really fun.”
Difference in the details: “I take time with things, make sure they’re done right before I finish them. I think that reflects in both (athletics and academics) how I get stuff done. I’m very critical of myself. If it’s not done almost perfect, I find something to work on or something to fix.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2016-17 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2016-17 honorees:
May 25: Brendon Gouin, Gaylord golf – Read
May 18: Hannah Ducolon, Bay City All Saints softball – Read
May 11: Mason Phillips, Salem track & field – Read
May 4: Lillian Albaugh, Farwell track & field – Read
April 27: Amber Gall, Shepherd track & field – Read
April 20: Sloane Teske, East Grand Rapids tennis – Read
March 30: Romeo Weems, New Haven basketball – Read
March 23: Jaycie Burger and Maddie Clark, Pittsford basketball – Read
March 16: Camden Murphy, Novi swimming & diving – Read
March 9: Ben Freeman, Walled Lake Central wrestling – Read
March 2: Joey Mangner, Chelsea swimming & diving – Read
Feb. 23: Isabelle Nguyen, Grosse Pointe North gymnastics – Read
Feb. 16: Dakota Hurbis, Saline swimming & diving – Read
Feb. 2: Foster Loyer, Clarkston basketball – Read
Jan. 26: Nick Jenkins, Detroit Catholic Central wrestling – Read
Jan. 19: Eileene Naniseni, Mancelona basketball – Read
Jan. 12: Rory Anderson, Calumet hockey – Read
Dec. 15: Demetri Martin, Big Rapids basketball – Read
Dec. 1: Rodney Hall, Detroit Cass Tech football – Read
Nov. 24: Ally Cummings, Novi volleyball – Read
Nov. 17: Chloe Idoni, Fenton volleyball – Read
Nov. 10: Adelyn Ackley, Hart cross country – Read
Nov. 3: Casey Kirkbride, Mattawan soccer – Read
Oct. 27: Colton Yesney, Negaunee cross country – Read
Oct. 20: Varun Shanker, Midland Dow tennis – Read
Oct. 13: Anne Forsyth, Ann Arbor Pioneer cross country – Read
Oct. 6: Shuaib Aljabaly, Coldwater cross country – Read
Sept. 29: Taylor Seaman, Brighton swimming & diving – Read
Sept. 22: Maggie Farrell, Battle Creek Lakeview cross country – Read
Sept. 15: Franki Strefling, Buchanan volleyball – Read
Sept. 8: Noah Jacobs, Corunna cross country – Read
PHOTO: (Top) White Lake Lakeland's Grace Stark clears a hurdle during a race this season. (Middle) Stark begins to break away from the pack. (Action photos courtesy of the White Lake Lakeland athletic department; head shot courtesy of the Oakland Press.)
Glen Lake Grad Adds Pacific Ocean to Life's Journey in Completing World's Toughest Row
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
August 18, 2026
Julie (Adams) Bennett has lots of memories from her days at Glen Lake High School. Many are great, some not so great.
And, while she took all of them with her as she just rowed across the Pacific Ocean, her battle with anorexia was at the top.
“In our culture, thin is beautiful, and it always has been,” said Bennett, a 1982 Lakers graduate. “We grew up in the '70s with all of the magazines and all of the thin models. I was kind of a fat kid in junior high. You know, you get a little chunky, and then you grow taller. Well, I got chunky, but I never grew taller.”
Bennett found herself in a battle with anorexia, leading her to raise funds and awareness for the National Eating Disorders Association as she recently competed in and completed the World's Toughest Row. The crossing occurred after more than a year of preparation, and NEDA was one of four organizations the team supported as part of taking on the challenge.
“I was teased a lot for my weight in high school,” recalled Bennett, who experienced hurtful name-calling. “It isn't the only reason why I became anorexic, but I did. I know people who don't recover from anorexia. It takes their life. I was one of the lucky ones”
Bennett was a middle distance runner on the Lakers track team and a key member of the cheer team. Fall was spent supporting the football team and winter the basketball team as Title IX was just starting to impact sports opportunities for girls.
“When I was in junior high, there were no competitive girl sports,” Bennett said. “I know a lot of people look at cheerleading and think ‘oh they're just fluffy girls who are really girly and just want to cheer.’ But every summer, we did competitive cheer camps.”
Bennett picked up rowing when her youngest son, Steven, joined the sport as a freshman in high school in the Grand Rapids area. It wasn’t long before she began coaching adults and kids in the sport after years of teaching group fitness and yoga.
Bennett points to positive role models, like her mother, Pam, and multiple coaches, as having played significant roles in her battle with overcoming anorexia.
“They really put me on a path to make wise decisions about the food that I eat and about physical fitness,” she said. “So I had always just had a much healthier relationship with exercising and food than I could have. I mean, I could have gone off the rails.”
Bennett believes high school sports allow student-athletes learn discipline. It was that same discipline that helped her complete the 2,800-mile trip across the Pacific Ocean just a few weeks ago.
Bennett, along Erin Enk-Wiese, Susan Katt and Jak Kazmarek, left Monterey, Calif., on June 9 after a five-day weather delay. The four rowers landed 40 days later in Kauai, Hawaii.
The average crossing time for crews of all sizes over the history of the World’s Toughest Row is 62 days. The first boat to conquer the world’s deepest ocean this year took 36 days. Bennett’s team, Moar Than Us, was thrilled the trip was pretty much free of challenging weather, injury and other significant incidents.
“The discipline of sports, and the coaching that I got, was what really set me on a path to – not just for rowing, but it really just set me on a path – to be disciplined about my physical fitness,” she said. “You really need the discipline, but you don't think that you do, because you think you know everything when you're 16. All of that discipline really, really helped me mentally and physically and put me on a journey of lifelong physical fitness.”
Bennett’s crew took turns taking two-hour shifts in daylight and three-year shifts in the dark. The boat always had two in the rowing seats and two below resting and recovering. They did start and finish the race with all four crew members playing a role up top.
Bennett, who went on the graduate from Hope College and land her first teaching job at Glen Lake, is quick to identify the key to coaching high school sports today, especially rowing. She’s on the coaching staff of the Grand Rapids Rowing Club, one of just a small number of high school-sponsored rowing clubs in Michigan.
“You teach them to love the sport, and then you teach them how to do it,” Bennett said. “You have to teach them how to love it. I was an endurance person and rowing certainly is an endurance sport.”
Rowing is a natural sport for the 5-foot-4 former Laker, despite her undergoing hip replacement during her 40s.
She fondly remembers her track experience at Glen Lake. While she mostly ran the 400 and 800 along with relays, her coaches entered her in all field events in hopes she could pick up a point or two.
“I don't have quick-twitch muscles, so I was not good enough to be in the sprints, but I ran sprint relays,” acknowledged Bennett. “Because we were a small team, if there was a third place to be had, coaches would throw me in. I threw shot put a couple of times. I remember throwing shot put against Mesick. They could throw it twice as far, but I got the point in third.”
Bennett noted the Pacific crossing annually attracts sailors and navigators, along with a few others.
“It also attracts just people who are adrenaline junkies,” she said. “People who just want that jolt from doing something amazing.”
Bennett though, did it for other reasons, including raising awareness for anorexia.
“The best message that you can give somebody is that you can be any age, any gender, any size, and do it,” she said. “You can do difficult things, and you shouldn't shortchange yourself by not being mentally ready for that challenge.”
2026 Made In Michigan
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Aug. 11: Nearly 25 Years After Leading Unexpected Run, Morton Directing Life-Changing Mission - Report
Aug. 7: Significance of Historic Run, Relationships Formed Live On for 1973 Unity Champs - Report
Aug. 4: Work Ethic Continues to Drive Van Dyk's Endeavors as Co-Owner of Family Farm - Report
July 24: Hackett Mentor's Care Sparked Lifetime in Hoops for BCAM President White - Report
July 24: Mackey Leaving Court with 500+ College Hoops Wins, Many More Lessons Shared - Report
July 16: Country Day Two-Time Champ Moore Building Perennial Winner at Harvard - Report
July 9: Multi-Sport Career at TC West Helps Gillis Thrive as Pro in Game She Once Left Behind - Report
July 2: Inspired by Home, Eager to Give Back, Spencer Hosts Hoop City Alumni Games - Report
PHOTOS (Top) At left, Julie Bennett stands in formation with her Glen Lake cheer team in 1979. At right, Bennett stands next to a sign explaining the accomplishment after completing the Pacific Ocean crossing with her crewmates. (Middle) Bennett, front row and fourth from left, poses for a team photo with her high school track team. (Below) The Moar Than US team rows toward Hawaii, and celebrates its accomplishment. (Glen Lake photos courtesy of the Glen Lake yearbook staff. Moar Than US photos courtesy of World's Toughest Row, More Than US team and Bennett family.)