Re-focused Hanson Ready to Climb Again
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
April 6, 2018
By most any standard, Alexandra Hanson had a tremendous junior track season.
The Brown City star didn’t lose a 100, 200 or 400-meter race in a dual or tri meet, and only finished lower than second twice prior to the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 championships, where she was all-state in all three events – fifth in the 200 and 400, and eighth in the 100.
That great season was not up to the standards of one very important person, however – Hanson – and not just because she was coming off a sophomore season that saw her win a Division 4 title in the 400 and finish second in the 200.
“I just feel like I should have at least improved a little from my previous year, and I didn’t,” said Hanson, who didn’t match any of her personal records as a junior. “I know that was because I didn’t do anything during the winter. I was just super naive about it. I thought, ‘I won a state championship, I can just do it next year.’ I definitely had the completely wrong mindset. I think I got comfortable and was not pushing myself like I should have.
“I’m trying to take it as a lesson learned. Take it as a positive.”
Hanson’s disappointment has fueled her this offseason, as she looks to finish her high school career strong and transition to Saginaw Valley State University, where she will run collegiately.
While the Green Devils don’t have a meet scheduled until April 10, and practices have been hampered by early-spring weather, the difference in Hanson can already be seen by those who know her best.
“When she won the state, she didn’t run again until we started track practice the next year, and right in the middle of track season, she got a really bad cold and missed two or three meets,” Brown City coach Don Twiss said. “When you’re an elite runner, you have to stay at that training level, you can’t afford to take that amount of time off. I’m excited about her this year, just because her motivation seems to be totally different this year.”
Hanson spent much of her summer going through workouts she had taken from the Saginaw Valley coaching staff and her other college visits. She ran cross country for Brown City in the fall, and in the winter she continued to run, albeit mostly on a treadmill.
“I feel like I’m in better shape than where I was a year ago,” Hanson said. “Every time I’m like, ‘I don’t feel like running today,’ I tell myself, ‘Well, you don’t want to be like last year.’”
Hanson’s success this season won’t be measured in how many times she crosses the finish line first – although if she is successful in meeting her goals, she’ll do that plenty.
She’s eyeing her personal best times – 58.03 seconds in the 400, 26.01 in the 200 and 12.71 in the 100 – meaning she’ll spend most of her season running against the clock. Fortunately for her, this is something she’s grown accustomed to, as many of her races aren’t particularly close throughout the season.
“It’s hard, especially when you’re in meets where you don’t have someone pushing you,” she said. “It’s definitely hard when you’re racing against the clock. I’m not the most personally motivated person, so my dad has to be standing there at around the 300-meter mark, and he has to scream at me. That motivates me. I have to have someone there motivating me.”
She also has her eye on a new race, as at Saginaw Valley the plan is for her to transition to middle distance and add the 800 meters to her repertoire. She ran it once as a junior, and will try it a little more this season as opportunities present themselves.
“I still think (team) points wise, I’m going to have to run the 200,” Hanson said. “But I’ll definitely run (the 800) more than last year. I’ll be able to run it more because my sister (Juliana) is here now, and she’s fast, too, so she’ll be able to take over the 100.”
Hanson is excited about the transition to middle distance, as she said the 400 has been her favorite race since she was in middle school. She’s also self aware, and said she has a better chance to get her 400 and 800 times to a level where she can compete in college, as opposed to her 100 and 200 times.
“Coming from a small town, the shorter distances I did really well in, so that’s what I did,” she said. “I talked to college coaches, and they started explaining what most 400 runners do – they go up.”
Twiss believes the potential is there for Hanson to transition to the 800 and be successful. He also believes the 400 is where she’s at her best, and that could lead to another trip to the top of the MHSAA podium in June.
“She’s like a gazelle when she gets out there and goes,” he said. “She’s such a natural middle sprinter, or like I call them, long sprints. She’s capable of running an upper 56-second (400 meters). If she does that, that will win 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) Brown City’s Alexandra Hanson pulls away from a pack of runners during a race last season. (Middle) Hanson sprints down the stretch. (Photos courtesy of the Brown City girls track & field program.)
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.)