Seniors Cap Record-Setting Careers

By Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com

June 1, 2013

KENTWOOD – There was no mistaking the marquee event at Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Girls Track and Field Final.

With three of the top girls distance runners in the entire country competing, the 1,600-meter final had the undivided attention of a huge throng at windy, but sunny, East Kentwood High School.

Hannah Meier of Grosse Pointe South ran a Finals record time of 4:39.23, outdueling her identical twin sister, Haley Meier (4:42.43), and Erin Finn of West Bloomfield (4:45.37), in a race that was a three-way dead heat with one lap to go.

“I saw them coming up on me with 400 meters to go, and I knew I had to pick it up even a little more,” said Hannah Meier, who will run next year at Duke University, along with her sister. “They pushed me and I finally broke 4:40. I’ve been wanting to break that for a long time now.”

The winning time was announced as the sixth-fastest 1,600 meters ever run by a high school girl in the United States.

The epic victory in the 1,600 was one of her four firsts on Saturday for Meier, which powered Grosse Pointe South and Coach Steve Zaranek to their third-consecutive team championship. Meier also won the 800 meters and ran legs on South’s winning 3,200-meter and 1,600-meter relay teams.

The Blue Devils won with 76 points, followed by Saline with 55, host East Kentwood (47), Rochester Adams (42) and Macomb Dakota (32).

Saline posted its best-ever Finals finish behind junior Quenee Dale, who won the 100-meter hurdles and also ran a leg on the Hornets’ winning 400-meter relay team.

The final showdown between the Meier twins and Finn, who have dominated Michigan girls track and cross country since bursting onto the scene in the fall of 2009, was certainly the main storyline of Saturday’s Division 1 meet. But while fans were saying goodbye to those three distance legends, they got to know a new sprinting sensation.

Sekayi Bracey, a 15-year-old freshman, almost single-handedly delivered East Kentwood its third-place finish by winning the 100 meters (12.18), 200 meters (24.82) and placing third in the long jump (18 feet, 5.25 inches).

“I was very confident coming in, and I just tried to visualize each race in my head,” said Bracey just moments after winning her final race of the day, the 200 meters, on her home track. “I feel tired right now, but it was worth it.”

Bracey certainly didn’t run away from the field, having to hold off major challenges from second place Dominique Funchess of Detroit Renaissance in the 100 and Anna Jefferson of Oak Park in the 200.

The third-place Falcons also received an individual first place from senior Mariah Davis in the shot put.

Finn continued her dominance of the longer-distance races by putting on a show in her final high school race, the 3,200 meters. Finn, who will run next year at Michigan, won the race by a whopping 34 seconds – setting an all-division Finals record with a time of 10:08.23.

Finn acknowledged afterward that she was hoping to go sub-10 minutes.

“I went out there with the goal of the 10-minute barrier,” said Finn. “But that’s OK. I set really high goals and try to get close to them.”

Cierra Pryor of Jackson broke her own meet record from a year ago, winning the long jump with a leap of 19-0.5, a half-inch better than the year before.

The Meiers closed out the meet and their storied prep careers in fitting style, powering the Blue Devils to victory in the 1,600-meter relay.

“The most important thing for us today was to win another team state championship for South,” said Haley Meier. “I didn’t feel that great today, but I had to give it all I had for my team. This is a great way to go out.”

Earlier in the day, the Meiers opened the running portion of Saturday’s finals by each running a leg on the winning 3,200-meter relay team in 9:01.98. The other members on that winning team were Ersula Farrow and Christina Firl.

That impressive time was still 13 seconds slower than South’s 2012 winning time of 8:48.29, which is a National Federation of State High School Associations record. That team featured the Meier twins, Farrow and Kelsie Schwartz.

Winning the two sprint relays were Saline (400-meter relay) and Detroit Renaissance (800-meter relay).

Other individual champions were Jae’vyn Wortham of Harrison Township L’Anse Creuse (discus), Kerri McMahon of Novi (high jump), Jane McCurry of Plymouth (pole vault), Anna Jefferson of Oak Park (400 meters) and Breanna Luba of Southgate Anderson (300-meter hurdles).

Click for full results.

PHOTOS: (Top) Hurdlers leap in stride Saturday at East Kentwood. (Middle) The Grosse Pointe South team poses on the medal stand after clinching the LP Division 1 championship. (Below) West Bloomfield's Erin Finn finished her high school career with an all-Finals record in the 3,200. (Photos by John Brabbs. Click to see more photo coverage from RunMichigan.com.)  

Performance of the Week: Saginaw Swan Valley's Sydney Kuhn

May 16, 2025

Sydney Kuhn headshotSydney Kuhn ♦ Saginaw Swan Valley
Senior ♦ Track & Field

The reigning Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals champion in the 200 and 400-meter races, Kuhn is undefeated across those two events and also the 100, 800 and 300 hurdles this spring. She ran the state's fastest 300 hurdles time this season (42.06) during last week's Tri-Valley Conference Red championship meet, winning that race by seven seconds, and she also won the 200 (24.63) by more than three seconds and ran on the first-place 1,600 relay.

Kuhn's top 400 time (53.90) also is the state's fastest in that event this season, and her best 800 (2:08.73) ranks second. She's planning to run the 200, 400, 300 hurdles and as part of the 1,600 relay at Friday's Regional at Cadillac, and notably also posted a combined three top-six Finals finishes as a freshman and a sophomore despite suffering stress fractures (one in each foot) during those first two high school seasons. Kuhn also played volleyball all four years of high school and basketball during her first two, earning all-state honorable mention and academic all-state in volleyball and all-league honorable mention in hoops. She will continue academically and on the track at University of Michigan, and intends to major in kinesiology as she studies to become a physician assistant.

@mhsaasports 🏃‍♀️‍➡️POW: Sydney Kuhn #track #undefeated #5events #swanvalley #vikings #part1 #highschoolsports #tiktalk #interview #performanceoftheweek #mistudentaid #fyp #MHSAA ♬ original sound - MHSAA

@mhsaasports 🏃‍♀️‍➡️POW: Sydney Kuhn #sourpatchkids #spaghetti #chipotle #cryinglaughing #criminalminds #juggle #part2 #performanceoftheweek #mistudentaid #fyp #MHSAA ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys - Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey

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Previous 2024-25 honorees

May 8: Ryan Bosch, Fruitport baseball - Report
May 1:
Jackson Lam, Kalamazoo Loy Norrix track & field - Report
April 25:
Isabelle Horvath, Bangor softball - Report
April 18:
Presley Jones, Sterling Heights Stevenson soccer - Report
April 11:
Olivia Jasniewicz, Troy soccer - Report
March 27:
Katie Spicer, Fowler basketball - Report 
March 21:
Moses & Markus Blackwell; Warren Lincoln basketball - Report
March 13: Keyshawn Summerville, Lansing Sexton basketball - Report
March 6: 
Maggie Buurma, Fowlerville wrestling - Report
Feb. 28: 
Maren Studt, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep skiing - Report
Feb. 21: 
Olive Krueger, Marquette swimming - Report
Feb. 14: 
Hunter Lemmon, Fraser swimming - Report
Feb. 7: 
Aubrey Hillard, Rochester competitive cheer - Report
Jan. 31: 
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Jan. 24: 
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