Spring Lake Girls Win Meet's Final Race to Clinch 1st Finals Championship
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
May 30, 2026
HAMILTON — It’s not unusual for a track & field state championship meet to come down to the final event.
What was unusual Saturday was the number of teams that still had a chance to win going into the last event of this year’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Girls Finals.
Going into the 1,600 relay – the meet’s final event – the top four teams were separated by just three points, making for quite a dramatic finish.
Leading by one point heading into the event, Spring Lake held on to the top spot, winning the 1,600 relay to clinch the team title with 42 points total.
The Spring Lake team of Cora Parker, Macy Subka, Kaleigh Clark and Meghan Guczwa won in an LPD2 Finals-record time of 3:55.25, breaking the old record of 3:56.07 set in 2000 by Battle Creek Lakeview.
Holland Christian was runner-up with 35 points, while Ludington was third with 31.
“I was a ball of anxiety up in the stands,” Spring Lake head coach Marina Samp said. “But it was great seeing them go out, get the early lead, hold on, never let go, hammer it home and get the record on top of it.”
It was Spring Lake’s first Finals title in girls track.
“We knew this was possible,” Samp said. “We were just like, ‘Can we make it to the end? Can we put together the perfect season? This is what we were going for.”
Both Dearborn Divine Child junior Aubrey Wilson and Ludington freshman Eliza Schwass made runs at winning three individual titles before settling with a pair apiece.
However, “settling” for two individual titles was still obviously thrilling for both.
The 2025 champion in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, Wilson repeated in both, winning the 100 in a personal-best time of 11.50 and the 200 in 24.10.
Wilson also was going for the title in the 400 dash, but didn’t quite have the energy in that race, finishing eighth. Haslett’s Chrstina Dixon finished first in 55.69 seconds.
However, after that result, Wilson quickly regrouped for the 200 and left no doubt in that sprint.
“I just kept walking and kept in focus,” Wilson said of bouncing back for the 200. “Even though I performed bad in one race, I didn’t bring it to my other one. I’m happy about that.”
Wilson said she might try to run the 400 and go for three individual titles again at next year’s Finals meet.
“It’s a lot of hard work and dedication, but hopefully next year I’ll perform better,” she said.
Schwass was attempting to win the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 and looked to be on track for that quest after winning the 1,600 in 4:53.12 and the 800 in a meet-record time of 2:08.62, topping the previous record of 2:09.92 set by Layla Jordan of Goodrich in 2024.
But as was the case with Wilson in the 400, Schwass just didn’t quite have enough left in the tank, although she still finished second in the 3,200 in a time of 10:43.09. Pinckney junior Jaelyn Ray won in 10:36.99.
Schwass said she determined earlier this year that she could go for the win in all three events, and nearly pulled it off in her first high school championship meet.
“I wasn’t too nervous,” she said. “I just kind of focused on my training and telling myself I was ready for this.”
The other multi-event winner Saturday was Subka, a junior who swept the two hurdles races after finishing third in the 300 and not placing in the 100 last year.
Subka said the big difference was a new indoor athletic center that the school opened during the winter, which took her training to a whole new level.
“I’ve been able to be there all winter,” she said. “I also play soccer in the spring. A lot of technical work, and soccer I get a lot of conditioning from.”
The field events saw a pair of repeat champions in Stevensville Lakeshore’s Leigha Whitman in the long jump and Wayland’s Evie Mathis in the pole vault.
Also claiming championships Saturday were Grand Rapids Christian in the 400 relay, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s in the 800 relay and Holland Christian in the 3,200 relay, Freeland’s Payton Maxey in the shot put, North Branch’s Aubree Deshetsky in the discus and Hastings’ Bella Friddle in the high jump. Sturgis' Vivian Massey won the adaptive shot put.
PHOTOS (Top) Spring Lake's Megan Guczwa sprints the final leg of the 1,600 relay Saturday at Hamilton. (Middle) Dearborn Divine Child's Aubrey Wilson pushes through the finish of a sprint championship. (Click for more from Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)
Norinh Fueled for Final HS Title Chase
May 24, 2018
By Dean Holzwarth
Special for Second Half
ZEELAND – Suenomi Norinh was disappointed when she didn’t qualify for the MHSAA Track & Field Finals as a freshman.
It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to the Zeeland East standout.
Norinh used it as motivation, and it helped create an inner desire to excel through the remainder of her high school career.
“It definitely opened my eyes to see that I needed to work a little harder at it,” Norinh said. “I think it shaped me into the person I am today.”
And that person is now an accomplished and versatile track star who has won back-to-back Lower Peninsula Division 2 titles in the high jump and is headed to the University of Missouri.
Zeeland East coach Josh Vork said Norinh’s absence from the 2015 Finals was a major turning point in her development.
“She had a really rough day at Regionals that year, and I could tell that really motivated her,” he said. “She wasn’t going to let that happen again, so her sophomore year she came in ready to attack every single practice and not take any days easy.
“Now that she has grown and matured and gotten stronger, she continues to push and push and wants to see the most she can get out of herself.”
Norinh, 18, will compete in her final high school meet next Saturday on her home track at Zeeland.
She’ll take part in four events: high jump, long jump and the 100 and 300-meter hurdles.
Norinh hopes to again repeat in the high jump while avenging a pair of narrow losses from a year ago.
“It will be special to be running at home for the last time, and the high jump event means a lot to me,” Norinh said. “I’m going to do everything I can to defend that, but if it’s not meant to be then it’s not meant to be and that’s OK, too. But I really want that one.”
Norinh took second in the long jump last season, as well as in the 100 hurdles. The latter is an event she’s been eyeing since last year’s painstakingly close finish.
She was runner-up in the 100 by the narrowest of margins to South Christian’s Mariel Bruxvoort – Bruxvoort edged Norinh by two thousandths of a second. Norinh also took sixth in the 300 as Bruxvoort, now a senior, won that race as well.
“She’s been looking forward to going against Mariel again this year, and all year she asked me if there were any meets the same as South Christian,” Vork said. “She really wants to go against Mariel, and it will be a good match-up.”
“She beat me by one thousandth of a second, and that pushes me because one thousandth of a second is nothing,” Norinh said. “It’s crazy, and it’s like a hair crossing the finish line before someone else. She pushes me to be even better, and that’s a good thing. We talk all the time, and we’re friendly rivals.
“I kept asking coach if she was going to be at one of our meets because I was excited for some competition. I don’t get that very often.”
Norinh won four Regional championships last weekend in preparation for the Finals as the Chix edged Holland Christian for the overall team title.
Vork said she possesses all the physical abilities, and the work ethic, to cap her career in style.
“She’s incredibly physically gifted, and you don’t get to this point without having great physical tools, but she is, and has always been, the hardest worker on our team,” he said. “Nobody pushes themselves more than Suenomi does, and no one wants to be great more than Suenomi does – and that shows every day at practice.
“There have been days where she asks for more to do at practice because she doesn’t feel like she got a good enough workout, and I think that’s the kind of mentality that creates the champion that she is.”
Norinh’s martial arts background, as well as support from her parents, helped stir her competitiveness.
“I’ve done sports all my life, and my parents always drive us to work as hard as we can and give our all in everything,” Norinh said. “Martial arts taught me a lot, and I’m super competitive. No one likes to lose, and if I lose, I’m not going to give it to you easily.”
Norinh will be the catalyst in Zeeland East’s bid to win the team Division 2 championship as well. The Chix finished runner-up to Lansing Waverly by a single point last season.
“If things go our way, we have a good chance at it,” Vork said. “It’s a tough field, but I expect us to be in the mix.”
Dean Holzwarth covered primarily high school sports for the Grand Rapids Press and MLive for 16 years and more recently served as sports editor of the Ionia Sentinel and as a sports photojournalist for WZZM. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Allegan, Kent and Ottawa counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Zeeland East’s Suenomi Norinh clears the bar on the way to repeating as Division 2 high jump champion last spring. (Middle) Norinh sprints toward the finish during the 300 hurdles championship race in 2017. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)