ROCHESTER HILLS – For the second year in a row, Rochester Adams’ fate was decided at the wire.
Reliant on its 4×400 relay team to close the show last spring, the Highlanders boys team again did enough in the final several events Saturday to go back up the road with a Division 1 regional trophy for the third straight year.
“The first one was dominant, we beat our rival Lake Orion and it was a blast for us,” Highlanders head coach Eric Lohr said. “The last two were, and this one was definitely more stressful than last year’s.”
After edging out University of Detroit Jesuit 122-120 in 2023, Adams snuck by Troy for first place this year, 93-92.
The penultimate event, the two-mile run, was pivotal, with a trio of Colts and Highlanders each who had the potential to pick up points. Troy ended up with three top-6 finishes to Adams’ 7-8 placements, resulting in a 10-point swing. That wasn’t enough, however, as the Colts got just one point out of the 4×400 relay and Adams came third just behind Oak Park and Royal Oak.
Photo gallery from the Division 1 track and field regional at Rochester
“Our strength is a lot of depth in the hurdles,” said Lohr, referring to a collective led by Michael Wilkerson. “We knew that was a spot where we needed to get points because Troy would get points in the two-mile. (That and) the 800. And to be honest, a lot of events didn’t go our way after last year a lot went really well for us. Where we were hoping for second, we got thirds and fourths. But that shows how strong our guys were to win despite that.”
Trailing the two at the top was Groves with 67 points, closely followed by Oak Park and Royal Oak with 63 and 62 points, respectively.
Wilkerson was tops in the 110 hurdles (14.21) and qualified along with teammate Lachlan Tillotson, while Wilkerson finished just behind Groves senior Elyan Gregory (38.56) in the 300 hurdles as both qualified for state.
In the 100 dash, Troy got a winner out of Jason Hamilton (11.14), who moved on with runner-up Noah Sanders of Groves. Hamilton, Patrick Johnson, Steven Harris and Noah Oury (43.56) won the 4x100 relay, while the quartet of Vishvaa Ravishankar, Kian Schneeweis, Quinn Kelly and Louis D'Souza gave the Colts a winner in the 4x800 relay (7:49.20) as well. Rochester also qualified for state in the 4x800.
On the girls side, Oak Park, finished runner-up to region host Detroit Renaissance in 2023, beat out the Phoenix 130-124 for first. The two programs have traded 1-2 at the Division 1 state meet over the past four years.
“We knew it was going to be a tough day,” Oak Park head coach Brandon Jiles said. “Renaissance is probably the top team in the state to contend with, so we knew we were going to be in a dogfight. I think we qualified everything we needed to get in, but today was a day where we had to show some toughness and grit because we didn’t have the luxury of having an easy regional or ride to the state championship. Much respect to Renaissance for pushing us, and we’re going to have to contend with them in a couple weeks as well, but I’m happy with the result.”
The host Falcons ended in third place with 99 points, and the top-5 was rounded out by Royal Oak (46) and Rochester Adams (43).
Individually from Oak Park, Morgan Roundtree won both the 100 (14.08) and 300 (43.12) hurdles, while Neveah Burns cleaned up in the 200 (24.90) and 400 (55.22) dash. Meanwhile, Kylee King went the distance and beat out the field in the 800 run (2:12.37), as well as the mile (5:02.74), where Stoney Creek's Leah Corby also got through.
VanNoy and Jayda Watson joined Roundtree as Knights' qualifiers from the 100 hurdles. VanNoy will be joined at state in the 300 hurdles by West Bloomfield's Jalia Marks.
Burns, Roundtree, Carrie VanNoy and Dayshana Kellogg won the 4x200 (1:39.88) for the Knights, while King, Burns, Kellogg and Kelis Hunter-Young dominated with a time of 3:48.9 in the 4x400 relay. VanNoy, Roundtree, Watson and Kelis Hunter-Young finished runner-up to the Phoenix in the 4x100 (47.95) to round out Oak Park's relay excellence.
Rochester's band of Lena Cleveland, Imani Morgan, A'naia Herd and Erica Proctor will also held to state in the 4x200. That same Falcons' group -- sans Proctor, add Mia Snellgrove -- qualified in the 4x400, too.
Southfield A&T's Robin Davis also qualified for state in the 200 dash, while a slew of others also went through in the 800, including Kellogg and Hunter-Young of Oak Park, as well as Bloomfield Hills's Sloane Schiller, Rochester's A'naia Herd, Stoney Creek's Ella Krajewski and Berkley's Blessing Nweke. Joining King in qualifying from the 800 were Rochester's Ella Abraham and Seaholm's Sophie Cloutier.
Additional qualifiers from Oakland County schools:
BOYS
200: Rondre Austion, Oak Park (21.88); Jason Hamilton, Troy (22.15); Gavin Rawls, Oak Park (22.37).
400: Rondre Austion, Oak Park (48.88); Demari Caldwell, Southfield A&T (49.68); Phillip Burney, Oak Park (49.86); Nathan Guthrie, Royal Oak (50.26).
800: Collin McLaughlin, Rochester; Louis D'Souza, Troy (1:57.89).
1,600: Sebastian Ramirez, Royal Oak (4:19.74); Braxton Sipes, Royal Oak (4:22.51); Ferdinand Viereck, Rochester Adams (4:23.6).
3,200: Sebastian Ramirez, Royal Oak (9:19.84); Taye Levenson, Bloomfield Hills (9:20.71); Vishvaa Ravishankar, Troy (9:27.25); Oliver Moss, Berkley (9:29.65).
4x200 Relay: Oak Park (Gavin Rawls, Deon Cleary, Melik Munson, Alex Patterson), 1:28.37; Adams (Myles Benton, Michael Wilkerson, Drew Heppner, Ovando Forbes), 1:28.49; Southfield A&T (Johnny Bell, Demari Caldwell, Tyjuan Esper, Freddie King), 1:29.86.
4x400 Relay: Oak Park (Phillip Burney, Deon Cleary, Rondre Austion, Gavin Rawls), 3:20.71; Royal Oak (Jack Winterburn, Steven Johnson, Julien Burns, Nathan Guthrie), 3:26.09.
Shot Put: Shot Put: Avery Gach, Groves (52-8); Spencer Beckeman, Stoney Creek (50-2); Omari Hairston, Groves (49-5).
Discus: Ray Glory-Ejoyokah, Groves (169-7); Kadin Boggan, Rochester (146-7)
High Jump: (Bobby Dansby, Groves (6-2); Steven Johnson, Royal Oak (6-2).
Long Jump: Andrew Lake, Troy (22-0.75).
GIRLS
100: Robin Davis, Southfield A&T (12.48).
3,200: Lucy Cook, Rochester (11:10.2); Leah Corby, Stoney Creek (11:13.24).
4x800 Relay: Rochester (Ella Abraham, Mia Snellgrove, Audrey Henckel, Lucy Cook), 9:31.75; Seaholm (Annabelle Ellenbogen, Molly Grubb, Samantha Memmer, Sophie Cloutier), 9:37.8; Adams (El McMahan, Ana Lopez, Calista Angel, Kaitlyn Kauppila), 9:45.32.
Shot Put: Ellie Mendoza, Rochester (36-feet-0); Gabrielle McCauley, Berkley (35-6).
Discus: Jada Ewell, Royal Oak (134-8); Molly Socha, Bloomfield Hills (122-7)
High Jump: Molly Heller, Groves (5-4); Elizabeth Wydeven, Rochester (5-4); Audrey Henckel, Rochester (5-2).
Long Jump: Lena Cleveland, Rochester (18-8); Kristin Losey, Troy (17-3.5).
