LOOKING BACK
Top 5: St. Louis back-to-back state champs among best stories of 2021
The New Year is here, so let’s look back while we look ahead at what transpired in 2021. In mid-michigan there were many great sports stories over the past 12 months, some happy and some sad and downright mad. Here’s a look at the top stories from 2021.
1 St. Louis boys cross country repeats as D3 champs
Being No. 1 and living up to it is a tough task.
Yet, that’s exactly what the St. Louis boys cross country team did this fall.
After winning the D3 state championship in 2020, the first for the program since 2005, the Sharks entered the 2021 as one of the favorites to win the D3 crown in 2021.
The Sharks entered the fall as one of the top-ranked teams in the state and settled in as the top-ranked team in D3 soon thereafter. As the season wore on they ran to numerous titles before heading to Michigan International Speedway to compete in the MHSAA state finals in early November.
In the finale St. Louis shined as it won its second-straight D3 state crown, finishing atop the D3 field with 104 points. Hart finished runner-up for a second-straight season with 146 points.
St. Louis had three runners earn Allstate honors via top-30 finishes in the race in Nate March (8th in 16:16.7), Ben March (9th in 16:19.23) and Aaron Bowerman (24th in 16:40.99).
The St. Louis girls team also showed well as it was fourth.
2 Sacred Heart Academy wins D4 track state title
They’ve been a cross country dynasty for years now, winning numerous state championships over the last decade.
Yet, 2021 proved to be the year where Mt. Pleasant Sacred Heart Academy’s track broke through and made history.
On June 5 in Hudsonville the SHA girls track & field won the Division 4 state championship via a phenomenal showing on the track. In all the Irish scored points in eight events en route to 51 points on the day, some six better than runner-up Hillsdale Academy.
Moreover, the Irish won three championships on the day with Nicole Olivieri leading the change. Olivieri won the 400 with a new PR of 57.47 and anchored the eventual state champs in the 800 and 1,600 relays. The team of Olivia Middleton, Anna Plum, Lily Deja and Olivieri won the 800 relay with a new school-record time of 1:49.04. From there the team of Ashley Plum, Deja, Abby Spencer and Olivieri did the same in the 1,600 relay, winning it in 4:10.74.
Anna Plum was also sixth in the 100 hurdles (17.28) and fourth in the 300 hurdles (48.95) while Riley Hacker was eighth in the 1,600 (5:47.32). Ashley Plum landed third in the 200 (27.18) and fifth in the 400 (1:01.83) while Deja was seventh in the 800 (2:26.95).
3 Carson City runs way to D4 track title
In the fall of 2020 the Carson City boy cross country team won the D4 state title from MIS.
Seven months later they won the D4 team track & field state championship in Hudsonville for the first time in program history.
Not a bad seven months for Grant Woodman
and company, eh?
As it was the Eagles claimed the D4 team track & field state on June 5 via a dominant performance. In the end Carson City scored in 10 events and had two individuals wins state championships, closing the day with 68.5 points, some 10.5 better than runnerup Saugatuck.
Thrower Zane Forist won the discus and shot put with throws of 196-5 and 62-4. Runner Coleman Clark won the 3,200 (9:52.53) and was second in the 1,600 (4:24.99) and seventh in the 800 (2:04.08). He also anchored the fourth-place team of Ashton Keiffer, Collin Farmer and Cole Stone in the 3,200 relay (8:23.85).
Brayden Clark was fourth in the pole vault (12-0) with Matt Emelander sixth in the long jump (21-1) and fifth in the 400 (52.55). Cavanaugh Barker was also sixth in the 110 hurdles (16.1) with Farmer sixth in the 1,600 (4:31.75) and Keiffer eighth (4:33,71). Farmer was also fourth in the 3,200 (10:03.27).
4 Forist rewrites state record books
What Zane Forist accomplished at the D4 track & field state finals in June was and is incredible and incomprehensible.
Of all the individual performances put forth in 2021 not one approaches what Forist achieved on June 5 in Hudsonville. As it as the Carson City junior won the discus and shot put state crowns in leading the
Eagles to their first-ever D4 state crown in track & field.
His throw of 196-5 in the discus netted him the state crown as did his throw of 62-4 in the shot put. What makes the story incredible is the fact that he won the discus title by nearly 60 feet as the second best throw was 140-3. In the shot put he won it by nearly 14 feet.
Moreover, Forist set two new Lower Peninsula MHSAA D4 state final records in the events, besting the previous standards of 190-0 set by Litchfield’s Jacob Patrick (2012) in the discus and Ottawa Lake Whiteford’s George Flanner’s (2007) previous standard of 58-5.25 in the shot.
Carson City’s Coleman Clark also had a day as the state final as he won the 3,200 and was runner-up in the 1,600.
5 Ithaca’s Bloom wins track and cross-country crowns
Lani Bloom bloomed in 2021.
As it was the Ithaca High School senior won three state championships over the course of the past six months at the MHSAA track & field finals and the cross country state finals.
In June the Purdue commit won state championships in the 800 (2:13.67) and 1,600 (4:48.89) at the D3 track & field state finals in Jenison, leading the Jackets to a seventh-place finish in the team standings. Her time in the 1,600 was a new Division 3 state final record, besting the previous standard of 4:49.4 held set by Shepherd’s Amber Gall in 2019.
Then, this fall, the four-time All-stater won the D3 state championship at the MHSAA state finals from MIS with a time of 17:29.69, besting the second-place runner by 30 seconds.
Bloom, who carries a GPA over 4.0, will be one to watch for this spring once the track season opens.