TRACK TO SUCCESS
WL Central: Boys hold off defending champ Adams for first-ever Oakland County meet title
Some leads are built up with the knowledge that they may not last. Others end up being rally-proof.
Just like they’d done in winning a regional title a week earlier, the Walled Lake Central Vikings stacked up points in the field events at Friday’s 64th annual Oakland County meet, then held on, adding more points here and there in the hopes that it would be enough to withstand a rally.
The defending county champion Rochester Adams Highlanders — who’d rallied at the end of last year’s county meet, as well as at the OAA Red-White meet earlier in the month, and the regional meet a week ago — made a push, but didn’t have one last comeback in the tank.
Central held on for a 15-point win, posting 81 points to Adams’ 66, to claim what’s believed to be the program’s first-ever Oakland County meet title.
“Oh, right about the same (feeling as the regional title) — hasn’t changed. But states, I know, is gonna be better,” said senior Nicholas Negru, who lunged at the finish to take second in the 3,200 (9:25.50). “I’m getting so excited. This is actually my last time running for Walled Lake Central and I just want to give it my all.”
Troy was third (45), Lake Orion fourth (44), followed by Walled Lake Northern (40), West Bloomfield (35), Novi (30), Clarkston (26), Hazel Park (22) and Detroit Country Day (22) to round out the top 10 teams.
In all, the Vikings scored 49 of their 81 points in the field events.
“We’ve always excelled in the technical events. I’m really proud of our kids. I mean, they they’re just tough kids … but I’m really just proud of all of our current athletes, our alumni, our parents who have such a supportive program, and yeah, it does start with that. But really, we just coach the technical events really well. It’s not just the throws — we scored a county champion in the pole vault, we had a county runner-up in the high jump,” Walled Lake Central coach Nebojsa Stojkovic said.
“Really, a program like ours, we have a three-school town, we really focus on the technical events, we don’t have a lot of opportunities to find that burner in the 100 or 200, and we’re not an open district like similar schools are. We’ve got the best coaching staff in the state —10 coaches that love our kids first, and we have kids that dedicate themselves to that. And I’m just so proud of them.”
The Vikings went 1-2-3 in the discus, with personal best throws from Brycen Anderson (1st, 177-feet9), Garrod Alexander (2nd, 164-1) and Tyler Marrogy (3rd, 161-2), while Alexander (fifth, 49-9.75) and Marrogy (eighth, 47-1) both finished in the top 10 in the shot put.
Ray Weatherington won the pole vault for the Vikings with a season-best 14-6, while teammate Giovanni Charles finished second in the high jump (62), an inch behind Oxford’s Dylan Stone.
The Adams Highlanders, on the other hand, won three of the four relays — and finished third in the one in which they came in with the fastest time in the state — along with one event title in distance.
Parker Orlowsky won the 1,600 (4:14.35) for the Highlanders, and ran the anchor leg of the winning 4×800 relay (7:59.99), along with Cameron Reynolds, Noah Murray, and Ferdinand Viereck.
Adams’ team of Jacob Spinks, Drew Heppner, Kyan Wilkins and Nick Fashho won the 4×100 relay (43.03), setting a new school record in the process, while Wilkins, Heppner, Fashho and Damarcus Rouse won the 4×200 relay (1:28.62), in another school-record time.
Considering the runners the Highlanders had to move around, it bodes well for them at next week’s state meet.
“I think we’re very confident. I think I think we can score in just about every single event that we are in, we can win few of them as well. So I think we can score 45 points. We’ll see where that puts us,” said Adams coach Eric Lohr, holding the runner-up trophy. “These guys, over the last few years, they’ve got a couple of regional trophies, a couple of county trophies. There’s one more to get.”
Oak Park’s relay team of Philip Burney, Deon Cleary, Quinton Blakely and Rondre Austion won the 4×400 (3:20.85).
West Bloomfield’s Kamren Flowers won the 100 (10.88) and 200 (21.85), while Walled Lake Northern’s Joseph Iaquaniello won the 400 (48.85) and Ortonville Brandon’s Nikolas Shilling won the 800 (1:53.89).
Troy’s Vishvaa Ravishankar won the 3,200 (9:23.40).
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s DJ White won the 110 hurdles (14.90), while Groves’ Elyan Gregory won the 300 hurdles (39.70).
Berkley’s David Rolands won the shot put with a personal-best throw of 52-0.
Ferndale University’s Xavier Davis won the long jump (21-9.5).