"Michigan
Fares Well at National Meet"
Bloomington, Indiana -- Some of the nation's best high
school track and field athletes gathered and amazed the crowds
at the Nike
Indoor Classic in Bloomington, Indiana on March 11 and 12.
Michigan was well represented at the meet, as the distance force
showed their strength, breaking meet and national records throughout
the course of the two days. Michigan also sent a handful of sprinters
and field events athletes, and, together with the distance runners,
they earned fifteen total medals.
Rockford was the school to watch in terms of the distance events.
They began their dominance the first day of the meet, March 11,
with a huge win and a national record in the girls 4 x one-mile
relay. The team of Kalin Toedebusch, Linsey Blaisdell, Nora Colligan
and Emily Blakeslee ran 20:23.24 to replace the existing national
record of 20:41.51, set by North Quincy, Massachusetts in 1982.
"It's very exciting," said Blaisdell, a junior at Rockford high
school in Rockford, MI. "We were very anxious because we knew
what we could do but not what anyone else could do."
Blaisdell was also a member of the winning and meet record breaking
4 x 800 and Distance Medley Relay teams. The DMR finished first
with a time of 12:02.81, with the team of Kalin Toedebusch, Blaisdell,
Kelsey Toedebusch and Aimee Keenan. The 4 x 800 team ran 9:12.37,
a new indoor state record, breaking the old record of 9:39.88
set by Ann Arbor Pioneer in 1998. Keenan, Colligan, Kalin Toedebusch
and Blaisdell were all on the team.
The boys of Rockford also dominated the distance, as they set
a new meet record in the 4 x one-mile relay, running 17:46.98
with the team of Seth Folkertsma, Andy Martin, Brian Smith and
Dathan Ritzenhein. Grand Ledge finished second in the race, running
17:58.26 with the team of Andy Marsh, Jacob Crowe, Andy Thorson
and Brendan Robinson.
Dathan Ritzenhein, a junior at Rockford, wowed his fans and competitors
alike as he ran a time of 8:52.94 for the 3200 meters, the fastest
time yet this year in the country for that event and a national
indoor record for the 11th grade. Ritzenhein was this past season's
state cross country champion and the 1999 National Footlocker
Cross Country champion, in which he stated "hurt just as much
as this race (the 3200)".
About his race, Dathan said "I wanted to go out hard, because
I was trying to go under 8:50, and hopefully someone else would
set the pace, but if not it was going to be me."
Ryan Cole of Sanford, MI, runner-up in the state Class C cross
country state meet, also ran the 3200-meter race, finishing eighth
in 9:24.40.
Rockford senior Emily Blakeslee also ran the 3200 meters in the
girls' race, finishing eighth with a time of 10:51.36.
Other distance events such as the mile and the 800 meters were
also represented by Michigan runners, with 1999 outdoor track
state champion John Hughes of Traverse City finishing fifth in
the mile in 4:15.30, and Jacob Crowe (Grand Ledge) and Tom Greenless
(Milford) medaling in the 800 meters. Crowe placed fourth, running
1:56.05 while Greenless outkicked the seventh place finisher by
two hundredths of a second to run 1:56.52 and finish sixth.
In the field events, Becky Breisch of Edwardsburg, MI placed fourth
with a toss of 46'05.50'', and Stephanie Linz of Okemos, MI finished
second after a jump-off for first place, eventually jumping 5'08.00''.
Gary Stanford, a senior at Mumford high school in Detroit, MI,
jumped 21'09.00'' in the long jump which secured him the seventh
place spot.
Sanford also finished second in the pentathlon, third in the 60-meter
high hurdles and led off Mumford's 800-meter relay team that finished
sixth place.
"I was trying to concentrate in the hurdles and the long jump,
since they are my best events," said Stanford. "As for the relay,
we were just trying to get the baton around and we are looking
forward to the outdoor season and states."
Two female sprinters from Detroit, Lauren Williams and Tiarra
Jones, gave Michigan recognition to the sprinting powerhouses
of the south and the west as they each placed in the 60 and 200
meter dashes. In the 60-meter dash, Williams took second in 7.49
with Jones finishing seventh in 7.64. They traded positions in
the 200-meter dash, as Jones finished third in 25.15 seconds,
and Williams ran 25.68 for sixth place.
Result
can be found at http://www.dyestat.rivals.com/
Shawn Kemp is a freshman at the
University of Michigan. She enjoys running at all levels and is
an aspiring journalist.
