The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Devils no match for Milan's track depth
Both girls and boys top 100 points in home rout, still undefeated
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: May 1, 2008
The Milan track teams have had an easy time of it on the scoreboard this week, routing Flat Rock April 22 and facing a Grosse Ile team Thursday the boys hammered 114-13 and the girls defeated 108-20.
Advertisement
But neither boys' head coach Rich Pellegrini nor girls' head coach Steve Porter believe things will go quite so smoothly for the Big Reds in the coming week as dates with St. Mary Catholic Central, Monroe-Jefferson and Airport all loom.
"Jefferson's really improved. They're not going to be a walk in the park, we know that," Pelligrini said. "And if we get by that one, it's whoever wins the Airport meet that's probably going to go into the league meet undefeated."
"We're definitely a contender. We've proven that," Porter said. "The problem is that we've only run three meets, and the other teams have run five, so they've got a little more experience than we do.
"On paper, they're probably a little stronger than we are.
"But we don't have any weaknesses. We're pretty good all the way across the board. That's what these meets this week have been about, experimenting and trying to find a lineup that would allow us to exploit the weaknesses those other teams might have."
Despite the experimental approach, the Big Red girls' home meet against a small Red Devils squad was never in doubt. Milan won 14 of 16 events and took second in one of the ones they didn't — the long jump — with a 14'2 1/2" leap from Tiffany Kitchen that Porter said was the team's best this season.
Double-winners for Milan included Kai Beverly, who won both the shot put with a throw of 33'5 3/4" and the discus with a throw of 76'8", and Ashley Agar, who took both the 100-meter hurdles in 17.52 and the 300-meter hurdles in 52.9. Agar also joined Kitchen, Minah Johnson and Constance Kelsey in winning the 400 relay in 56.6 and Emily Weber, Kara Porter and Alexia Pope in taking the 1,600 relay in 4:48.5.
Other Big Red winners included Loren Weber in the high jump (5'0"); Johnson (13.8) in the 100 dash; Johnson, Samantha Harmon, Kitchen and Darian Champagne (1:57.63) in the 800 relay; Jordan Tomecek (5:31.2) in the 1,600 run; Angela Swain (1:03.5) in the 400 dash; Tara Lewis (2:51.4) in the 800 run; and Champagne (29.7) in the 200 dash.
The Milan boys were even more dominant, sweeping first place in all 16 events and allowing the Red Devils to score even a single point in just half of those.
Ron Spears won three individual events, taking the long jump with a jump of 20' 7 ?", the 100 dash in 10.98, and the 400 dash (in a rare appearance at that distance) in 52.7. Spears also anchored the 400 relay to a win in 45.8 alongside Randy Butts, Bill Egolf, and Anthony Marshall.
Also grabbing a pair of wins on the day was junior Kyle Anderson, who won the 1,600 meters in 4:54.1 and the 3,200 in 10:34.6. With Brian Kirkpatrick (2:11.8) and Anthony Mann (2:12.8) finishing 1-2 in the 800, freshman Joe Martin finishing runner-up to Anderson in both the 1,600 (4:55.4) and 3,200 (11:12.8), and Dylan Shearer (5:18.6) making it a clean sweep in the 1,600, the Big Reds dominated distance events in a fashion Pelligrini says they haven't in several seasons.
"Over the past three years, the distance events were what hurt us," he said. "But the distance guys have really improved and they're a real, real big part of our success."
Other winners for the boys included David Box (122' 8 1/2") in the discus; Eric Betts (6'0) in the high jump; Scott Kenyon (44'4") in the shotput; Kyle Love in both the 110 hurdles (15.74) and 300 hurdles (41.9); and Marshall (24.0) in the 200 dash.
Perhaps the best news for the Big Red boys is that not only are they winning, but that athletes in key roles like Love and Spears are starting to overcome nagging injuries.
"We're getting a little bit healthier now," Pelligrini said. "So we're happy. We've won 17 dual meets in a row and we're just taking it one meet at a time."
Milan boys 89, Flat Rock 38; Milan girls 94, Flat Rock 34
After tying it last season, Spears broke a school record that dated back to 1989 by running 10.56 in the 100 dash against the overmatched Rams. The record time of 10.8 was set by both Matt Sabo and Blake Novak in 1989, and also tied by Richard Cosme in 2006.
Other scorers included Spears, Egolf, Marshall and Butts (1) in the 400 relay; Martin, Anderson, Mann and Kirkpatrick (1) in the 3,200 relay; Matt Chapin, Egolf, Mann and Kirkpatrick (1) in the 1,600 relay; Chapin, Egolf, Butts and Marshall (1) in the 800 relay; Spears (1) and Robert Logwood (3) in the long jump; Kenyon (1) and Box (3) in the shot put; Box (2) and Corey Iott (3) in the discus; Betts (1) in the high jump; Love and Betts in the 110 hurdles (1,3) and 300 hurdles (1,2); Marshall (2) in the 100 dash; John Nuckels (2) in the 200 dash; Martin (1), Anderson (2) and Shearer (3) in the 1,600; Anderson (1) and Martin (2) in the 3,200; Chapin (2) in the 400 dash; and Kirkpatrick (1) and Mann (2) in the 800 dash.
Scoring for the Milan girls were Kitchen (1) in the long jump; Bevelry (1), Brittany Westfall (2) and Kali Kison (3) in the shot put; Beverly (1) and Samantha Ray (3) in the discus; Harmon (1), Loren Weber (2) and Eryn Jacobs (3) in the high jump; Emily Weber, Jenna Manor, Lewsi and Taylor Lewis (1) in the 3,200 relay; Johnson, Harmon, Kitchen and Champagne (1) in the 800 relay; Agar, Emily Weber, Porter and Pope (1) in the 1,600 relay; Champagne (2) and Kelsay (3) in the 100 dash; Swain (1) and Emily Weber (2) in the 1,600; Loren Weber (1) and Tara Lewis (2) in the 400 dash; Tomecek (1) and Porter (2) in the 800; Chelsea Dunn (2) and Pope (3) in the 200 dash; Agar (1) and Gina Mann (3) in the 100 hurdles; and Agar (1) and Chelsea Williams (2) in the 300 hurdles.
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
Staff Blog, "Inside The Newsroom"
TOP JOBS
