Oak Park girls repeat as Oakland County Meet winners; WL Northern comes in second – The Oakland Press

Oak Park’s Morgan Roundtree (R) leads teammate Carrie VanNoy by less than three-tenths of a second in the 100-meter hurdles at the 65th annual Oakland County meet held Friday at Oxford High School. Roundtree, VanNoy and the Knights women’s team took home first place at the event. (KEN SWART – For the MediaNews group)

OXFORD – Six times since 2014, the Oak Park girls team has followed its first-place finish at the Oakland County Meet with a state title.

A seventh doesn’t seem that far away after the Knights took the first step to achieve it a seventh time in Friday’s county invitational, the 65th edition.

A narrow winner of a regional competition held in Rochester that also included many Oakland County teams, as well as Detroit Renaissance, Oak Park dominated in this affair to the tune of 110 points.

Walled Lake Northern closed in on the Knights, finishing second with 67 points, followed by Rochester third with 49.

Photo Gallery from the 65th Annual Oakland County Track and Field Meet in Oxford

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No one looked better than Knights senior Morgan Roundtree, who obliterated the meet record in the 300-meter hurdles with a finish time of 42.14 seconds, breaking the previous record set by Brianna Holloway of Oak Park (43.61), who has won the event three times.

“It was a really good race,” said Roundtree, whose regional mark of 43.12 was second among D1 state seed times, behind Lindsay Johnson of Cass Tech. “We had good weather and I felt good. I’m a senior now and I’m just happy to have left my mark somewhere in the last two races that I compete. The regional championships went well. I don’t I didn’t do it. I had the best race, but I knew I was going to make up for it in these last two competitions.

“State, I want to win the 300 hurdles. I want to win everywhere.”

She’s unlikely to be the only one to win in an Oak Park uniform, if Friday is anything to go by.

Roundree also won the 100 hurdles (14.35), followed closely by teammate Carrie VanNoy. Knights freshman Nevaeh Burns took first place in the 200 (24.99), as well as the 400 (55.32), where she was closely followed by Oak Park junior Dayshana Kellogg , although the field also included some of the state’s best in D1. Knights senior Kylee King was queen in the 800 (2:10.64), winning by more than five ticks.

The Knights also won two relays, the 4×100 (47.51) and the 4×400 (3:53.12), both by some degree of margin.

Northern took second place by scattering early results in various events, but winning only one, the 4×800 relay (9:35.41). They also had runner-up efforts in the 300 hurdles (Kate Carter), 800 (Ava Kurczewski) and 4×400 relay.

While Northern earned points in 11 events, Rochester finished third with standout performances in six events that rewarded the Falcons in the standings.

One of those came from senior Lena Cleveland in the long jump, who won with an effort of 18-7.25. She was disappointed with her first three jumps, none of which broke 18 feet, and kept her vow to do better in the final.

Cleveland, who previously used her athleticism for the school’s famous cheerleading program, just took up the high jump as a junior, finishing the season with a fourth-place finish at state. “I’m not going to lie, I just wanted to stop running a lot, so I started jumping, and it ended up working,” she said with a laugh.

Cleveland jumped 18-8 at regionals on its home court, a mark that puts it in first place for this year’s state finals.

Another favorite for the top podium spot at state, Farmington Hills Mercy senior Milena Chevallier took first place in the high jump by clearing five feet, six inches. “I’m happy I was able to get first place, but it’s not the size I wanted,” she said, referring to either the 5-8 she last attempted, or 5-11, his score which earned him the D1 title. as a junior.

“We played with my rhythm, going up the steps, so I’m just making some adjustments to prepare for state,” added Chevallier, who also has two indoor titles in this event to his credit, and is committed at Texas A&M.

On-field events once again inspire WL Central boys to win Oakland County meet

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Ferndale’s Tyra Thompson (12.74) edged out Groves junior Sheridan Webster by just one-hundredth of a second to win the 100, while the 1,600 produced a number of PRs among a strong field, led by Lucy Rochester’s 1-2 runner-up Cook (4:55.13) and Ella Abraham.

The two miles were won by Stoney Creek sophomore Leah Corby (11:11.04).