ON TRACK: Oxford, Troy, Rochester, Avondale, Adams all eying regional track titles
OVER THE TOP: Ryan Brancheau and Auburn Hills Avondale hope to have enough top-flight finishes at Friday's Bloomfield Hills Lahser regional to earn a regional championship.File Photo | Dan Stickradt
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
It’s been nearly two decades since Oxford has been considered a state powerhouse in track and field. The Wildcats hope to reinsert themselves as such in the upcoming championship season.
Oxford, behind a large senior and junior class of top-flight athletes, has not won a regional title since back-to-back crowns in 1991 and 1992. In that 1991 season, the Wildcats were the Class B state champions in boys track and field.
“I have been told that it was in the early 1990s,” offered first-year Oxford coach Bob Blunk when asked of the school’s regional title drought in track and field. Blunk spent 33 years coaching in Macomb County at Warren DeLaSalle before crossing the border into Oakland County this season.
“I like our group. I think we have a really good chance,” he added.
Oxford competes in the Division 1 regional at Ortonville Brandon Friday, where the Wildcats, second last season, expect challenges from defending regional champion Holly, Lake Orion, Grand Blanc and Romeo, among others. Clarkston should also score well in the distances.
Oxford has a chance to score in every event with high seeds in all 17 events.
“We have depth and great balance,” said Blunk, who has three stacked sprint relays, one of the state’s top hurdlers and ample field events personal. “We just need to figure out where we have the best chance.”
Holly is another team with solid balance, while perennial powers Lake Orion and Grand Blanc, which participated in a Traverse City-based regional last season, also will score in multiple events. Romeo is much-improved.
On the girls side at Brandon, defending champion Lake Orion and last year’s runner-up, Oxford, are both down from last season, signaling that a new champion will likely be crowned.
Among the leaders will be Rochester Adams and Grand Blanc, two teams with plenty of success over the past several decades in girls track and field. Both teams have multiple high seeds across the board with Adams shooting for its first regional since 2002.
“We’re going to surprise some people,” said second-year Adams head coach Eric Lohr. “I think we can win or take second in a lot of events. We have some good depth in the jumps and distances and I expect to score well there.”
Oxford, Lake Orion, Holly, Pontiac, Clarkston, Rochester Stoney Creek and Ortonville Brandon should also score well in the girls meet.
DIVISION 1 AT WARREN MOTT (Friday): Troy’s girls have finished first or second at the regional every year in the past decade and will push for its fifth straight regional championship. The Colts, co-champions in the OAA Red Division this season and an 11th-place finisher at the state meet last June, have exceptional depth with top five seeds in every event except pole vault.
Macomb Dakota and Sterling Heights Stevenson are the other schools that should be in the running in the girls meet, likely for runner-up honors.
“We are a little bit different team this season,” said Troy coach Matt Richardson. “We don’t have the type of team that will score a lot of points at the state meet, but we have good depth and some relays that can win at the regional. I think we can do very well in most events, especially in the middle distances and (long) distance races.
On the boys side, Dakota, Stevenson and Troy all have multiple high seeds and should engage in a three-team battle for team honors and state-qualifying marks in multiple events. Fraser will also score well in the field events.
Troy’s boys, despite being loaded with underclassmen and finishing 1-5-0 in the OAA-Red, have come on strong late this season and could be a surprise pick to win the regional.
Troy Athens’ boys also have a core of athletes that should score well and the Red Hawks may sneak into the top five in the team standings.
DIVISION 1 AT WEST BLOOMFIELD (Saturday): Rochester enters the championship season as co-champions in the OAA-Red Division, as well as being the first Class A/Division 1 girls team from Oakland County trying to defend a state title.
The Falcons, who scored an impressive 101 points at the regional last season and 68 at the state finals to edge Rockford by nine points for the state title, lost three big guns from that team, including three state champions, but still could be a top-five team in the state with a solid core or sprinters and distance runners in its arsenal.
“I think we can still win a regional,” said Rochester coach Larry Adams. “We don’t have the depth we had last year, but I think with the group of girls that we have this year, we can still score very well at the big meets.”
Rochester will be hard-pressed by the sprinters and hurdlers from Southfield and Farmington Harrison, the OAA White Division champion. Farmington, West Bloomfield and North Farmington all have enough quality athletes to contend for top-five finishes in the team standings.
On the boys side, Farmington, fresh off the OAA Red Division championship in its first season in the league, should be among the leaders. West Bloomfield is also formidable with several big-meet performers and likely the Falcons’ top challenger.
Expect defending champ Birmingham Brother Rice, Southfield, Rochester, Birmingham Groves, Harrison and North Farmington to also score well in various events.
DIVISION 2 AT BLOOMFIELD HILLS LAHSER (Friday): This will be somewhat of a sneak peak into the Division 2 state finals, as three of the top boys teams in the state will be at one regional site — Auburn Hills Avondale, Ferndale and Birmingham-Detroit Country Day.
All three teams have plenty of athletes that will be in contention for state championships and all-state honors, with both Ferndale and Avondale finishing in the top five at the state meet last season. The Lahser regional will be contested Friday.
Ferndale and Country Day won regionals last season, with Ferndale being moved into the Lahser regional this season. Country Day edged Avondale by one point last year for the team crown after Avondale, which currently has two of its best athletes out of the lineup, had an athlete disqualified in an event.
In the girls meet, Country Day and Avondale will be among the leaders, along with Detroit Renaissance, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep Lahser and Bloomfield Hills Andover. Country Day was second at the state meet last season with a solid core group of top-flight athletes, while Avondale won its first league championship in 14 years this spring. Renaissance has been one of the better D-2 teams in the state during the past decade and Notre Dame Prep is a program on the rise.
DIVISION 4 AT WEBBERVILLE (Saturday): This is kind of an unusual regional, with mostly Detroit- and Flint-area schools heading west towards Lansing to compete.
Host Webberville, Morrice and Flint Hamady will be among the leaders, while Southfield Christian, Auburn Hills Oakland Christian, Birmingham Roeper and Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest should also push through multiple state qualifiers in both the boys and girls meets.
“I know Morrice is always tough, so is Webberville and (Hamady) will have sprinters,” noted Lutheran Northwest assistant coach Don Justice. “I know there are a lot of Oakland County schools or schools from our league (MIAC) in this regional. I think, although we don’t have the best times, we can qualify a handful of kids. I expect the teams from our league to do well at this regional.”
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Category: Auburn Hills Avondale, Auburn Hills Christian Acadamy, Auburn Hills Oakland Christian, Clarkston, Clarkston Everest Catholic, High School, High School (M-Z), Lake Orion, Oxford, Prep Wraps, Rochester, Rochester Adams, Rochester Hills Lutheran NW, Troy, Troy Athens, Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes
