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June 1, 2010 Both the men’s women’s track programs at Novi High school share a long and prestigious history. Combined they have won numerous league, regional and even national championships. This track season Novi will once again be sending more than a handful of athletes to Rockford to compete at the Division 1 state meet June 5th. For those of you connected with Novi High School, June 5th may ring a bell for another reason: it’s graduation day for the NHS class of 2010. The men’s team has a number of athletes that will be jetting across the state as soon as their events finish Saturday, desperately trying to make their own graduation. Brett Kuhn is among those NHS male athletes that will be trying to pull off the near impossible. The senior will benefit from the fact that his events are earlier in the day. Kuhn, who I personally remember as a promising freshman my senior year on the Novi track team, has delivered on all his potential- and then some. He qualified last weekend in both the long jump – an event he routinely scored in as a freshman- and the 100 meter dash. At the state meet the top 8 finishers score points (1st place- 10, 2nd- 8, 3rd - 6, 4th- 5, 5th- 4, 6th- 3, 7th- 2, 8th- 1), and earn all-state honors. Kuhn is seeded 8th of 23 qualifers in the long jump and has a good shot at all-state honors. He’s the 20th of 27 qualifers in the 100 m dash. Dan Egner and Mike Blaszczyk, previously chronicled here also will try to compete in Rockford and then get to Ypsilanti by 7 PM. After missing the state meet twice by less than a second, Egner finally qualified, easily this time, in one of the most difficult distance races, the 800 meter dash. His time of 1:56 seeds him 12th of the 38 state qualifiers. Meanwhile Mike Blaszczyk again qualified for the 2 mile/3200 meter run with a time of 9:24. That time has him in the hunt for all-state honors as it was the 6th fastest time in the state last weekend. Derek Kim will only have to worry about competing in the state meet. The junior can wait another year to graduate, though the way he’s been running, he may find himself in a similar fix next year as well. Kim’s time of 14.8 in the 110 hurdles places him as the 9th fastest entrant in the event of the 23 competitors. With another year under his belt, one can only guess how high Kim will rank in 2011. The 4x200 relay also qualified on the men’s side with a time of 1:30.4 and is seeded 14th in a field of 25 teams. On the women’s side, the issue of graduation won’t be as big a problem- all but one of its individual entrants are underclassmen! And the field of Wildcat qualifiers is tilted towards sprints. The team qualified its 4x100 meter relay and it will be the 16th of 25 seeds. Kaitlyn Shelar is the lone senior qualifier, and is making her fourth appearance at the state meet in the pole vault. Her vault of 9’11” is good for 10th of the 25 seeds. Three sophomores of the class of 2012 are making the trip for the Wildcats. Kelly McCloskey qualified in two events, the 100 meter hurdles where she is seeded 18th of the 22 qualifiers and the 300 meter low hurdles where her time of 46.3 the 13th best time in a field of 29. Fellow 2012 classmates D’mya Davis and Jasmine Ward also qualified in the 100 and 200 meter dashes respectively. Davis will be the 30th of 32 qualifiers while Ward is in the hunt to score, as she is the 10th of 29 qualifiers. Finally freshman Jackie Mullins also qualified for the state meet in the 3200 meter run. Her time of 11:20 places her 16th in a field of 38. While it certainly doesn’t diminish her amazing accomplishment, Mullins will be the 8th seeded (!) freshman in the race. It looks like she will have formable competition the next few years no matter where she competes in the state. Be sure to check back next week when Alex recaps the events of the state meet… (c) 2010 Novi
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