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June 14, 2010 In the hometown of Michigan’s most decorated runner, Dathan Ritzenhein, the Novi track team wrapped up its 2010 season with a number of great individual performances June 5th. While the official high school season ended on the same day as Novi’s graduation, a handful of Novi boys are continuing to compete in regional and national competitions. But let’s start with the women. ALL the Novi women outperformed their seeds, a remarkable accomplishment, especially for such a young team. Kaitlyn Shelar finished off her Novi career as on the of the most decorated athletes in Novi track history, earning all-state honors with her vault of 10”9’. Her regional performance seeded Shelar 10th, and she outperformed her seed, placing 6th in Rockford. The class of 2012 showed fantastic promise for the women’s team at the state meet. Sophomore Kelly McCloskey certainly didn’t let her greenness show, earning all state honors in the 300 meter hurdles with an 8th place finish which outperformed her seed by 5 places. In the 100 meter hurdles McCloskey also outperformed her seed, moving from 18th to 15th. Jasmine Ward, also a sophomore joined McCloskey on the podium, racing to all-state honors in the 200 meter dash. Ward earned the 10th fastest time in preliminaries, the 6th fastest in semi-finals and settled for 8th place in the finals, good enough to be one of just a small handful of all-state sophomores. The third individual sophomore competing was D’mya Davis. Davis did not qualify for semi-finals or finals in the 200 meter dash but she did perform up to her seed position. Jackie Mullins a freshman finished the day for the Wildcats with her two mile performance. Going into the race she was seeded 16th overall, and was the 8th freshman. 11 minutes and 11 seconds after the gun went off, Mullins was the 13th fastest two miler in division one and the third fastest freshman girl in the state. In contrast to the youth laden girls team, the men’s Novi track team relied on mostly veterans. Seniors Brett Kuhn, Mike Blaszczyk and Dan Egner joined junior Derek Kim in Rockford, performing beyond the expected as well. While Kuhn failed to get out of prelims in the 100 meter dash, he certainly made up for it in the long jump. With a jump of 20’8” Kuhn performed right in line with expectations, matching his seed and earning all-state honors by placing 8th overall. In the two mile, Blaszczyk continued his hot streak, improving his time from the previous week by three seconds, moving down from 9:24 to 9:21. That personal record gave Mike a 6th place finish, the highest place of the day for the Novi men. There was some misfortune for the men’s team. First, Dan Egner, competing in one of the fastest 800 meter runs in state history, placed 10th in the race, just 0.9 seconds behind the 8th place and last all-state finisher. Derek Kim, a junior moved past preliminaries and looked to be doing very well in semi-finals before he was disqualified on what looked to be an incorrect call by MHSAA officials. A runner next to Kim hit his hurdle, knocking Kim off balance and sending him tumbling. A review of the race is still pending. Despite the two close calls, the cherry on top of it all was that Kuhn, Blaszczyk and Egner all made it to Novi’s graduation in Ypsilanti in time to hear their names called. Graduation wasn’t the end of the Novi career for Blaszczyk or Egner however. Blaszczyk competed this past weekend at the Midwest meet of champions. The meet strives to pick the three best athletes for each event from Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. Races of nine competitors are then set up for all the normal events of a track meet. This year while Ohio beat Michigan, Michigan did defeat Indiana on the men’s side. Blaszczyk contributed to Michigan’s victory, picking up a point with a sixth place finish in the two mile on an oppressively hot day in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Blaszczyk will join Egner, along with juniors Brett Giampa and Joe Schubring in North Carolina next weekend at the New Balance Outdoor National Meet in Greensboro. The four will compete in the 4 x mile. Be sure to check novi.org for updates. (c) 2010 Novi
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