Midwest Meet of Champions (MI)
Midwest Meet of Champions: Meet Page / Results: Boys - Girls / Pictures
Highlights - Speed was the name of the game at the Midwest Meet of Champions Saturday in Michigan. Seniors from Indiana, Ohio and Michigan gathered in the attempts to earn regional bragging rights. While many events put up great results, none showed more talent than the 400m dash. On the girls side Meshawn Graham (Bowsher, OH) broke 54 seconds yet again, this time winning her best event with a 53.56 performance. On the guys side John Guagenti (Bluffton, OH) improved his personal best time by over half a second, winning the race in 46.95.
Candyce McGrone (Warren Central, IN) and Darryl White (Romulus, MI) put up big times in the 100m dash. McGrone won both the girls 100m and 200m dash events, running 11.78 and 23.65 respectively. White on the other hand beat a solid field of competitors, beating second and third place by one-hundredth of a second, winning in 10.67.
In the hurdles Michigan's Leslie Arriguzo won the girls 100m hurdles in 14.38, tuning up nicely for nationals. On the boys side Terrance Somerville (Buchtel, OH) won the 110m hurdles in 14.00, with Roscoe Payne (Carman-Ainsworth, MI) and D'Juan Richardson (Warren Central, IN) finished 2-3. Payne then came back in the 300m hurdles to win in 36.86, good enough for a U.S. top ten mark.
While the track performances were plentiful, some of the top results of the day came in the field events. Ryan Fleck (Napoleon, OH) jumped a U.S. #2 mark in the boys high jump, winning the event rather easily while clearing 7-02. Kevin Schipper (Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger, IN) also earned a U.S. top fifteen performance by clearing 16-09 in the pole vault, while Brandon Pounds (Lawrence North, IN) earned a victory over a very strong boys shopt put field, winning the event with his best toss of 61-07.50.
Back on the track in the distance events, Alex Banfich (Culver Academies, IN), Emily Infeld (Beaumont, OH) and Walter Luttrell (Dayton Christian, OH) all produced exceptional marks. Banfich won the girls 1600m run with a time of 4:52.17, while Infeld won the girls 800m dash in 2:10.00. Both athletes used their respective races to tune up for next weekend's national championships. On the boys side Luttrell won a competitive 3200m run, leading five athletes under 9:07 with his winning mark of 8:59.81.