MITS Indoors Day 2 Recap: Records Fall And Motor City Shines


* Morgan Roundtree (left), Nonah Waldron (center) and Carrie Vannoy discuss their 1-2-3 finish in the 60mH at the MITS Indoor State Championships on Sunday.

It was quite the day for some of the state's most notable athletes and programs on Sunday to conclude competition at the MITS Indoor State Championships.

Just ask Motor City Track Club.

The girls of Motor City went 1-2-3 in the 60mH, 1-2-3-5-6-7 in the 400m and first in the 4x400m to cap off one of the most dominant performances in Michigan indoor championship history and highlight Sunday's races.

But it's nothing new for the squad out of Detroit.

In fact, winning as a unit is a long-running tradition.

Just ask Nonah Waldron, who won the 60mH and took third in the 400m and has been apart of the Motor City winning ways for four years.

"We just know that we just have to beat the other team. That's the mindset," said Waldron following her individual state title win.

And, boy, did they win in a big way, beginning with Motor City's specialty hurdle event. Waldron won the 60mH in 8.39, followed by Morgan Roundtree in 8.82 and Carrie Vannoy in 8.89.

It was a sweep of the medal podium for the team for the second year in a row, as they put three athletes at the top of the 60mH during the 2022 installment of MITS indoors.

That success will likely come for more years to come, too. The biggest show-stopper from Motor City came from eighth-grader Nevaeh Burns as she commanded the girls 400m in 54.21 -- one of the top middle schooler performances in indoor history, and a time that would rank US No. 3 among high school competitors in 2023.

Burns would later finish fourth in the 200m and help Motor City to their 4x400m title in a US No. 4 3:52.74, cementing her place as the team's next star.



But Motor City wasn't the only team to produce state-leading performances and all-time marks.

Numerous meet records went down, including the boys 800m and 4x400m all-time marks. The new MITS indoor states 800m record came from Brendan Herger, who took down the previous mark held by 800m World Champion Donovan Brazier and ran 1:51.56, which is also good for a tie for US No. 4 this season.

The 4x400m all-time meet best also went down -- by just fractions of a second -- as a Shamar Heard-led 16 Ways won in 3:19.19 after also taking the 4x200m the day prior.

One of the best performances of the day, though, came in the early hours of day two competition as Dolan Gonzales became just the second boy in Michigan history to eclipse the 16-0 mark in the pole vault, winning the state title in 16-0.25.

Gonzales previously held a 15-3 indoor season best going into the state championships.

Besides meet records and team dominance, multiple athletes earned state crowns in more than one event, including Hunter Jones and Braxton Brann. Jones eased to a 4:07.73 1,600m win to complete the 1,600m-3,200m-DMR triple, while Brann took home both the boys 60mH and 200m wins in 8.07 and 21.24, the latter of which ranks among the top-10 200m efforts in the country this season.

Other notable performances included a 4:53.63 season best from sophomore Jessie Jazwinski in the girls 3,200m, and Andrew Berryhill became one of the few Michigan athletes to ever surpass 60 feet in the boys shot put with a winning mark of 60-4.5.

Related Links:

MITS Indoors Day 1 Recap: Kimes, Jones & Relay Squads Excel

The Top 10 Photos From Day 1 Of MITS Indoor State Champs