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5/23/07-Track
St. Mary's 2nd in Catholic track finals
Warrior, Marlins capture CHSL titles
By CHRIS YOUNG/Special to The Oakland Press
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LIVONIA--A smile can make all the difference in the world to an athlete. But usually, the encouraging smiles are provided by adoring parents and family members. Tuesday, at the Catholic League A-B track and field championships, it was a smile of the heavenly variety that provided the motivation.
"Mike Popson was smiling on us today. He was a longtime coach and athletic director for us, and he was killed in an accident last year," Birmingham Brother Rice boys track coach Bob Stark said.
The Warriors did their old coach proud as they ran their way to a 125-point finish and the Catholic High School League A-B title at Livonia Ladywood.
Orchard Lake St. Mary's can in second with 94 points. Novi Detroit Catholic Central finished third with 89 points.
"It was a real competitive meet, and I'm proud of my kids, and proud of the other teams that performed here," Stark said. "The kids performed well, especially the distance runners. Anthony Wile won the mile and Mike Murphy won the two-mile."
Catholic Central jumped out to an early lead, thanks in no small part to the field events crew. Division 1 football prospect Mike Martin won the shot put and discus with throws of 56-11 and 148-6. Jake Maloney threw 50-6 to grab second in the shot, while the Warriors' Brian Wing threw a second place 142-6 om the discus.
At the midway point, Brother Rice and Catholic Central were tied at 65 for the lead, with St. Mary's nipping close behind at 63 points. But the 300-meter hurdles was all the Warriors needed to pull away, as Imani DuPerry rushed and bounded his way to a 39.33 clocking to cross the line first. Mike Gorman finished third in that event with 41.39 on the clock.
"I expected Perry to win that, but Mike Gorman especially did a great job for us with that," Stark said. "He hadn't run in a meet in weeks, he's been hurt all the time, and he did a great job. And he came back and anchored the mile-relay team."
On the ladies' side, Farmington Hills Mercy took home the gold--or rather, the wood and gold--with a 123 point ranking, followed by Dearborn Divine Child at 109 and Harper Woods Regina at 105.
The 300-meter hurdles was also a big scorer for Mercy, as freshman Dominique Mosby turned in a 48.93 to win the event.
But Mercy's real strength was in the ring, as Courtney Whalen won the shot put with a heave of 39-0 and combined with Jessica Sheahan to go 2-3 in the discus with throws of 104-3 and 96-7, respectively.
For the boys, St. Mary's was carried by it's sprinting squad, which was paced by Ohio State football commit Taurian Washington. Washington won the 100-meter dash with a blistering time of 10.79, took the 200-meter dash in 22.26, helped the 400-meter relay team to a 44.16 win, and overcame an extremely bad handoff while running the anchor leg in the 800-meter relay as the Eaglets clocked a 1:32.16 to win that event as well.
"Truthfully, I wasn't really happy with my 100 time, I had a bad start. I wasn't really happy with my 200 time either," Washington said. "But it feels good to get out here and compete. We haven't won the Catholic League in a while."
It was in the distance events where the Warriors shined. Wile took the 1600-meter run with a 4:27.98, and "then, we got 14 points in the 3200-meter run and that just kind of put them away," Stark said.
Those 14 points came courtesy of Murphy with his time of 9:52.94, with help from Wile and his 10:19.38.
Now it's on to state for a few lucky athletes, and hopefully, more smiles.
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