The Clarkston girls track team came within five points of stealing a share of the league title from Troy on May 24.
One part of the Wolves winning formula was realized when Troy (7-0) finished in third place at the OAA league meet with 81 total points. The Wolves (5-2) could not manage to vault over Pontiac Northern to satisfy the other part of the league winning equation, finishing with 104 points to Northern’s tally of 108.
In the meet Clarkston’s Jenny Morgan won the 3200 and the 800, Gillian Nordquist won the 1600 and the 3200 relay team of Liz Mengyan, Nikki Kraus, Lisa Sickman and Lyndsay Smith also finished in first place.
Having seen his team go all out at the OAA league meet and on May 20, on their way to winning regionals, Clarkston Coach John Yorke did not want to risk any injuries to any of the Wolves state qualifiers at the County meet on May 27.
Clarkston still managed a fourth place finish, which featured one of the fastest times in state history with a 9:14 in the 3200 relay by Morgan, Mengyan, Smith and Sickman. The division 1 state record is 9:13.83 set in 2000 by a team from Rockford. Smith also won the 800 at the County meet with a time of 2:16.
Representing Clarkston at the state finals on June 4 will be Morgan (1600, 3200) Mengyan (1600), Sickman (1600), Smith (800), Nordquist (3200), Oltman (3200) Stephanie Parkin (100 hurdles, long jump) Stephanie Thorstad (long jump), Taylor Rademacher (high jump) and Autumn Touchstone (100 hurdles).
The boys team did not enjoy the same success as their female counterparts over the course of the season or the past week. While Clarkston’s girls team has looked to win meets like regionals and qualify mass amounts of the team for states, the boys have lived their coach Walt Wyniemko’s ethos of improving, competing and enjoying each meet.
The most notable performance for the boys team came at the county meet as the 800 relay team of Nick Devault, Pedro Matos, Jesse Kessler and Greg Knappe made the finals and finished in seventh with a time of 1:31.8.