By Jim Newell
Review Editor
The Lake Orion High School track and field team hopes once again to challenge for an OAA Red division title and started the season strong, defeating Rochester 81-47 in a dual meet last Wednesday.
It was the Dragon’s first outdoor meet season, having had a bye week the first week of the season.
Of course, with a streak of five consecutive league titles the goal is to win another, but Head Coach Stan Ford knows with competition like Oxford’s talented team in the mix, it’s going to take what he and the other coaches tell the Dragon runners: determination, hard work and perseverance.
“We’re going to have to work a little harder this year. It won’t be easy,” Ford said. “We’re going to have to step it up. We’ve been fortunate, we’ve had some great kids come through and we have some great kids now. That’s high school sports.”
The team had a dual meet at home against Clarkston today after The Lake Orion Review press time. The team will next compete at the 55th annual Elmer Ball Oxford Invitational at Oxford High School on Saturday.
The Dragons had a solid start to the season against Rochester, but Ford looks for the team to continue to develop.
“Toward the end (of the meet), we performed pretty well to seal the deal,” Ford said. “We have some really nice looking hurdlers and they performed pretty well last night.”
Junior Tyler Skibicki took first place in the 110-meter hurdles and sophomore Thomas Morman finished second.
The Dragons swept the 300-meter hurdles, with Skibicki in first, Morman in second place and senior Channing Wan finishing third.
Rochester won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200-meter races, but Ford said the Dragon mid-distance and long distance runners should be competitive throughout the season. “They didn’t perform as well as they would have liked, but I expect them to turn it around.”
Senior Michael Jarvis did finish third in the 1,600-meter and second in the 3,200-meter finals.
Jarvis, along with Channing Wan and Greg Maki are this year’s captains, and Ford expects all of his captains – and seniors – to set an example for the rest of the team.
“We tell them, ‘The younger kids are still going to look up to you and we expect you to be good leaders. We do see guys stepping up who aren’t captains.’”
The team is loaded in the short distance events, with 40 sprinters this season.
“Dallas Clearly looked good in the 200 (meters) last night,” Ford said. Clearly, a senior, was first place in the 200-meter finals with a time of 22.6 seconds, with teammates Mitchell Schoenjahn (second place) and Chris Wilson (third) sweeping the event.
Sam Knight, a sophomore, took first in the 400-meter race, while Thomas Morman, another sophomore, helped the Dragons win the 4-by-400-meter relay.
Lake Orion took first place in all of the relays at the meet.
“It’s just nice to see those younger guys develop and fill a competitive role,” Ford said. “Those kinds of effort are what we look for in the sophomores coming up. On paper, we look like we should be pretty good. It’s nice to have some depth.”
In field events, the Dragons Sebastian Marku took second place in the shot put with a 37-feet, 4-inch toss, and senior Zachary Gotowicki had a third-place 34-feet, 10-inch personal record.
Sophomores Sebastian Marku and Remi Murillo finished first and second, respectively in the discus, and sophomore Zach Dinverno had a 5-feet, 8-inch high jump for second place.
Sophomore long jumpers Zach Dinverno and Sam Guenther each surpassed the 18-feet mark, jumping 18-feet, 4-inches and 18-feet, 3-inches to take second and third place.
The team also has three pole vaulters, which is not a contested sport in the OAA Red, but is at the county, regional and state levels.
Ford said he has high hopes for the pole vaulting crew. “When the time comes, they should perform pretty well.”