The Pioneer girls’ track & field team ran to a third-place finish on June 3 at the MHSAA Division 1 State Finals in Rockford. The Pioneers crossed the finish line with 56 points, just two behind second-place Detroit Renaissance. Oak Park ran away with the title with 80 points.
Ann Arbor Huron finished 13th with 15 points. Skyline tallied two points.
Let’s start on the track and the sprints where Huron’s Mackenzie Robinson had a brilliant showing. The senior was sixth in the 100 meters (12.20) and fifth in the 200 meters (25.10). Pioneer junior Maya Rollins ran sixth in the 200 (25.39). Huron senior Royce Smith was 18th (1:00.68) in the 400 meters.
Pioneer’s Rachel Forsyth won her first of two events when she crossed the finish line with a winning time of 2:09.96 in the 800. Skyline senior Natalie Kessler was seventh (2:13.85) and Pioneer junior Sylvia Sanok Dufallo was 17th (2:19.09).
Forsyth, the Pioneer junior, ran 4:44.22 to take first place in the 1600 meters – where teammate Emily Cooper was ninth (4:59.14) and Skyline’s Caroline Vance was 14th (5:04.51).
Cooper ran third in the 3200 meters with a time of 10:41.34. Vance was 12th (11:06.64) for Skyline.
Rollins ran and jumped to great success in the hurdles. The Pioneer sprinter was second in the 100 hurdles in 13.82 and 15th in the 300 hurdles in 47.54. Huron sophomore Aliyah Ferguson was seventh in the 100 hurdles in 15.11.
Huron was fourth in the 4×100 relay as the team of Rachel Overgaard, Ferguson, Jordan Douglas and Robinson went 48.56. Pioneer’s team of Sidney Jackel, Megan Bell, Mahawa Kaba and Jordyn Johnson was 12th in 49.33.
Pioneer’s team of Kaba, Johnson, Asiah Lee and Rollins was third (1:40.91) in the 4×200 relay. Pioneer’s team of Sanok Duffalo, Cooper, Natalie Mello and Forsyth was sixth in the 4×400 relay in 4:00.25 with Huron’s team of Leena Shelgikar, Douglas, Smith and Robinson ran 15th in 4:07.06.
Pioneer won the 4×800 relay as the team of Sanok Dufallo, Lydia Bowman, Cooper and Forsyth ran 9:01.19. Skyline’s team of Caroline Vance, Allison Mayer, Kessler and Lydia Cocciolone took 10th in 9:23.28.
Huron sophomore Cora Williams was eighth in the shot put (38-8.25) and Pioneer junior Megan Bell was 10th in the pole vault (11-3). Huron junior Alena Adams was 19th in the high jump (4-11).
PHOTO: Pioneer senior Emily Cooper capped off her incredible career with a sixth-place finish at the MHSAA Cross Country State Finals in November before helping lead her school to a third-place finish in track and field earlier this month.
