Benzie Central's Hunter Jones targets history at Record-Eagle John Lober Honor Roll meet
May 27—TRAVERSE CITY — Each and every event is certainly worth it, but folks might want to make sure they're at Traverse City Central High School before 7 p.m. Tuesday.
The 49th annual Traverse City Record-Eagle John Lober Honor Roll Meet brings together much of the top track and field talent in the area.
It's just that a little more of said talent is in the 1600-meter run, scheduled for 6:50 p.m. at Central's track complex.
"Any other year, Joe (Muha) and Jonah (Hochstetler) have really run at each other," meet director and longtime TC Central track coach John Lober said. "Then Hunter Jones is another level. Don't be surprised if all three PR. I think it'll be more against the clock than against each other."
Jones, the Benzie Central senior and Wake Forest commit who has won the event the last two years, is trying to become the first athlete to win the Ryan Shay 1600 Memorial Cup for a third time. He's already won three track state titles in the event to go along with four cross country crowns.
He'll be challenged by Benzie teammate Pol Molins, who checks in with the second-best time among those competing in the all-star meet. Hochstetler, an Air Force commit, and Muha are the third and fourth seeds, with the appropriately-named Jett Riemers (TCC) fifth, freshman Caleb Keller (TCC) sixth and Kalkaska junior Gavin Guggemos seventh.
Hochstetler broke the 47-year-old Ken Bell Invitational record this year in the 800, as well as the Big North Conference mark, and he set West's school record in the 1600 at regionals last week. He qualified for the state finals in both the 800 and 1600.
With the state finals four days after the all-star meet, many competitors only enter in one or two events to stay fresh for states.
That's usually the case with Jones, who typically runs in one or two. But he's running three events Tuesday, also competing in the 400m and 4x400m relay along with Molins.
The meet has three new teams this year, with the Central Lake-Ellsworth and Onekama-Bear Lake co-ops joining in as well as Leland. They'll join student-athletes from TC Central, West, St. Francis, Grand Traverse Academy, Benzie, Elk Rapids, Forest Area, Frankfort, Glen Lake, Kalkaska, Kingsley and Suttons Bay.
The meet starts with boys pole vault at 4:15 p.m., with the running events beginning at 5:20 p.m. with the 4x800m relay. The Parade of Schools, where each program sends one to two athletes to walk a lap around the track while holding a school banner, is set for 5:40 p.m., followed by the Legacy Award recognition that honors coaches with 20 or more years coaching track. Medals in each event are presented by previous Honor Roll winners.
Lober listed the girls long jump, boys pole vault and girls 800m as other events he thought would be particularly competitive.
"The boys 100 meters could be really interesting," Lober said of the event where West's Chase Weston is the top seed with a season-best 11.01-second time, 0.23 ticks better than St. Francis sophomore Cam Sellers.
One that might not be, but is worth keeping an eye on is the boys 300 hurdles (and the 110, for that matter).
Traverse City West's Wally Tupper has set his personal-best time in each of his last five races and is undefeated in the event since placing second in the season's first meet. His PR of 39.62 is the only one lower than 41 seconds and almost two seconds faster than the next competitor.
"He just keeps running better and better and better," TC West boys track coach Jason Morrow said of Tupper.
Tupper goes into the state finals seeded fourth in Division 1 in the 300 hurdles and in the top eight in both hurdle events.
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