Benzie's Hunter Jones wins 3rd Shay Memorial at Record-Eagle Honor Roll; Stallworth, Tupper, Alaimo among many standouts

May 31—TRAVERSE CITY — Hunter Jones isn't sure about the procedure for giving back the Ryan Shay Memorial Cup.

The trophy for the 1,600-meter run at the Traverse City Record-Eagle/John Lober Honor Roll Track Meet has sat in his living room for the last two years.

He won't have to figure out how to give it back for another year after the Benzie Central star won the Shay Memorial for a record third time. The Cup was established in 2008 to honor the former Central Lake star who won an NCAA title, five USA national championships as a professional and passed away during the 2007 Olympic Marathon Trials.

"It feels really good," Jones said. "The first time may have felt a little better, but every time is a realization that I'm doing good and trying to accomplish all these things."

Jones won the 1,600-meter run in 4:06.81, a personal-best and breaking his own Honor Roll record of 4:08.23 set last year.

He also took second in the 400-meter dash in Tuesday's 49th annual Honor Roll Track Meet at Traverse City Central, with Traverse City West's Ben Habers winning in a personal-best 50.58 to give him two event wins (he also won the 200 in 22.80).

Benzie teammate Pol Molins, a 6-foot-3 sophomore foreign-exchange student from Germany, took second in 4:15.81. Molins won the 800 in 1:55.48.

"He can eat up ground with his long stride at the end of a race," Jones said of Molins. "If he's close, I have to look out. He's got a great kick."

STALLWORTH REVVING UP: If there was an individual winner of the meet, it'd have to be TC West's Arianna Stallworth.

The Titan speedster just missed out on beating her own 100-meter dash record, broke the 200-meter mark by almost a quarter of a second and ran the anchor leg of West's 400 relay team that broke the Honor Roll record with a 50.23 time.

The 400 relay time had stood since 2014, when TC Central set the mark at 50.63.

The 200-meter record was only two years old, set by former teammate Sara Schermerhorn in 2021, tying Kim Morey's record from 1975. Now, Stallworth is all alone at 25.4, a time that also set West's school record.

"A lot of people who set those records, I remember going to class with them," Stallworth said.

Stallworth's 12.56 in the 100 was 0.06 second off her own record set last spring.

Stallworth was joined on the 400 relay team by Emily Kelsey, Madalen Ferrill and Katie Rueckert.

TUPPER HARDWARE: TC West's Wallace Tupper kept his streak going.

For an amazing eighth straight race, the Traverse City West junior set a personal-best in the 300 hurdles. He won both hurdle events with PR times Tuesday, and he goes into states seeded in the top five in each.

"I strive to get a PR every meet," Tupper said. "It was a good race. I had big steps through the first hurdle, long strides."

One of Tupper's next goals: the West 300 hurdles school record of 38.6 seconds set by Chris Stowe in 2003.

He won the 300 with the fifth-best time in the state at 38.97, the first time he's broken 39 seconds. Tupper noted that he nicked the last hurdle and could have been even faster.

"At states, there'll be a lot of faster people there to help me PR," Tupper said.

JUDGE AND JURY: Judge Morgan got a hug from the person whose record he just broke after the 800-meter run.

Morgan, a senior at TC St. Francis who is going into the Marine Corps ROTC at Holy Cross, was greeted at the finish line by former teammate Thomas Richards, who held the TCSF 800 mark until Tuesday.

"That was great," Morgan said. "Thomas has been a great supporter in my career. I was happy to give him a hug after the race. He's been motivating me over the last years and going, 'You can do it.'"

His second-place time of 1:56.17 was a personal record by five seconds.

"I can die happy," Morgan said.

DISCUS KING: That didn't take Chase Bott long.

The Kingsley sophomore moved up from fifth last year to the podium's top spot this time around, winning the discus with a 148'7" heave.

"It's a good feeling," Bott said. "I've had better throws, but this is great."

Bott goes into Saturday's state finals seeded fifth after a 157'6" PR at regionals that's almost 20 feet longer than his freshman season best.

KING OF THE 1,600: Ava King has to rearrange some things and dust off a spot on her shelf.

The TC West junior won the Ryan Shay Memorial Cup for the second time, after taking the 2021 title.

TCSF's Sophia Rhein won in 2022 and placed sixth Tuesday during a season in which she's battled injuries.

Now the Cup goes back to King's room.

"It was like any good thing, it went onto the next girl," King said of having to give up the trophy last year.

King won with a 5:10.34, with Central juniors Alexis Ball and Ella Kirkwood second and third, and Benzie's Mylie Kelly fourth.

"It's pretty sweet," King said. "It's great to be with all these girls on the track. It's a fun environment."

MEDAL MAVEN: The only four-event medalist was Frankfort freshman Sofia Alaimo.

She was runner-up in both the 100 and 200, ran the second leg in the Panthers' first-place 800-meter relay, and was on Frankfort's second-place 400-meter relay quartet.

"I'm really excited," said Alaimo. "I can't believe how far I've come. Ever since fifth grade, I wanted to run like (Tara Townsend)."

The Frankfort freshman is headed to the state finals in the same four events.

Frankfort's 800 relay set a school-record time of 1:48.76, eclipsing the 1:49.3 set in 2007, along with Grace Wolfe, Payton Miller and Gwyneth Dunaway.

Wolfe took fourth Tuesday, with West's Grace Moeggenborg winning with a 168'75" leap and TCSF's Gwyneth Bramer and Maya Madisak second and third.

Wolfe set the school's long jump record with a 17-foot leap in the Northwest Conference championships. The previous mark of 16'9.25" had stood since 1977.

TRAILBLAZER: Anabelle Horton's legacy extends for a few more years, even though she's almost done with her high school career.

The Kalkaska senior high jumper has served as a mentor for two of the area's top young jumpers, freshmen Myah Little and Savannah Smedra.

"It can be a little stressful, especially if the meet doesn't turn out how we want it to," Horton said. "I have to be a role model to look up to."

Horton's 4'8" leap Tuesday ended up seventh, with Little fifth at the same height. Smedra was 11th at 4'6".

"To see them accomplish as much as they have," Horton said, "it makes my heart happy that they'll be doing great things after I graduate."

Little's personal best of 5'2" is only slightly off the Kalkaska school record. Smedra is also already at a 4'8" personal best.

Little only took up the event this month, clearing 4'6" in her first practice and 5' in her very first meet and saying she already has a goal of setting the Kalkaska record.

"She teaches you," Little said of Horton. "She's been through it her whole high school career. She's someone to look up to."

NORTHWEST PASSAGE: The top five girls shot putters hailed from the Northwest Conference.

Eleanor Vaulker won the event with a 105'10" personal-best heave, followed by Frankfort's Paige Willman and Morgan Hurd, Glen Lake teammate Maddie Bradford and Kingsley's Emily Bott.

LEAVING A LEGACY: For the first time, three area coaches were honored with the Honor Roll Meet Legacy Award.

Coaches must have coached track and field for at least 20 years to be eligible for the honor. Previous winners are TC Central's Don Lukens (the 2019 inaugural winner), Suttons Bay's Darlene Garland (2021), and Kingsley's Bill Wooer (2022) and Forest Area's Ron Stremlow (2022).

Joining that list this time around were longtime TC Central assistant coach Tim Donahey, Suttons Bay's Stan Pasch and TC West's Tom Brown.

Brown has coached at Central and West for 44 years, starting at Central in 1979 and moving over to West when the school opened in 1997, with a stop in Texas in between. He led the Titans to their first regional championships in both boys and girls.

Pasch coached track for 41 years, from 1982-2022. Specializing in the throwing events, with all of the top 10 discus throwers in Norsemen history coming under his watch and nine of the top 10 boys and six of the top 10 girls in the shot put.

Donahey coached for 43 years at his alma mater after playing on the 1975 state-finalist football team. He coached 25 shot-put athletes with throws over 50 feet (out of 28 in Central's history).

OTHER LANES: TC Central track athlete Maren Milne sang the national anthem. ... Reese Smith set West's school record in the 800 with a PR of 2:14.54, winning the event by almost nine seconds. ... West's Drew Esper set the Titans freshman record in the long jump at 20'1.75". ... West's Jonah Hochstetler broke the Titan school record in the 1,600 with a 4:18.04 that took third.

MORE BOYS WINNERS: Chase Weston, TC West, 100, 11.28; Ian Boss, TC Central, 3,200, 10:17.6; TC West 400 relay (Weston, Dylan Bowes, Esper, Aiden Orth), 45.02; TC West 800 relay (Dominic Gauna, Aaryn Stallworth, Sam Schutte, Orth), 1:33.59; TC West 1600 relay (Habers, Hochstetler, Graham Hetherington, Willem DeGood), 3:29.07; TC Central 3,200 relay (Lukas Reimers, Kaiden Morey, Shiloh Gersenson, Quinten Henderson), 8:22.88; Adam Domres, Onekama, shot put, 46'11.25"; Weston Kinney, Grand Traverse Academy, high jump, PR 6'2"; Asher Paul, TCC, pole vault, PR 13'6"; Kyle Roeters, TCC, long jump, PR 20'8".

MORE GIRLS WINNERS: Hunter Shellenbarger, Elk Rapids, 400, PR 58.91; Nora Grossnickle, Benzie, 3,200, 12:11.7; Madeline Bildeau, TC West, 100 hurdles, PR 16.27; Kylie Ball, TC Central, 300 hurdles, 48.16; TC West 1600 relay (King, Alyssa Fouchey, Smith, Abby Veit), 4:10.48; Elk Rapids 3200 relay (Jaida Schulte, Anna Pray, Ella Peck, Joelle Swanson), 10:22.6; Averi Lahti, TC West, shot put, 38'11.75"; Bildeaux, TCW, high jump, 5'0"; Katie Smith, Kingsley, pole vault, 11'.

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