Five Pinckney athletes to compete for Big Ten Conference programs
The Class of 2022 will go down as one of the most athletically gifted in Pinckney High School history.
Of the 21 Pirates who will continue competing in college, five are heading to Big Ten Conference schools.
Heading 22 miles down the road to the University of Michigan are football player Charlie Lovell, distance runner Caleb Jarema, swimmer Tyler Ray and wrestler Lance Trost.
Erik Bolang will swim for Penn State.
Jarema, Ray and Bolang were state champions.
Jarema won the Division 2 state title in cross country, then captured the 3,200-meter crown during track and field season. He set school records in 5,000-meter cross country, as well as the 1,600 and 3,200 on the track.
Ray grabbed two more state championships, giving him three in his career, when he won the 100-yard butterfly and 100 backstroke in the state Division 3 meet. Bolang, who returned to high school swimming after a year competing for a club team, was the 200 individual medley champion.
Lovell was a three-year starter at defensive end for Pinckney who had the most tackles by a defensive lineman in Livingston County each of the past two seasons. He had 87 as a senior, including a county-high 17 for losses. He will join the Wolverines as a preferred walk-on.
Trost was a two-time all-stater, placing third in Division 2 at 189 pounds as a senior after taking sixth as a junior. He went 98-31 during his career.
Other Pinckney graduates who are moving on to college athletics are Jimmy Bona (Albion football), Zennah Ebright (Concordia, Wis. field hockey), Bekah Etherington (Calvin University triathlon), Johnny Fackler (Cleary golf), Mallory Farmer (Saginaw Valley State track and field), Damon Fradette (Michigan-Dearborn lacrosse), Mia Litzenberg (Connecticut College volleyball), Gryphon Mayes (Heidelberg basketball), Megan Miller (Northwestern Ohio softball), Zoe Moretti (Albion soccer), Lucas Nagle (Davenport wrestling), Alex Olenik (Albion football), Vinny Patierno (Southwestern Michigan College wrestling), Sydney Pease (Henry Ford softball), Brooke Reynolds (Eastern Michigan cheer) and Caleb Wardlow (Siena Heights football).
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Five Pinckney athletes to compete for Big Ten Conference programs
