Nonah Waldron Finds Redemption In Record-Breaking 300m Hurdles Performance; Northville Boys Run 4×800 Record; Benne Anderson Runs Impressive 1,600m; Oak Park Girls, St. Joseph Boys Win D1 Crowns
Story and Photos by Steve Underwood for DyeStat
Nonah Waldron, Benne Anderson, Rachel Forsyth, Braxton Brann, Milena Chevallier and the Northville boys 4×800 created most of the biggest highlights on a sweltering day at the Michigan Lower Peninsula D1 meet at Rockford, while the Oak Park girls and St. Joseph boys captured team titles in distinctly different fashions.
In her fifth and final race of the day, a motivated Waldron found something extra to win the 300m hurdles in a stellar 40.37 – not only smashing the state meet record but her own all-time Michigan mark in a US#2 performance. The USC-bound senior led teammates junior Morgan Roundtree and soph Carrie VanNoy to a 1-2-4 finish to put the icing on the cake of Oak Park’s team triumph as the Knights scored 80 points to the 58 by defending champ Detroit Renaissance.
Earlier, Waldron (13.56, just .02 off her PR), Roundtree and Vannoy went 1-3-4 in the 100m hurdles and the trio also made up three-quarters of the 4×100 and 4×200 relays that finished runner-up to Renaissance. But the 300H was extra special to Waldron. Her father passed away in July of 2021 and last spring at these D1 finals, she fell at the fifth hurdle and didn’t finish the race.
After her final effort, an emotional Waldron credited God, her coach Brandon Jiles, a lot of hard work and “teammates Morgan and Carrie pushing me every day in practice and that the field of competition was so elite. I’m about to cry, I’m so happy.”
“It’s been a journey,” she continued, “going from falling on this exact track last year, and coming back and breaking the record, it means so much to me. I just know my dad would be so happy right now.”
Oak Park won its seventh D1 girls state title in nine years.
“I think this may be the most resilient group I’ve had,” Jiles said. “We’ve dealt with some adversity all season, but in athletics, just like life, adversity is a part of the game and our mantra is, ‘Never fold!’”
In the boys’ 1,600 meters, Anderson was trying to make some history of his own, with a sub-4:00 mile on his mind. An additional timing camera was set up past the standard finish line so the Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills senior and others could run through and have a chance to record a…
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