The Ile Camera
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Devils' proven formula
Radcliffe, field events key victory
By Scott Held, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: May 11, 2007
The two things that have worked all season for Grosse Ile's boys' track team kept right on working May 3.
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A strong performance in the field events, coupled with three wins by distance specialist Jake Radcliffe, lifted the host Devils to their second Huron League dual-meet victory in as many tries, a 76-52 win over Flat Rock.
"We're strong in the field events, that's for sure," Grosse Ile Coach John Bodner said.
Sure enough. The Devils won all four field events and had a 28-8 lead over the Rams before a single point was counted on the track.
Lonnie Pugh swept the discus and shot put and won the latter event with a personal-best 54-foot, 2-1/4-inch effort. Teammates Jon Chinavare and Jeremy Heyler completed the off-track sweep by winning the long jump and high jump, respectively.
Radcliffe was the Devils' only triple-winner on the track as he collected victories in the 400-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.
"We know Jake's going to do that for us most of the time," Bodner added. "It was really nice to see our sprint relays come through today."
Greg Shelton, Dex Teen, Don McEachran and Chinavare teamed to win both the 400 and 800 relays for the Devils, who also saw McEachran take the 100 and Billy Bennett win the 800.
Field events also were the story of the day in the girls' meet, but the edge was in the Rams' favor as they kept the Devils winless with a 77-58 victory.
Flat Rock swept both throwing events and led 28-10 before racing points entered the equation. The Rams won six of the first seven events on the track to put the meet out of reach.
Grosse Ile Coach Maureen Bailey said the emphasis is on improvement.
"We're just trying to get better every meet," she said. "And it happened today.
"We saw a lot of kids improve their times."
Chief among them was distance specialist Megan Blazsak, who won the 3,200 in a personal-best 12 minutes, 34.4 seconds and was second in the mile.
She also ran with Sarah Malone, Olivia Braskich and Shannon Dusute on the winning 3,200 relay team.
The Devils picked up a pair of victories from Elizabeth Jackson, who took the top spot in the long jump and 300 hurdles.
Shelby VanKammen (high jump), Braskich (800) and the 1,600 relay team (Malone, Braskich, Colleen Doyle, Joanna Kukla) rounded out Grosse Ile's blue-ribbon winners.
The Devils went to Riverview yesterday and return home tomorrow to host the News-Herald Track and Field Championships.
Milan and Huron come to the island Monday for a tri-meet.
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