D'ville's Ross wins Male Athlete of the Meet

Bogan filed this report from the Meet of Champions

BAD AXE — Cody Ross missed several football games this past fall after suffering a broken leg during the middle part of the regular season.

But after a few months of rehabilitation, the Deckerville senior is fully recovered, showing off the speed which he hopes will carry him to a fine college football career.

Before that, though, Ross has a few things to take care of on the track. Here Tuesday afternoon at the Huron Daily Tribune’s 39th annual Meet of Champions, Ross checked off one of his senior goals by earning Male Athlete of the Meet honors.

Ross won the 100, 200, and was part of the winning 400 relay squad. He also ran the anchor of the third-place 800 relay team to garner the award, which is heavily pointed on maximum participation and individual events.

“It was really my goal to get Athlete of the Meet,” said Ross, who will be attending and playing football at Northwood University. “For my leg, it took about six weeks to heal up, but I feel right now that I am 100 percent. To rehab, I jogged, I lifted a little bit... I feel pretty good.”

Ross outlasted Ubly’s Joe LaFave in both the 100 (12.07) and 200 (24.28). In fact, he had to make up a couple of yards in the final few seconds to nose out LaFave in the 200.

“It was tough recovering for the 200,” Ross said. “I had to run the 800 relay and then after that I only had the break for the mile, then I had the 400 relay. So it was pretty tough.”

Ross knew he had to fend off a couple of competitors for the award, including Unionville-Sebewaing Area’s duo of Tim Canfield and Chris Harper.

Harper took home top honors in the 800 (2:08.17), and teamed with Canfield, Hayden Ewald and Jacob Wiergowski to win the 1,600 relay (3:44.68), and with Ewald, Joey Southgate and Seth Squires to win the 3,200 relay (8:45.90). But Harper did not compete as scheduled in the 400, won by Cass City’s Adrian Hartsell (53.41).

Canfield, meanwhile, was unsuccessful at his attempt to defend his title in the pole vault. He also was unable to place in the 200 — an event he came into as the No. 1 seed.

Ubly’s Brandon Glaza was the only other multiple individual winner, capturing the 1,600 (4:49.22) and 3,200 (10:35.81). 

Other running event winners included Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port’s Nick Gordon in the 110 hurdles (16.78) and Deckerville’s Keenan Swann in the 300 hurdles (43.95).

In the field events, USA’s Dakota Gangler won the shot put (47-2), USA’s Michael Bednarski won the discus (144-4), Ubly’s LaFave won the long jump (18-3 1/4), Harbor Beach’s Aaron Ginther won the high jump (5-10) and Bad Axe’s Inaki Pereira claimed the pole vault (10-0).

Cass City’s foursome of Garrett Ferguson, Josh Jensen, Braeden Perzanowski and Alex Williams captured the 800 relay (1:39.30).

As for Ross, he’s gearing for the final few weeks of the track season, including  appearances at Thursday’s Sanilac County Invitational and next week’s Caro Meet of Champions. He’s also qualified with his teammates for the Division 4 state finals in the 400 relay.

And while he’s taking those events seriously, he’s also looking forward to taking part in the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association’s All-Star Game later in the summer in Mount Pleasant. He’s slated to see action at fullback for the East squad. 

“I am just really focusing on football,” he said.

Here are the top three finishers in each event.

100: 1. Cody Ross, Deckerville (12.07); 2. Joe LaFave, Ubly (12.20); 3. Bryan Bland, Ubly (12.32)

200: 1. Cody Ross, Deckerville (24.13); 2. Joe LaFave, Ubly (24.28); 3. Braeden Perzanowski, Cass City (25.00)

400: 1. Adrian Hartsell, Cass City (53.41); 2. Aaron Ginther, Harbor Beach (54.39); 3. Conner Studer, Bad Axe (54.65)

800: 1. Chris Harper, USA (2:08.17); 2. Seth Squires, USA (2:08.82); 3. John Creguer, Ubly (2:17.00)

1,600: 1. Brandon Glaza, Ubly (4:49.22); 2. John Creguer, Ubly (4:50.84); 3. Joey Southgate, USA (4:52.31)

3,200: 1. Brandon Glaza, Ubly (10:35.81); 2. Joey Southgate, USA (10:40.18); 3. Jeremy Pawlowski, Bad Axe (10:42.58)

110 Hurdles: 1. Nick Gordon, EPBP (16.78); 2. Keenan Swann, Deckerville (16.79); 3. Tim Canfield, USA (17.72)

300 Hurdles: 1. Keenan Swann, Deckerville (43.95); 2. Nick Gordon, EPBP (44.48); 3. Tom Sutherland, Harbor Beach (45.90)

400 Relay: 1. Deckerville (Keenan Swann, Joseph Spaulding, Dillon Lundgren, Cody Ross) 48.24; 2. Harbor Beach (Ryan Arntz, Aaron Ginther, Ashton Roggenbuck, Tom Sutherland) 48.53; 3. Cass City (Terrence Bennett, Garrett Ferguson, Josh Jensen, Braeden Perzanowski) 49.01

800 Relay: 1. Cass City (Garrett Ferguson, Josh Jensen, Braeden Perzanowski, Alex Williams) 1:39.30; 2. USA (Jon Bauer, Seth Gangler, Kim Byeongkwon, Jacob Wiergowski) 1:40.66; 3. Deckerville (Keenan Swann, Joseph Spaulding, Dillon Lundgren, Cody Ross) 1:40.66

1,600 Relay: 1. USA (Tim Canfield, Hayden Ewald, Chris Harper, Jacob Wiergowski) 3:44.68; 2. Ubly (Bryan Bland, John Creguer, Joe LaFave, Jimmy Shaw) 3:48.89; 3. Bad Axe (Connor Studer, Charlie Prich, Paul Schadd, Max Reinhardt) 3:54.63

3,200 Relay: 1. USA (Hayden Ewald, Chris Harper, Joey Southgate, Seth Squires) 8:45.90; 2. Ubly (John Creguer, Brandon Glaza, Nick McNeil, Jason Rutkowski) 8:48.54; 3. Bad Axe (Will Affholter, Thomas Zhang, Max Reinhardt, Jeremy Pawlowski) 9:18.52

Shot Put: 1. Dakota Gangler, USA (47-2); 2. Kenny Ryan, USA (43-6 1/2); 3. Lucas Loss, Ubly (43-5)

Discus: 1. Michael Bednarski, USA (144-4); 2. Dakota Gangler, USA (130-5); 3. Mike Martin, North Huron (116-5)

Long Jump: 1. Joe LaFave, Ubly (18-3 1/4); 2. Cody Deer, Port Hope (18-2); 3. Coty Sopha, Bad Axe (18-0)

High Jump: 1. Aaron Ginther, Harbor Beach (5-10); 2. Dillon Lundgren, Deckerville (5-10); 3. Mike Potrykus, Cass City (5-4)

Pole Vault: 1. Inaki Pereira, Bad Axe (10-0); 2. Brett Metzger, Bad Axe (9-0). 3. NA

Cody Ross