Midland High girl’s track season preview

by Jason Wolverton

To say the Midland High girl’s track team is young would be the equivalent of a 3,200-meter understatement. With a standing roster of around 40 athletes, coach Diane Sugnet has only eight seniors – two of which weren’t even on the team last year.

And yet those seniors lead a very talented group that Sugnet believes can contend in the league, and at the very least, make this upcoming season an interesting one.

“I have a great group of seniors and a great group of young kids coming up,” she says. “I hope to be in contention for the Valley, but we have some weak areas we need to work on”

While Sugnet says field events are one of those areas, she hopes the team’s depth and talent in sprints and distance will make up for it. The team showed a glimpse of that talent at the Central Michigan University Indoor Meet earlier this season.

“I’m very happy with how we performed at CMU,” she says. “We did a very nice job.”

Leading the way for the Chemics at the CMU Indoor was the relay team comprised of seniors Kayla Prieto and Dana Koenig, sophomore Ashley Lang, and Freshman Jessica Jarema. The team took second in the 4 x 400-meter relay and third in the 4 x 200.

Sugnet says she expects her sprinters to be the team’s strongest performers throughout the season, with Prieto, one of the team’s captains, leading the way.

“Overall in the sprint group, she’s my senior leader,” Sugnet says. “She’s been my top sprinter all three years so far, and she’s a very hard worker.”

Seniors Chelsey Frank and Abby Mott are the other two Chemics captains and lead the middle distance and distance groups.

“They’re leaders and they’re hard workers,” Sugnet says of Frank and Mott. “They should have very good seasons.”

Junior Brenna Browne has looked strong in the hurdles, finishing third at CMU in the 60-meter event.

“Brenna improved tremendously in the hurdles, and I was very impressed with her,” Sugnet says. “She’s going to be a very nice surprise.”

In the field events, Sugnet is expecting good things from senior pole vaulter Blair Price and junior counterpart Kelsey Schiel, while Koenig is the team’s top long jumper.

“I think if we stay healthy, we’ll make a run for the Valley championship,” Sugnet says. “I don’t think people think we’re as good as we are. Last year we took fifth and that was disappointing. We’re definitely looking to move up.”

The Chemics will be in action next on April 17 when they host a triangle meet against Flint Northern and Saginaw High. The scheduled start time is 4 p.m.