ROCHESTER HILLS — Despite hailing from the same town, there hasn’t been much of a rivalry between Novi and Detroit Catholic Central, since the latter moved in 20 years ago.
Yet, anyway. If things keep happening like Friday’s finish at the 67th Annual Oakland County Track and Field Championships, they might start.
The Wildcats led in the boys standings early, then rallied late to pull out a five-point win over the Shamrocks and claim their third county title, first since 2021.
On the girls side, Oak Park did what it does, pulling away for a 35-point win over second-place Lake Orion, claiming its third title in four seasons, and ninth since 2014.
“I think we had this pretty magical little stretch in the middle with the 4×100, with the meet record followed up by Evan (Specht) winning the 400 about 10 minutes later. So I mean that was 20 points in about 10 minutes, which I think really, you know, gave us a bunch of momentum into the final few events,” Novi coach Danny Taylor said. “it was a long day, but yeah, kids performed fantastically.”
Specht won the 400 meters with a personal best 48.20 second run, but it was his second individual county title that clinched the win — and was odd to see at the same time.
With temperatures dropping after sunset thanks to a brisk wind, three finalists pulled out of the 200 — including last year’s state runner-up — and Specht ran a season-best 21.79 seconds to best the shrunken field, and grab eight points, and leapfrog the Wildcats back into first place.
“It’s not the first time at the county meet that this has happened, right? I mean, everybody has their eyes on next week. Chance (McNeill, last year’s runner-up) is still battling his toe,” Taylor said. “Everybody’s got big goals in mind, and so, of course, it’s a bummer when you don’t get, you know, all of the top guys out there. But again, kudos to Evan, you know he had an unbelievable day, and all the kudos to him.”
After that, with just one or two competitors from each of the contenders in the final two events, it became clear that nothing much was going to change from there on out.
“We pretty quickly realized, like, you know, we had not a lot was going to take place in the 3,200 and we weren’t running 4x400s we’re like, ‘Oh, this kind of is over,’ which, yeah, I mean, there was not a lot of end-of-meet drama in that sense,” Taylor said, “but you know, Oakland County titles are a super hard one to win, so however we get it, we’re super excited.”
The Oakland County Track and Field Championships were held at Oakland University on Friday, May 22, 2026 with Novi prevailing on the boys side and Oak Park for the girls. (A.M. ARRICK For MediaNews Group)
Specht ran the third leg of the Novi 4×100 relay squad — along with Trent Jackson-McGowan, Timothy Reeves and McNeill that broke the meet record with a 41.56 seconds.
Novi finished with 63 points, followed by CC’s 58, Rochester Adams with 54, Walled Lake Central with 42, Detroit Country Day with 41 and Oak Park rounding out the top six with 40.
There wasn’t much drama on the girls side, either, as the Knights of Oak Park rolled out their sprint depth, and won seven events. They finished with 97 points, ahead of Lake Orion’s 62, Adams’ 46, Novi’s 37, Rochester’s 35, and 34 for Farmington Hills Mercy, rounding out the top six.
It’s a somewhat differently constructed Oak Park team, though, still dominant in hurdles, but with more depth in the sprints.
“I think every year is different. Obviously, you know, this team is young and it’s composed a little bit different than usual for us. We’re usually, you know, may have a couple hurdlers, but we’re spread out across more events, the 4×800 is pretty good this year, pretty young, got some experience, though,” Oak Park coach Brandon Jiles said. “Every year is different for me, so you know, just happy to be back here. This really was a gut check for us to be able to come out with some tough conditions and compete against the best in the state.”
The Knights’ relay team of Leah Thomas, Rhian Jeffries, Mekhi Thompson and Nevaeh Burns won the 4×400 in a season-best 3:52.92, while Gee, Burns, Jordan McNeely and Aubrey Douglas won the 4×200 in a venue-record 1:38.83. McNeely, Gee, India Moultrie and Douglas won the 4×100 relay (47.50), as well.
Oak Park’s Payton Gee won the 100 (14.16) and 300 (46.43) hurdles, Jordan McNeely won the 200 (24.95) and Burns won the 400 (55.43)
Catholic Central’s Zacchaeus Brocks won the 110 hurdles in a meet-record 13.65 seconds, and followed it up with a win in the 300 hurdles (38.33).
“I mean, it (the wind) kind of pushed me back over the top of hurdles, so made me hit a few more hurdles I wanted to, but I just take what I can get today. It’s about it,” Brocks said of the steady wind that was either a head wind or cross wind, depending on the moment. “That’s all you could do.”
Walled Lake Central’s Case Lang won the pole vault (14-feet-0), North Farmington’s Jonathan Majcher won the high jump (6-6), Lakeland’s Andre Neumann won the shot put (58-1) and discus (162-5), and Catholic Central’s Gideon Gash won the long jump (22-6.5)
Farmington’s Herschel McCormack-Reamer and Rochester Adams’ Juhyung Lee split the 100-meter dash title, both posting times of 11.04 seconds, just fractions of a second ahead of Novi’s Trent Jackson-McGowan (11.04) in a photo finish.
Oak Park’s Sterling Diop, Alex Patterson, Aidyen High and Lorenzo Pruitt won the 4×200 relay (1:28.85), while the Knights’ Shondell Warren, Christian Collier, Kharon Thompson and High won the 4×400 (3:23.07).
Adams’ Gavin Wilkins won the 1,600 (4:28.56), Royal Oak Shrine’s Abenezer Cerone won the 800 (1:53.63), and Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest’s Nole Lorenzen won the 3,200 (9:21.89).
South Lyon’s Owen Moerdyke won the boys 100 meter( 16.91) and 200 meter (33.59) adaptive-wheelchair events, while Clarkston’s Allison Thurman won the girls 100 meter (39.03), 200 meter (1:18.21) and 400 meter (2:40.36) adaptive-wheelchair events.
Photo gallery from the 67th Annual Oakland County Track and Field Championship Meet
West Bloomfield’s Kamryn Tatum won the 100 dash (11.89) ahead of Oak Park’s Aubrey Douglas (12.14).
Adams’ El McMahan won the 1,600 (4:56.90) and 3,200 (10:48.97), Novi’s Katelynn Egli won the 800 (2:15.98)
Walled Lake Northern’s Anna Weinberger won the pole vault (11-6), Walled Lake Central’s Paige Haller won the high jump (5-3), Farmington Hills Mercy’s Magdalena Kandt won the shot put (39-3), Royal Oak’s Gabriella Munoz won the discus (130-11) and Waterford Kettering’s Ja’Nella Barber won the long jump (17-3.75).