![\"Runners\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/TOP-L-67thOaklandCountyTFchamps-0522-64.jpg\")
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)<\/p>\nROCHESTER HILLS \u2014 Despite hailing from the same town, there hasn\u2019t been much of a rivalry between Novi and Detroit Catholic Central, since the latter moved in 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
Yet, anyway. If things keep happening like Friday\u2019s finish at the 67th Annual Oakland County Track and Field Championships, they might start.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we had this pretty magical little stretch in the middle with the 4\u00d7100, 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,\u201d Novi coach Danny Taylor said. \u201cit was a long day, but yeah, kids performed fantastically.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 and was odd to see at the same time.<\/p>\n
With temperatures dropping after sunset thanks to a brisk wind, three finalists pulled out of the 200 \u2014\u00a0including last year\u2019s state runner-up \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019s runner-up) is still battling his toe,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s got big goals in mind, and so, of course, it\u2019s a bummer when you don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pretty quickly realized, like, you know, we had not a lot was going to take place in the 3,200 and we weren\u2019t running 4x400s we\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, this kind of is over,\u2019 which, yeah, I mean, there was not a lot of end-of-meet drama in that sense,\u201d Taylor said, \u201cbut you know, Oakland County titles are a super hard one to win, so however we get it, we\u2019re super excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
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)<\/p>\n
Specht ran the third leg of the Novi 4\u00d7100 relay squad \u2014 along with Trent Jackson-McGowan, Timothy Reeves and McNeill that broke the meet record with a 41.56 seconds.<\/p>\n
Novi finished with 63 points, followed by CC\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s 62, Adams\u2019 46, Novi\u2019s 37, Rochester\u2019s 35, and 34 for Farmington Hills Mercy, rounding out the top six.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a somewhat differently constructed Oak Park team, though, still dominant in hurdles, but with more depth in the sprints.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every year is different. Obviously, you know, this team is young and it\u2019s composed a little bit different than usual for us. We\u2019re usually, you know, may have a couple hurdlers, but we\u2019re spread out across more events, the 4\u00d7800 is pretty good this year, pretty young, got some experience, though,\u201d Oak Park coach Brandon Jiles said. \u201cEvery 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knights\u2019 relay team of Leah Thomas, Rhian Jeffries, Mekhi Thompson and Nevaeh Burns won the 4\u00d7400 in a season-best 3:52.92, while Gee, Burns, Jordan McNeely and Aubrey Douglas won the 4\u00d7200 in a venue-record 1:38.83. McNeely, Gee, India Moultrie and Douglas won the 4\u00d7100 relay (47.50), as well.<\/p>\n
Oak Park\u2019s 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)<\/p>\n
Catholic Central\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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\u2019s about it,\u201d Brocks said of the steady wind that was either a head wind or cross wind, depending on the moment. \u201cThat\u2019s all you could do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walled Lake Central\u2019s Case Lang won the pole vault (14-feet-0), North Farmington\u2019s Jonathan Majcher won the high jump (6-6), Lakeland\u2019s Andre Neumann won the shot put (58-1) and discus (162-5), and Catholic Central\u2019s Gideon Gash won the long jump (22-6.5)<\/p>\n
Farmington\u2019s Herschel McCormack-Reamer and Rochester Adams\u2019 Juhyung Lee split the 100-meter dash title, both posting times of 11.04 seconds, just fractions of a second ahead of Novi\u2019s Trent Jackson-McGowan (11.04) in a photo finish.<\/p>\n
Oak Park\u2019s Sterling Diop, Alex Patterson, Aidyen High and Lorenzo Pruitt won the 4\u00d7200 relay (1:28.85), while the Knights\u2019 Shondell Warren, Christian Collier, Kharon Thompson and High won the 4\u00d7400 (3:23.07).<\/p>\n
Adams\u2019 Gavin Wilkins won the 1,600 (4:28.56), Royal Oak Shrine\u2019s Abenezer Cerone won the 800 (1:53.63), and Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest\u2019s Nole Lorenzen won the 3,200 (9:21.89).<\/p>\n
South Lyon\u2019s Owen Moerdyke won the boys 100 meter( 16.91) and 200 meter (33.59) adaptive-wheelchair events, while Clarkston\u2019s Allison Thurman won the girls 100 meter (39.03), 200 meter (1:18.21) and 400 meter (2:40.36) adaptive-wheelchair events.<\/p>\n