DELTA TWP. — Katie Blue last competed in the Greater Lansing Honor Roll meet as a freshman in 2023.
Now a senior, the Grand Ledge standout made the most of her chance to finally compete again in the showcase meet featuring some of Greater Lansing’s top track and field athletes.
Blue was one of the standouts at the meet, finishing as the champion in both the pole vault and 100 hurdles and the runner-up in the 300 hurdles in the meet Tuesday, May 26 at Waverly High School.
Blue, who missed last year’s Honor Roll meet due to an ankle sprain and was impacted when the showcase was cancelled in 2024, set a meet record in the pole vault by clearing 13-feet, 1 ¼ inches. She exceeded the previous record of 13-1 set by former Okemos standout Sophia Franklin in 2017. Blue also had personal-best times of 14.97 seconds in the 100 hurdles and 44.29 seconds in the 300 hurdles.
“I really wanted to jump 14, which I obviously didn’t do, but I broke the meet record so I can’t be mad about it,” said Blue, who will continue her track career at Michigan State.
The strong Honor Roll meet adds to a strong spring for Blue, who was a Division 1 regional champion in the 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and pole vault.
“It’s been really eventful,” Blue said. “I’m glad I’ve been able to excel in all my events and not just pole vault even though that’s my main event.”
Like Blue, Okemos standout junior Natalia Hawks is used to having busy meets and was a Division 1 regional champion in the 100, 200 and long jump May 15 at Grand Ledge. She ran just one event in her final tune-up before the Saturday, May 30 state meet and won the 200 with a personal-best time of 24.98 seconds.
“It was definitely something that I hadn’t done before,” Hawks said. “Going out there with full energy and just being able to give all my effort was really good. It really made that difference and it made me PR today.”
Pewamo-Westphalia’s Jenna Spitzley was a double individual winner Tuesday and won the shot put and discus. Spitzley had a personal-best throw of 38-9 in the shot put and won the discus with a throw of 144-0. P-W also had the girls long jump champion in Sidney Thelen.
Corunna had three individual boys winners in Isaac Jacobs (200), Braden Hartsuff (110 hurdles) and Logan Herrick (300 hurdles).
Honoring family
For Morrice senior Oliver Long, Tuesday’s meet was about more than getting ready for the state meet. The Honor Roll meet was also about honoring his late uncle Doug Long, a former track coach at Ovid-Elsie who died in April.
Long set a school record in the shot put with his throw of 61-3 while taking first in the event at the Honor Roll meet.
“It’s crazy, especially today when we’re honoring my uncle, it can’t be put into words how much this means,” Long said.
“… Coming into today I knew I had to put up something good for him.”
The shot put win kept Long unbeaten in the event this spring, Long, a Saginaw Valley commit who is the reigning Division 4 state champion in the shot put and was 15th in the event this winter at the Nike Indoor Nationals, surpassed 60-feet in the shot put for just the second time with Tuesday’s throw.
Long has dedicated a lot of time this spring to baseball but said the focus this week has been on ramping up his work in the shot put and discus as he aims to end his high school career as a state champion. Long is also on a mission to set school records in both events at the Division 4 finals.
“I had to start taking shot and disc more serious so going into this week I knew I had to start amping up,” Long said. “I finally got a good (throw) out.”
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway and Bluesky @briancalloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Grand Ledge’s Katie Blue among standouts at Honor Roll track meet
Reporting by Brian Calloway, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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