ROCKFORD – Vernall Lee’s sophomore year at Detroit King started with a broken ankle and ended with him standing on top of a podium at the MHSAA Division 1 track and field state championship meet on Saturday, May 30.
Lee, a running back for the Crusaders football team, suffered a broken ankle in the first month of the 2025 season, adding to the injuries in King’s backfield after Michael Dukes picked up a knee injury. Lee spent the rest of the fall recovering in preparation for the indoor and outdoor track seasons.
His broken ankle healed rapidly, allowing Lee to return for part of the indoor track season and all of the outdoor season. Lee consistently put up top times in the state in the 100-meter dash throughout the spring to automatically qualify for the state meet.
“I’ve been doubted a lot from the beginning of the season because of my ankle,” Lee said Saturday.
Lee ran the fastest time in the preliminaries, finishing in 10.74 seconds to earn the middle lane in the championship race. He beat out defending state champion Samson Gash of Novi Detroit Catholic Central by one-hundredth of a second.
Gash, a Michigan State football 2026 signee, tweaked an injury during the preliminary race, forcing him to jog the final and take him out of consideration as a repeat champion. Gash remained in the race rather than scratching to still earn a team point for CC, which finished in second place overall behind East Kentwood.
Lee and the other six healthy runners had similar starts and stayed neck and neck for the first 90 meters of the 100m championship. Lee had the strongest finish to pull ahead by a hair and finish with a time of 10.76 seconds, narrowly beating out Belleville’s Peyton Trammer (10.77) and Grand Haven’s Keiavion Korenstra (10.79).
At first, Lee had no idea who won the race.
“I had no idea, because [Trammer] was right next to me,” Lee said.
With his hands on top of his head, Lee looked at the video scoreboard and lifted both arms in the air when his name popped up first, confirming he was King’s first-ever state champion in the 100m.
It was a rapid rise for Lee, who wasn’t sure what his career would look like in the immediate aftermath of breaking his ankle.
“We let him rest,” King track coach Anthony Jackson said. “I didn’t even anticipate him running indoors. He came out to give it a shot and we just ran real slow and got him back in shape. We stayed in touch with his doctors, and when we finally got clearance, here we are now.”
Malise Brown, Laila Hawkins deliver for Cass Tech
Detroit Cass Tech girls track and field had its best finish to a season in 15 years, finishing runner-up to four-time defending state champion Oak Park in a battle that came down to the final races of the meet.
The Technicians were led by seniors Laila Hawkins and Malise Brown, two close friends who both picked up their first individual state championships and assisted with high finishes in the relays.
Hawkins started by winning the 100m hurdles with a time of 14.15 seconds. Hawkins came back and won the race after finishing runner-up in 2025.
“She came off last year hungry,” Cass Tech girls track coach Ravyn Baxter said. “She went into indoor states and became a champion. She went to Adidas Nationals and was a champion. That really helped motivate her and show her that she could do it. I think that propelled her to here right now.”
Malise Brown faced a stiffer field in the 200m. West Bloomfield’s Kamryn Tatum, who already won state titles Saturday in the 100m and 4x100m relay, entered the race looking to win her fourth straight title in the 200m.
“I had to break that streak,” Brown said.
The Cass Tech senior broke it with one of the best 200m races in state history. Brown narrowly beat Tatum, running a 23.13 compared to 23.31 for Tatum. Brown’s time is the second-fastest 200m by a girl in state history and the sixth-fastest time in that race across the country in the 2026 outdoor season.
Brown, an Alabama A&M track commit, shrieked and ran across the crowded football field to celebrate with her teammates after her name popped up first. Brown danced, called herself the G.O.A.T. and bear-hugged Baxter, who had proud tears in her eyes.
“I’m really high off the excitement right now,” Brown said. “I’m just so proud of myself. I had a lot of people believing in me and supporting me throughout my entire journey.”
Brown and Hawkins have pushed to bring the best out of each other over the past four years. Their journey ended at the top of the podium at Rockford.
“We are like Shaq and Kobe,” Brown said, referencing the dominant NBA duo for the early 2000s Los Angeles Lakers.
“Not only are they best friends, but they are the ones that keep this team uplifted,” Baxter said.
Katie Blue shatters Pole Vault record, shocks in 300m hurdles
One of the least surprising results from Division 1 was Grand Ledge pole vaulter Katie Blue putting up a dominant performance.
Blue ended her indoor season with a pole vault of 14½ feet at New Balance Nationals in March. She continued posting top-of-the-state measurements for the Comets in the spring.
Her dominance continued Saturday as she shattered the state title meet record. Blue recorded a 14-0 pole vault, finishing nine inches higher than Grand Haven’s Izzy Robbins in second place. She crushed the previous state meet record, held by Greenville’s Landon Kemp in 206, by eight inches.
“I went into this kind of expecting pole vault,” Blue said. “Like, that’s my thing.”
The surprise came later in the afternoon in the 300m hurdles. Blue qualified but raced in the second-to-last heat rather than the final, fastest heat.
She set the time to beat with a 43.14 to win her heat. She then stood at the finish line and watched the next eight runners. The final heat crossed the finish line around 43 seconds, but it was too close to tell a winner with a naked eye.
Blue, and the rest of the crowd, turned to the videoboard. East Kentwood’s Aaliyah Bailey popped up first with a time of 43.70, meaning Blue pulled off the rare feat of winning a state title while not racing in the “fast” heat.
She went a full second below her previous personal best in her first time running the 300 hurdles at the state meet.
“I thought since I was the fastest in my heat I wouldn’t be pushed enough, but this is so awesome,” Blue said.
Zacchaeus Brocks finishes career in dominant fashion
Catholic Central senior Zacchaeus Brocks missed the end of his junior track season with a toe injury, and was determined to make a mark as a senior.
Brocks started his Saturday by breaking the all-time state record in the 110m hurdles during the preliminary rounds. He followed that with a time of 13.40 seconds in the finals to win his first individual state title.
“I know I had it in me, so I had to put the pieces together and do it,” Brocks said.
The Ohio State commit then anchored CC’s 4×100 relay and pulled away late for his second state title contribution.
He finished his day with a third medal, posting the second-best time in Michigan history in the 300m hurdles, winning gold with a time of 36.33.
“God sat me down last year, humbled me a little bit and I was able to get good, get recovered and feel better,” Brocks said. “This is just one of my goals. We had to come out here and leave a legacy in the state of Michigan.”
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Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit King’s Vernall Lee recovers from broken ankle to become state’s fastest
Reporting by Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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