Country Day Girls Win State Title in Track

The state championships in track and field were held across Michigan on Saturday, and the Country Day boys and girls nearly swept Division 2 in Grand Rapids. 

Brittany Mann and Kendall Baisden helped the girls win the state team title. The Yellowjackets finished with 58 points, 14 ahead of Dearborn Divine Child who finished in second (44 points).

The results of the top two teams were reversed from last year’s championships. In 2010, Divine Child beat Country Day by 12 points to win the state title. Country Day has been on a winning streak recently, .

This year, strong performances from Mann and Baisden were enough to put Country Day over the top.

Mann finished in first place in discus and shot put. Her discus throw of 141 feet, 10 inches beat her closest opponent by over 16 feet. In shot put, she edged out Jabria Hill from Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills by just two feet (41 to 39). 

Baisden had an even better day.

Baisden set a new lower peninsula Division 2 record in the 100-meter dash. Her time of 11.92 seconds was .07 seconds faster than Battle Creek Lakeview Erica Mann’s 2006 record of 11.99. But Baisden wasn’t done there. She also won individual titles in the 200-meter dash (24.56) and 400-meter dash (55.12).

East Lansing (56 points) won the boys Division 2 crown but Country Day wasn’t that far behind. The boys were 16 points back in third place, tied with Avondale (40 points).

The Yellowjackets did manage to capture two individual titles. Dartis Willis tied the Division 2 finals record in the high jump, with a jump of 6'11". That tied the mark Brian Sherwood from Fowlerville set back in 2002.

Country Day's John Hill won the 100-meter dash by a hair, taking first by a single tenth of a second over two other runners. Hill ran a 10.79 and Linden’s Ted Parcher, and Grand Rapids Catholic’s Bronson Hill both ran a 10.80. 

2011 was a big improvement for the boys who only finished with 18 points last year at the state finals.