Boys track wins league title outright

The Lake Orion boys track team coasted to the league title, while the girls squad finished in a tie for third at the OAA I meet at LOHS on May 23.
The boys team, which won the outright title by also going undefeated (7-0) in the dual meet portion of the league, scored 115, to top Southfield by more than 30 points.
The Dragons had individual winners in Ben Hopkins (high jump at 6?3?) and Rob Shinouskis (1600 run at 4:35.11 and 3200 run at 9:46.48).
Alex Hare and Pat Pawlak finished third and fourth in the high jump to add points, and Drew Collette and Max Hock added strong finishes in the 3200 for LO.
The Dragons? depth was obvious as LO scored in nearly every event.
‘The strength of this team was its depth, having two or three athletes in each event that could score,? said boys coach Stan Ford.
Ford also pointed to having athletes in every event as something that made the league champions stand out.
‘If another team was strong in the sprints, we would beat them in the distance events, and field events. If they were strong in the distance, we could beat them in the sprints,? he said. ‘It resulted in us being able to beat some very strong teams and finish the season undefeated.?
‘We had a great dual meet team,? Ford added. ‘A lot of teams that can and will beat us in the county or state meet, we could beat in a dual meet.
At the league meet, the girls were paced by Alex Hartley’s strong effort in the discus (138-7), but their 69 points were well back of league champion Clarkston’s 103.
Both teams also competed at the Oakland County meet in South Lyon on May 26.
The boys scored 39 points to finish fifth, while the girls had 25 points for a seventh place finish. Farmington Hills Harrison won the boys competition, while Clarkston was again a victor in the girls competition.
Shinouskis won the 3200 run, while Collette took third in that event. Hopkins flew to second place in the high jump for LO.
Andy Tonkovitch took third in the 300 hurdles, and Kyle Johns added a fifth place showing in the pole vault.
The girls were led by Hartley’s first- and fourth-place finishes in the discus and shot put, respectively. Sara Lieblein added a fifth-place finish in the 3200 run.
A number of LO athletes will compete at the state meet at East Kentwood this weekend.