What's the outlook for Livingston County boys track and field in 2024?

Three Livingston County boys track and field teams were able to get a look at their athletes against other competition by scheduling indoor meets before spring break.

Two of those teams, Charyl Stockwell and Fowlerville, will also be at the county’s first outdoor meet April 5 in Fowlerville.

Brighton, Hartland and Howell will begin their seasons April 9 with KLAA West dual meets.

From there, it’s a mad dash to get lineups together by regionals the weekend of May 17-18.

The county’s three Division 1 schools will once again be in the regional at Grand Ledge after traditionally competing at Milford. Pinckney will be in a Division 2 regional at Dearborn Divine Child, Fowlerville in a Division 2 regional at Corunna and Charyl Stockwell in a Division 3 regional at Stockbridge.

Brighton and Stockwell will be looking to defend regional championships.

Here’s a breakdown of the county’s six boys track and field teams:

Brighton

►Top returners: Marek Alent (Sr.), Owen Buckley (Jr.), Luke Campbell (Sr.), Bode Cooper (Sr.), Ian Cox (Sr.), Tyler Langley (Sr.), Sam Meriweather (Jr.), Mason Mullally (Sr.), Wyatt Nabozny (Sr.).

►Outlook: Brighton returns nine of 17 athletes who scored in individual events at regionals to help the Bulldogs win the championship. Campbell and Langley each had top-three finishes in the 1,600-meter run and 3,200. Eight of the returning regional placers cracked the top eight running the 800 or longer. The Bulldogs overwhelmed their regional competition in distance last season and could do so again. Brighton scored well in sprints, hurdles, pole vault and discus last year, but took big graduation hits in those events. A healthy Meriweather will give Brighton a contender in long jump and sprints, as will the addition of Ann Arbor Huron transfer Lawrence Wells. Mullally is the team’s top thrower, going 44 feet, 7 inches in shot put last season. Brighton has 140 athletes on its roster.

►Coach Amanda Bell: “Based on the numbers we have returning and from students who maybe weren’t initially part of that regional group, there’s a lot of people who are going to fill in those gaps. We see it as a realistic goal to win the regional championship.”

Charyl Stockwell

►Top returners: Owen Carlson (Sr.), Anthony Urbaniak (Sr.), Brody Urbaniak (Soph.), Nathan Vaske (Sr.).

►Outlook: The Sentinels hoped to have a larger turnout coming off their first regional championship, but have only 18 athletes on their roster after having 28 compete last year. The Urbaniak brothers are the only returning Sentinels who scored individually at regionals, with Anthony taking second in the 1,600 and 3,200 and Brody fifth in the 3,200. In addition to the graduation of 12 seniors, two athletes who had third-place finishes at regionals as juniors didn’t return. Vaske is a 12-foot pole vaulter who was injured late last season. With a solid distance group, Stockwell hopes to have a contending 3,200 relay team.

►Coach Ron Abner: “When we had an informational meeting several months ago, we had a ton of kids show up. To be down from last year will be a challenge. We’ve got a lot of kids who we don’t know what they are yet, so it will be interesting to see.”

Fowlerville

►Top returners: Adam Aeschliman (Sr.), Jacob Esch (Sr.), Brock Foster (Soph.), Lucas Moore (Jr.), Owen Presley (Sr.), Justice Wojcik (Jr.).

►Outlook: Fowlerville’s strength will be in sprints, with Presley having run 11.29 seconds for the 100 and Wojcik 11.69 last year. Aeschliman was a state-qualifying pole vaulter two years ago before suffering a season-ending injury in the first outdoor meet last season. Esch has a chance to qualify for state in both throws, having thrown 44-8.5 in shot put and 133-6 in discus last year. Sam Shrader, the team’s top high jumper and No. 2 hurdler as a freshman last year, switched to baseball. The Gladiators have 55 athletes.

►Coach Aaron Rickens: “We’ve really got to go after the basics of learning the sport of track and field with our entire program. It’s going to be great for our kids, especially in the future. In the past, it’s been a championship mentality right from the get-go. From 2015-2019, we were poised to win conference championships and finish in the top 15 in the state. This year, we need to grow and we need to grow fast.”

Hartland

►Top returners: Evan Bryan (Sr.), Cameron Cheetam (Sr.), Carson Cook (Sr.), Jack Costa (Jr.), Christian Fedewa (Sr.), Vance Larson (Sr.), Dylan Lawrence (Sr.).

►Outlook: Hartland has one of the top sprinters in the state in Cheetam, who ran 10.97 for the 100, 21.95 for the 200 and 50.63 for the 400 as a junior. With a lack of depth in the sprints, Hartland may not waste Cheetam’s talent in relays in big meets. The Eagles also return their top hurdler (Fedewa), high jumper (Lawrence), pole vaulter (Larson) and long jumper (Bryan). Cook ran Hartland’s fastest 800 and 1,600 last season.

►Coach Matt Gutteridge: “When we set up for a big meet, we try to put individuals in places where they can be successful. We’ve never been super deep where we can go compete for a title at some of these bigger meets. We really use those meets as opportunities to find success and feel like they might at a regional meet, setting them up in some events they might do at a regional meet with similar breaks so they’ve gone through that a couple times.”

Howell

►Top returners: Noah DeLand (Sr.), Logan Goethe (Sr.), Bobby Kanka (Jr.), Ryder Stam (Jr.), Noah Thames (Sr.), Drake Wallace (Jr.), Romen Williams (Jr.), Lucas Wood (Jr.).

►Outlook: Thames will be a workhorse for Howell in sprints, pole vault and relays. He cleared 13-6 in the pole vault twice during indoor season. Thames, DeLand and Goethe return from the top 1,600 relay team in the county last year. The fourth member of that team, senior Levi Curtin, isn’t running as he recovers from a knee injury. Williams will be the team’s top hurdler and high jumper. The Highlanders are eager to see what freshman Jack MacGregor can do on the track after a record-setting fall in cross country. He ran 4:26.54 in the 1,600 at the indoor state meet.

►Coach Chris Gadjev: “We’re definitely a young team this year. We’ve got 28 freshman boys out right now, so they’re definitely by far the largest group. We’ve got a lot of great athletes in that group coming out of middle school and from a variety of different sports.”

Pinckney

►Top returners: Evan Loughridge (Sr.), Jacob Miner (Jr.), Paul Moore (Sr.), Zach Newman (Jr.), Ethan Sandula (Sr.), Colton Spinelli (Sr.).

►Outlook: Pinckney returns one of the top distance groups in Michigan, led by Loughridge, Moore and Sandula. All three were in the top 16 at the state Division 2 cross country meet. The challenge will be finding points elsewhere, as the Pirates graduated their top sprinters, field event athletes and hurdler. Spinelli, who went 12-3 in pole vault last year, and Miner, who long jumped 18-6.75, lead the field event crew. Pinckney has 58 athletes.

►Coach Jim Wicker: “We’ve got some young kids we hope to develop and add to our program. I think the sprint crew has the potential to be better than they were last year to help even out the points and take some of the pressure off the distance kids.”

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Previewing 2024 Livingston County boys track and field