STATE CHAMPS: Grosse Pointe South Wins Girls Track Crown

For the second straight year, the girls track and field team won the Division 1 state championship.

Grosse Pointe South finished first at the state meet in East Kentwood on Saturday. In doing so, the Blue Devils’ 3200-meter relay team also set a national record with a time of eight minutes, 48.29 seconds, according to MLive.

The Blue Devils also won the .

The following information was supplied by Grosse Pointe South girls track and field coach Steve Zaranek:

The Grosse Pointe South girl's track team successfully defended their state division 1 title on Saturday with one of the highest point totals in finals history.  

South won the meet with 77.5 points.  Ann Arbor Huron placed second with 64 followed by Rockford (35), Rochester Adams (33) and Saline (33).  

Over 90 of the 150 division 1 teams were represented at the East Kentwood finals site.

Without a doubt the race of the day was the national record setting 3200 (4x800) relay win by South's Kelsie Schwartz, Ersula Farrow, Haley Meier, and Hannah Meier.  

The relay team broke the national record by running a 9:48.2 (the old record was 9:49.7) and broke the state record by an astounding 17 seconds (old record was 9:05.4.  South is the only Michigan team to ever break the 9 minute barrier.

All four came back to run the 1600 led by the 1-2-3 finish of Hannah Meier, Haley Meier, and Ersula Farrow with Kelsie Schwartz placing sixth. No other team had ever placed four runners in any event or ever finished 1-2-3 in any event. Schwartz then came back to place in the 3200 run.  In all, South scored 51 points in the distance events.

Adding to the point total was the South 4x100 sprint relay team of Mia Perkins, Cierra Rice, Andrea DiCresce and Caitlin Moore who ran a season best 49.5. Moore followed with a 5th place finish in the 200 dash becoming the first South girl in history to place in that event. More points were added as Aubryn Samaroo cleared 5'4" in the high jump to place 7th.

South's 4x200 relay of Perkins, Christy Ford, DiCresce and Moore lowered the school record to 1:44.1.  Outstanding performances came from Madi Kaiser in the pole vault (9'3") and Emily Jackman in the discus (104').

South finished the day with a victory in the 4x400 relay as Moore, Farrow, Meier, and Meier teamed up for the win with the second fastest time in South history (3:53).

South runners have captured three division 1 state titles in the past 12 months  -  track & field in 2011 and 2012 along with the 2011 cross country title.