SHEPHERD — The Morenci Middle School Track and Field team sent two athletes to the Mid Michigan MEGASTAR Meet on June 5 in Shepherd.
Eighth graders Aubrie Sandusky and Jordan Ekins competed in the 800m run and shot put respectively. And both girls saved their best for last.
Sandusky had already set a new school record earlier in the season, but her 2:34:02s 800m run at the MEGASTAR Meet was over two seconds faster than her previous record.
Ekins threw her personal record in shot put with a toss of 35’11’’. Her previous best was 34’2.75’’ which she threw in the early part of the season.
Both girls placed sixth in their events for the small school division.
“MEGASTAR is described as ‘designed to get the best of the best middle school athletes’, ” head coach Erin Ekins said.
The MEGASTAR Meet has athletes from all schools competing against one another, but scoring is broken into two divisions. Competitors from middle schools that feed into Division 1 and 2 sized high schools are in the large school division, while competitors from Division 3 and 4 sized schools are in the small school division.
Middle school athletes can qualify for the meet throughout the season at any meet with an official timing system by hitting the qualifying standards set forth at the beginning of the season. These standards are set using results from previous years.
“We have had athletes who could have competed in years past, but this is the first year Morenci Middle School has attended both the MEGASTAR and Regionals,” Ekins said.
There were a few regional meets around the state, Morenci attended the meet in Concord with several local schools of similar size.
“We compared the qualifying standards for Regionals to our athletes’ marks after each meet and the kids had their goals all season,” Ekins said. “If they came close to that mark at any point in the season or were ranked in the top 10 for Regionals we took them to compete.”
The Mid Michigan MEGASTAR Meet was established more than 10 years ago and continues to grow in popularity.