By Emily Mlynarek ’14 | Staff Writer

For the third year in a row, the girls track and field team was crowned the Division 1 State Champions with a score of 76 points on Saturday, June 1.

This is the first time in over twenty years that a girls track team has won a three-peat State Championship victory, Head Coach Stephen Zaranek said.

“Few people ever have been able to say their team has done something like that and it’s really special,” said Kelsie Schwartz ’14.

The team’s season-long goal was to defend their title as State Champions, and put their greatest efforts into training for the meet, Zaranek said.

“We absolutely met our goals in an unbelievable way,” said Rachel Forcillo ’13. “It’s just amazing to see how much effort and heart everyone puts into their events as well as the support of their teammates.”

Zaranek said that placing in a variety of events contributed in the team’s overall success.

“We had points coming in from field events, sprints and distance,” said Zaranek. “This gave us a superb balance in scoring and gave us a huge win with one of the biggest point totals in the history of the meet.”

In the field events, Aubryn Samaroo ’13 placed fourth in the high jump with a height of 5 feet and 5 inches.

The 3,200 and 1,600 meter relay teams of Ersula Farrow ‘15, Lilly Pendy ’14, Christina Firl, Haley Meier and Hannah Meier, all ’13 both took first place with times of 9:01.98 and 3:52.32, respectively.

The best event of the meet was the individual 1,600 (one mile) race, Zaranek said. Not only did South’s runners take first, second and fourth place, but the race itself was the fastest at State Championship meets across the nation.

In this event, Hannah Meier broke her own meet record running 4:39.23 and taking first place. Haley Meier and Farrow also took second and fourth place with times of 4:42.43 and 4:51.96, respectively.

“Without a doubt the standout was Hannah Meier, who was a quadruple state champion,” said Zaranek. “It is extraordinarily rare for that to happen.”

In her two individual events (1,600 and 800 meters), Hannah Meier set two new state records by breaking her own records as well as winning first place in her relay events (1,600 and 3,200 meter).

“The state meet certainly capped off a spectacular season,” said Zaranek.

Zaranek said the success at the State Championships could not have been achieved without all of the hard work the team has put in for the last three years.

“I am proud of the leadership and I am very proud of the team camaraderie,” said Zaranek.  “Mostly how all of our kids on the team gave with their hearts. It was a team effort.”

Although the team will be losing several extraordinary graduating seniors, Zaranek said he looks forward to next season.

“We may not be at the level we have been at for the last three years winning all these state titles, but we are definitely going to have a solid team next year,” said Zaranek.

In order to achieve another title, the underclassmen will have to step up and train hard in the off season, Shwartz said.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what our team can do without the seniors who were so critical to our team winning this year,” said Schwartz. “It will be interesting to see who steps up and what underclassmen will have to offer.”

Most of the team participates in cross country in the fall and most runners will train daily throughout the upcoming summer, Forcillo said.

“We begin to rack up some cross country miles in the summer of 25, 30 or even 40 miles of cumulative running to prepare for the upcoming season,” said Forcillo.

While the team looks forward to next year, they also look back on the success of this season.

“This is absolutely one of the finest teams in any sport we have ever had here at Grosse Pointe South,” said Zaranek. “It has been an honor to coach them. It was a tremendous amount of fun to coach all 105 of them.”

[info] The full meet results are available here. [/info]