Andrew Stockton, center, of Grass Lake High School, is one of the top sprinters in Jackson County.
Photo, story by Jeff Steers
Exponent special writer
Last year the Grass Lake High School boys’ track and field team dominated the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 3 state finals, winning the state championship by doubling the points total of the second-place team.
The Warriors marched up to the podium a number of times during the 2021 finals.
Sprinter Andrew Stockton was on the podium twice and returns to a team without a number of medal-winning athletes.
He would like to return to the podium at the state finals again and is looking to do so using knowledge learned last year through a solid senior class.
“I learned last year (from the senior class) to push myself to get better every day,” Stockton said. “After the first meet of the season (in 2021) we knew we had something special.”
The Warriors won a number of invitationals in 2021 and eventually won the regional and state titles.
“We knew we could achieve something more each week,” Stockton said of 2021. (more below)
Stockton was on the state-winning 400-meter relay team and medaled in the 800-meter relay team.
But the junior knows that what happened last year has nothing to do with 2022.
“I got a slow start because of the weather,” Stockton said. “I keep getting better every meet.”
Stockton is one of the top sprinters in the Cascades Conference as he is second in the 100-meter dash (11.47), second in the 200-meter dash (23.15), and the Warriors are ranked No. 1 in the conference in the 800-meter relay (1:33.90).
Stockton nipped Napoleon’s Holden Van Poppel in the 200-meter finals at the East Jackson Dome Classic Track and Field competition May 13. Van Poppel is currently 2/100th of a second ahead of Stockton in the 200-meter dash.
“You get a lot of great competition at this event,” Stockton said of the event at East Jackson.
Stockton has goals of returning to the state finals as a sprinter and with his sprint relay teams.
