Girls track: Huskies bring home MAC-White title with 'historic implications'
For the first time since 2018, and only the third time in school history, the Port Huron Northern girls track and field team has brought home a share of the MAC-White title after defeating Fraser Tuesday afternoon in dramatic fashion.
“I told the girls on Monday that it might come down to the 4x400-meter relay,” head coach Paul Nevado said. “And we talked about the historical implications of, ‘Hey, we’ve only ever won this two times in our school history, we’ve got a shot.’
“Last year we were in the same boat where it came down to that last meet and last year [Fraser was] just better than us, so to be able to come back this year, especially with our group of seniors, and be able to beat them, words can’t describe it.”
The Huskies won the final league meet of the season 71-66 to finish in a three-way tie with Fraser and Utica. And fortunately, it didn’t come down to the final event. Instead, senior Maggie Monaghan and sophomore Kayla Faust finished first and second, respectively, in the 200-meter dash to secure the team’s victory.
What’s even more impressive, however, is that Northern is by far the smallest team in the league with less than 30 athletes, while the other five teams carry rosters on average larger than 50 athletes.
“It speaks to our girls’ hard work and dedication all year,” Nevado said. “We’re not the biggest team but we can go out and have [several girls] run three or four events and compete at a high level.”
In addition to the 200, Monaghan won the 100-meter dash (12.7 seconds), the 300-meter hurdles (47.9), and high jump (5 feet, 0 inches).
“As a coach it’s super easy and convenient to be able to put her in any event and almost guarantee a first place,” Nevado said of Monaghan. “She's been really dominant in hurdles this year, but yesterday we were able to put her in the open 100 and 200 because we could get some more points.”
Faust joined Monaghan among the top of the 100, taking third in the 100 (13.5) as well.
“We had some girls who surprised me performance-wise,” Nevado said. “Faust (in her first year), has done a really nice job the last couple of weeks. She’s just doing some awesome things in the sprints.”
Senior Jayde Ullenbruch finished second in high jump at 4-6 and won long jump with a personal best of 16-11, as well as the 100-meter hurdles (18.0).
Nevado also noted first-year junior Jessica Pospishel who helped the Huskies to a full sweep in shot put by taking third with a throw of 28-7. Senior Mya Freeman won the event at 34-5, followed by fellow senior Carly Moats in second at 30 feet.
“It’s her first year coming out and she’s been pretty consistent in getting us that second or third place in some of these throwing events,” Nevado said.
And then there’s the senior distance duo of Reese Georgia and Dylan Pasia. They went 1-2 in the 800-meter run, finishing in 2:30 and 2:33, respectively. Georgia also finished second in the 1600-meter run at 5:38, while Pasia placed third in the 400-meter dash (1:05.8) along with freshman Isabella Nestle who took second (1:04.7).
With boosted confidence, the Huskies will compete at the Marysville Invitational this Friday before next week's MAC-White and regional meets.
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