June 14th, 2008
Jackson High School
Withington Stadium
Jackson, MI
A meet in which the fastest seniors
from the Midwest compete for one last
high school track and field victory.
The Midwest Meet of Champions is one of the longest running postseason high school track meets in the nation. It began in 1974 and several of its alumni have won medals at the Olympic Games or World championships. Earl Jones, Brian Diemer, Jim Spivey and Maicel Malone are some of the athletes who competed in the meet before having standout careers at the international level.
Jones, a 1982 graduate of Taylor (Mich.) Center High, and Diemer, a 1979 graduate of Grand Rapids (Mich.) South Christian High, won bronze medals in the 1984 Olympics in the men’s 800 meters and 3,000-meter steeplechase, respectively.
Spivey, who graduated from Bensenville Fenton High in Illinois in 1978, was a bronze medalist in the 1,500 in the 1987 World championships.
Malone, a 1987 graduate of Indianapolis North Central High, ran a leg on U.S. teams that won gold medals in the women’s 1,600-meter relay in the 1993 World championships and in the 1996 Olympics. She was also a member of silver-medal winning teams in the 1997 and 1999 World championships.
Grand Marshal - Gwen Wentland-Mikinski
Gwen Wentland-Miniski, is one of the nation’s top women high jumpers for the past 15 years. She won the girls’ high jump at the 1990 Midwest Meet of Champions as a Grand Blanc (Mich.) High senior and has ranked among the top 10 performers in the U.S. in 14 of the previous 15 seasons. Her highest rankings were third for the 1995, 1999, 2002 and 2003 seasons. She was the runner-up in the NCAA championships for Kansas State in 1993 and 1995, and also placed second in the USA Track & Field championships in 2002 and 2003. She has a career best of 6 feet 4¾ inches.
Honorary Referee - Lee Averill
Track and field has been an integral part of Lee Averill’s life for more than 50 years. Averill, 70, lettered in basketball, football and track at Milford High before running the sprints for Western Michigan University. The first three years of his coaching career were spent at Milford, followed by a year as an assistant at Western Michigan. He has been the head track and cross-country coach at West Bloomfield High for the past 43 years and in 2003 was inducted into the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association (MITCA) Hall of Fame.
Honorary Referee - Kermit Ambrose
Kermit Ambrose, 97, was a highly respected track and field and cross-country official in Michigan for more than 30 years following a noteworthy coaching tenure at Birmingham Seaholm High. He also was instrumental in the founding of the Michigan Interscholastic Track Coaches Association (MITCA), helped run the renowned Wolverine cross-country camp for 21 years, and in 1995 was presented the Distinguished Service Award by the Michigan High School Athletic Coaches Association.