STATE TRACK: Kentwood’s Warner grabs gold

He ran with something to prove.

And by Friday evening at the Class 4A state track and field meet at Mount Tahoma High, it was clear Steven Warner had made his point: the Kentwood High senior is, in fact, one of the state’s elite hurdlers.

Now Warner finally has a gold medal to show for it.

Warner torched the Mount Tahoma High track Friday afternoon, delivering a scorching time of 14.23 – a personal best – in the 110 hurdles to bring home the state crown.

“I am just so excited. I finally got my state championship,” said Warner, who took third at state in the 110 hurdles a year ago.

But Warner didn’t just win the gold, he blew away the competition. His time of 14.23 wasn’t only a personal best, but also considerably faster than second-place finisher Cory Okazaki of Emerald Ridge, who clocked a 14.51. Warner ran a 14.53 in the preliminary round, which was the second-fastest time.

The golden performance also provided Warner with a bit of redemption. A week earlier during the district meet, the KW senior was disqualified from the 300 hurdles. On the final stretch of that race, an opponent in a nearby lane came in contact with Warner’s hurdle, causing it to bounce down to the ground and spring back up. A fraction of a second later, the Kentwood senior came crashing to the ground after attempting to clear the moving hurdle. He entered the district meet with the top time in the 300 hurdles.

On Friday, however, there were no moving hurdles for Warner to traverse.

And the result was all gold.

“To work toward something like this for three years and to finally get it is just awesome,” said Warner. “Last year, I hurt my hamstring and didn’t get to run most of the year until the end. And then, this year, I did it again. But it was early enough to where I was able to get everything back together because my times were dropping a lot each week.”

Always a class act, Warner credited his coach, Rhamu McCoy, for much of his success.

“It just shows that we have the best (hurdler) coach in the state,” Warner said.

McCoy, a 1992 Kentwood High graduate, actually held the school record in the 110 hurdles until Warner broke the mark last week with a 14.40 time.

After Warner’s win, McCoy beamed like a proud father.

“It’s hard to put it into words because … if there is anybody that I wanted to break my record, it would be Steven,” said McCoy. “I was hoping he would break both of them (McCoy’s other school record is in the 300).

“He was impeded (last week), but the judges won’t call it that.”

But Warner wasn’t alone among Kentwood standouts during the state meet. Junior Tim Pettit brought home a bronze medal in the 800, stopping the clock in 1:53.29.

“This is a kid who 18 months ago had not done organized sports in his life,” said Kentwood coach Steve Roche. “He continues to shock and amaze us.”

Though Pettit was pleased, he took the third-place finish in stride.

“There’s still room for improvement,” he said.

Kentwood’s top performance among females came from its 4 x 400 relay team of Alena Davis, Kyra Gaines, Megan McNally and Dana Wareham, which took third with a time of 4:00.48.

Kentwood’s Holly DeHart added a fifth-place finish in the 200 meter (25.19) while Wareham grabbed sixth place in the 400 (59.00).

• ALSO: Other Kentwood placers included: Jamie Larsen (11th in the pole vault); Alyx Toiana (12th in the shot put) and Kailey Ulland (16th in the 3,200). For the boys, Darrius Coleman added an eighth-place finish in the 110 hurdles; the 4 x 400 relay team (Ricardo Tucker, Kevin Bateman, Warner and Pettit) took seventh and Cody Fishel finished 11th in the high jump. … Kentwood’s Sammy Brooks took third in the wheelchair discus (15-02.75) and sixth in the 100-meter wheelchair race (34.74). … Laura Tesch proved to be Kentridge’s top placer, taking fourth in the high jump (5-4). Also placing for the Chargers was Katie Lake (12th in the long jump) and Amelia Carpenter (15th in the pole vault). Luke Carpenter, Kentridge’s lone boy to qualify for state, took 16th in the pole vault.