One of the staples of spring in Southwest Michigan returns on Friday as the St. Joe/Benton Harbor Rotary Club will hold its annual Track and Field Meet at Steve Upton Field at Dickinson Stadium at St. Joseph High School.
The Rotary Track Meet helps fund the Rotary Club’s annual Rotary Track Scholarship program. The event has been held since 1958, with the exception of 2020 because of the pandemic, and until recently used to alternate between Filstrup Field in Benton Harbor or at Dickinson Stadium in St. Joe.
A total of 15 area schools are scheduled to take part in the competition. Benton Harbor, Berrien Springs, Bridgman, Countryside Academy, Coloma, Covert, Dowagiac, Lakeshore, New Buffalo, Niles, Our Lady of the Lake, River Valley, South Haven, St. Joseph, Watervliet. Both the St. Joseph boys and girls teams both ranked in the top 10 in the state, the boys are #7 and the girls are ranked #5. Berrien Springs boys is ranked #6 in Division 2, and are the defending state champions. River Valley’s boys team is also ranked #6 in Division 4.
Athletes will be competing against each other, and no team scores are taken. The top three finishers in each event will take home a medal.
Admission for the event is $5 for adults and $2 for students.
Preliminaries will begin at 4:30 p.m. as well as field events. The finals start at 6:00 p.m. following the recognition of the scholarship recipients.
This year’s scholarship recipients: Allison Weigand of Berrien Springs, Claire Caplea of St. Joseph, and Vincent DeStazio from Our Lady of the Lake.
Results for the meet will be posted live on Athletic.net for fans to follow along with either at Dickinson Stadium on Friday or at home.
