ROCHESTER HILLS >> In need of as many points as possible in the 4×400 relay to close Friday night, Rochester’s quartet of Mia Snellgrove, Ella Abraham, Imani Morgan and Lucy Cook won the event, earning the program its first Oakland County Meet championship in the process.

The Falcons finished that relay with a time of 4:05.24, beating out rival and runner-up Adams by just over three seconds. It gave them 10 points, moving Rochester ahead of Novi (54 points), and Lake Orion (52), who took fourth in the relay, with a grand total of 57.

“It was very exciting,” Falcons head coach Larry Adams said. “I knew we were going to be in it to the end, and I know I’ve got a good group in the 4×4. Even though we were replacing one runner who’s out of town on vacation, (our replacement and) my best short springer moved up to the 400 today and did a great job. I was really pleased with how they competed. It was fun. Everybody did a good job today getting points here and there.”

Novi jumped into the lead when sophomore Katelynn Egli took first in the 3,200-meter run (10:58.44), effectively making it a three-horse race between the Wildcats, Dragons and Falcons going into the last event of the night at Oakland University.

With its second-place finish in the 4×400, Adams jumped up a few places and captured fourth overall (46 points), followed by Royal Oak in fifth with 40. The rest of the top 10 in order was Farmington (34 points), Clarkston (31.5), Berkley (29), Cranbrook-Kingswood (27) and a tie for 10th between Troy Athens and Farmington Hills Mercy (26).

That same depth that won the Falcons the OAA Red/White championship paid dividends for them Friday night.

“We got some long jump points, shot and discus points … just some of our young kids stepping up and doing a nice job, getting points where we thought we could,” Adams said. “The depth is there, which is nice. I don’t want to race them to death because I want them ready (for states) next week, so they only did a couple things here or there tonight. I don’t really ever come to this meet to win it. If we do, it’s because we just happened to be on the right side place-wise.

Rochester took third last year with 49 points. The 2024 edition was won by Oak Park, who opted not to attend this year’s meet, the 66th annual. It’s difficult to say whether the Knights would have racked up 110 points as they did last season, but might not be a stretch either considering Oak Park won the regional hosted by the Falcons last Saturday by nearly 50 points.

Either way, that left plenty of other teams and athletes to take advantage in a number of events in which someone from the Knights may have otherwise been favored, such as relays or hurdles.

In the 100-meter dash, junior Nicole DeCoster won with a time of 12.43 seconds. “My block start wasn’t every good, but I kind of came back in the end,” she said.

Athens junior Maddy Piotrowski edged out DeCoster to win the 200 in a time of 25.68.

“I think I got out strong,” said Piotrowski, who skipped out on the 100, which she calls her favorite event, to rest her foot for an otherwise full day of competing. “It’s definitely hard in the first 100 with the wind and everything, but at the end there was a little bit of tail wind. That helped push me to the end.”

Rightfully, neither were bothered by potentially taking advantage of Oak Park’s absence, and as Piotrowski aptly put it, “we’ll see them at the state meet and be (competing) against them either way.”

As Piotrowski became the Red Hawks’ first winner in the 200, sophomore Abbey Neering became the first from Lake Orion to win the 400 (58.91). Along with Zoe Moss, Elisabeth Hetu and Lexi McDaniel, she also was part of a Dragons’ foursome that won the 4×200 relay for the first time at the county meet.

“I was feeling good about today,” Neering said. “It was a little cold, but I was just ready to run. Time-wise, it wasn’t my personal best, but I still pushed myself and got us to the front. It just feels good to be helping the team to win.”

Adams senior Kaitlyn Kauppila beat out Mercy’s Nora Gerzema and teammate El McMahan by less than a second to win the 800 (2:15.36).

Rochester got points from Lucy Cook’s win in the 1,600 (4:59.56), as well as finishes of second (Erica Proctor) and fourth (Imani Morgan) behind Ferndale senior Danah Pearson, who won the long jump (17-01.25). In addition, Falcons sophomore Ellie Mendoza came second to Cranbrook junior Eby Nosike, who won shot put with a throw of 40 feet, 9 1/4 inches.

In hurdles, Royal Oak junior Brooklyn Cotton won the 100 (15.21) and Oxford senior Taylor Brodeur captured first in the 300 (47.40).

Other results included West Bloomfield (Lauren Choice, Ese Uwedjojevwe, Lia Marshall and Kamryn Tatum) taking first in the 4×100 relay (48.42), Farmington’s Rachel Hibbs winning high jump (5-03), Lake Orion’s Olivia Bagdasarian winning pole vault (11-06), and Royal Oak’s Jada Ewell finishing in front of a tough field of competition in discus (139-04).