BY DAN STICKRADT
CORRESPONDENT
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
FLINT — When growing up, Nikole Sargent heard stories among stories involving sports.
Around the dining room table, in the car, from the bleachers— you name it.
Seemingly, everyone in her family is or was an athlete at one time.
“Sports…that’s usually what we talk about,” laughed the 18-year-old from Fenton who is graduating from Flint Powers Catholic High School with honors. “All the time, wherever we went.”
That’s understandable.
Sargent is graduating from Powers Catholic with a 3.94 GPA and multiple accolades in volleyball and track and field, where she is amongst the state’s very best.
Her twin brother, Noah, is a football player and track athlete who will compete in football at Saginaw Valley State next fall.
Sargent’s older sister, Jordan, was an All-State soccer player at Powers Catholic and later played soccer for Division I Oakland University.
Nikole Sargent’s mom, Tracy, played tennis, basketball and track at Fenton High School back in the 1980s, while her father, Mike, was a standout in football and track at Powers, also in the 1980s. In fact, he was a 60-plus footer in the shot put and was the Class A state champion in 1984 and later competed for MSU.
“I think I know where she got it from,” joked Mike Sargent.
Nikole Sargent is also one of the state’s best — all-time, that is — in the throws. Her efforts in 2016 rank amongst Michigan’s top-10 all-time list in both shot put and discus. Working under throws coach Mike Stewart, a legend in the Flint area track scene who has coached 27 state champions at a variety of high schools, has helped Sargent reach elite status this season.
Entering the regional weekend, Sargent, who won the Division 2 shot put state title as a junior and D-3 state title in the shot put as a sophomore, had posted a 47-9.75 in the shot put and 152-9 in the discus.
To put that in perspective, only four different competitors on 10 occasions have gone further in the shot put with the all-time record coming from Byron Center’s Mary Angell in 2007, a 49-6 toss in a dual meet.
Over in the discus, where Sargent has yet to place in the state meet, the all-time Michigan mark came from Grosse Ile’s Alana Robinson in 1998, a 166-5 effort at the Midwest Meet of Champions. Only nine Michigan competitors on 27 occasions have gone further than Nikole Sargent’s 152-9 effort this season.
“It is my goal to win them both (at state) this year,” said Sargent, who doesn’t have any serious threats in Division 2 this season. “I would like to compete at the Midwest meet and see what happens, see where I rank nationally. I might want to go to one of the national meets. I still feel like I can hit 49 feet, maybe 50 feet in the shot put and, hopefully, try to get up over 160 in the discus. I think it will take a lot hard work and mental (preparation). But I think I can do it.”
A 5-foot-9.5, 160-pound jumping jack and agile athlete, Sargent is an all-conference outside-hitter in volleyball, where she played all-around to become one of the Saginaw Valley Conference’s best. She has destroyed school and conference records in track and hopes to depart even higher amongst the state’s all-time leaders in the throws.
“I’m sad that it’s almost over and I will start a new chapter of my life at MSU, but it’s not over yet,” reminded Sargent. “I still have a few meets for Powers. I want to finish strong and maybe get a (state) record.”
That would give her family something to talk about and definitely more stories to share.