Detroit Domination at AYF Olympics

By Bob Tutunjian

DETROIT, Mich.—The host Detroit “Kopernik Tandourjian” AYF Chapter brought a team of 60 members and led the chapter scoring from start to finish at the 81^st Olympic Games. They amassed a total of 170 points with balanced scoring and only 7 individual gold medals. Knar Topouzian won the pentathlon for 15 points, but Detroit had no triple gold medalists. The last chapter to win an Olympics without an individual high-scorer was Providence in 2005, when they had only 109.5 points. On Friday, Team “DKT” won both tennis events and scored well in men’s and women’s golf to take an early lead. While Providence eked out a close win in the swim meet, the Tandourjians had established a lead of 51-40 over the “Varantians” after Friday. That lead grew to 20 points after the Sunday morning events and stayed fairly constant until the pentathlon events sealed the victory.

Last year, Detroit finished 4^th, scoring 65 points with only 9 from their men. This time the Motown men actually outscored their ladies, with 87 points. The men swept both running relays to bring their chapter total to 30 points in all of these 8 group events. The women were hurt by a foot injury that sidelined last year’s high-scorer Taleen Shahrigian. But Detroit used their depth to win 15 silver and 15 bronze medals in individual events to secure their first Cup since 2011.

Providence repeated as runner-up with 118 points, compared to 133 in 2013. Over half of their total came from four brother-sister high scorers: Stephen and Lynne Tutunjian, and Andrew and Tarvis Hintlian. It was only the second time that two family pairs have all scored triple gold at the Olympics. In 1991, Joe and Ani Almasian and Rich and Cheryl Tarlaian of Providence were the first to achieve this. Overall the “Varantians” had only 19 members entered this year, but they were able to win four relay events, including all three in the pool.

50 Meter Dash. Marina Pilibosian (DET) edges ahead of Lindsey Santerian (PHIL)

New Jersey provided a big surprise by taking 3^rd place over defending champion Philadelphia, 71 to 66. The “Arsens” had not finished that high since 2003. Both chapters entered 16 members, but Jersey was led by three golds from rookie Ariana Chipolone and another shot put win from Ani Sarajian. Philly countered with a brother-sister act of their own: Mark and Lindsey Santerian both scored 13 points and narrowly missed triple gold. In 5^th place was Greater Boston with 55 points and their 3-time pentathlon champion Vigen Sarkisov. “Most Improved Chapter” Worcester came in 6^th with 40 points. The Arams also had 2 13-point scorers in rookies Melanee Melkonian and Lauren Greenhalgh.

Seventh place went to Granite City with 22 points, mostly from Michelle Hagopian’s total of 13. Chicago took the 8^th spot with 18 points as Daron Bedian contributed 12 points for the “Ararats” on the track. Montreal recorded 10 points from their lone competitor Faye Khatchadourian. North Andover was next with 8 points and San Francisco scored 4 points for 11^th place. Toronto had 3 points while Racine and West San Fernando Valley each had 2. Burbank Valley, Cambridge (Canada), Montebello, New York, and Orange County entered but did not crack into the scoring.

100 Meter Hurdles (L-R) Ani Hackett (BOS), Theresa Jelalian (NJ), Kenar Charchaflian (WORC)

Individual awards

There were 5 high scorers with 15 points each, and runner-up Providence had 4 of them. Veteran Lynne Tutunjian started things rolling on Friday by winning three events in the pool. The former Bentley University swimmer won triple gold for the 6^th time and brought her career total to 138 points, most among active athletes. Lynne has a master’s degree in accounting and a CPA and currently works at Arrowstreet Capital. Her brother Stephen swept the 3 jumping events for his 6^th high-scorer trophy and brought his career Olympics total to 115 points. The pair also became the top-scoring siblings this year. Their total of 253 points surpassed Joe and Ani Almasian (also from Providence), who scored 249 points during their careers. Steve graduated from Lehigh University in 2012 as their record holder in the triple jump and a two-time NCAA Championship qualifier. He is currently a graduate student at Tufts University studying bioengineering.

Andrew Hintlian dominated the middle distance events again to become a high-scorer for the 3^rd time. Andrew accomplished this after recently returning from New Zealand, where he studied for his junior year. He is majoring in marine affairs and environmental/natural resource economics at the University of Rhode Island with a Dean’s List GPA. This year he was joined by sister Tarvis who struck gold in the 400, 800, and 1600-meter runs. She is a sophomore at Winchester High School, where she runs cross country and track. Tarvis ran a personal best of 5:20.93 in the mile during her past indoor season to place 5^th in the state division 3 high school championship.

400 Meter Medalists (L-R) Tamar Changelian (DET), Tarvis Hintlian (PROV), Shayna McCarthy (NJ)

Ariana Chipolone from New Jersey also won three golds in her first Olympics. She took the long and high jumps and then showed her speed by winning the 200. Ariana just finished her sophomore year at Old Tappan High School in New Jersey. She had an excellent year on their outdoor track team competing in the same 3 events, and recorded a personal best of 17 feet in the long jump. But Jersey coach Mark Alashaian said that Ariana’s best sport is actually basketball. She was consistently a top scorer for her hoops team and was named to the All Bergen County Second All Star Team.

Both pentathlon champions from 2013 defended their titles in relatively easy fashion. Greater Boston’s Vigen Sarkisov won his 3^rd consecutive title with 2,490 points, a drop from his 2013 total of 2,684. Vigen won all of the events except for the final 1600-meter run, which was a four-way hand holding tie. On the women’s side, Knar Topouzian from Detroit also won every event and accumulated 2,008 points. This total was a bit less than the 2,326 points she scored last year.

No records were broken at this year’s Games for the first time since 2005. However, Worcester’s Melanee Melkonian came very close as she hurled the baseball 204 feet. This is the closest anyone has come to the 211 foot record set by Providence’s Donna Depalma in 1976.

The Ernest Nahigian Award for sportsmanship and fraternal spirit was presented to Haigan Tcholakian and Peter Crane, both from Detroit. The Cory Tosoian Trophy was won once again by Jeff Hagopian from Granite City for his victory in the alumni golf event. Finally the Worcester “Arams” won the award for “Most Improved Chapter,” as they did in 2012.

Men’s track & field

Andrew Hintlian repeated his dominance of the middle distance events on the track. He started his day by finishing ahead of Detroit newcomer Mher Tcholakian of Detroit in the 800 with a time of 2:17.16. Then Andrew showed his speed in the 200 with a time of 24.60, narrowly beating Worcester’s Mike Melkonian by 0.14 of a second. Finally he eased to the gold in the 400, running 57.18 with Detroit’s Aram Cholakian in 2^nd place.

Stephen Tutunjian continued his winning streaks in the men’s jumping events, taking the long jump and triple jump for the eighth straight year. His distance in the long jump (20’11.25”) was over a foot behind his record but good enough to win by more than 2 feet over Greg Gubenlian from Greater Boston and Aram Cholakian in 3^rd. Steve triple jumped 44’3.25” and finished ahead of rookie Varak Ghazarian from San Francisco. Varak is the son of former Olympic standout Satenig Dulgarian and was also being cheered on by his grandfather Steve. Finally Stephen won the high jump at 5’6” with Aram Cholakian and Mher Tcholakian just behind at 5’4”. Cholakian won his 3^rd medal of the day with his jump.

3200 Meter Medalists (L-R) Anto Keshgegian (PHIL), Daron Bedian (CHIC), Gary Dodakian (PROV)

The men’s long-distance events were both won once again by Daron Bedian from Chicago. In the morning 3200, he ran 12:49.58, 47 seconds ahead of Providence’s Gary Dodakian. Daron also had a comfortable margin in the 1600 with a winning time of 5:44, ahead of Anto Keshgegian of Philadelphia. Daron also took bronze in the 800 for a total of 12 individual points.

Detroit’s Ara Markarian was the only other double gold medalist on Sunday with an interesting combination of events. In the morning, Markarian won the discus with a heave of 115’2” which was over 10 feet ahead of teammate Armen Nercesian. He then ran to victory in the 110-meter hurdles with Philly’s Aram Keshgegian in 2^nd. Ara capped his events with a bronze in the 200 for a total of 12 points.

The remaining track and field events were evenly contested. Before being edged out in the 200, Mike Melkonian won the 100 in 11.92 seconds, leaning ahead of Detroit’s Michael Nercesian at 11.96. Then Armen Nercesian came back to defend his shot put title with a heave of 42’4.25”. New Jersey’s Raffi Sarajian took the silver on his last throw.

Finally, Mark Santerian of Philadelphia won gold in the javelin at 129’3”, well ahead of Kevork Hamparian from Greater Boston. In doing so, Mark completed a most unusual trio of events with a total of 13 points. His first 2 events were on Friday with a close 2^nd in golf and a win in the 50-yard backstroke.

Detroit won the 4×100 meter relay in 47.14, while Greater Boston was close behind in 47.26. DKT also won the 4×400 relay at 4:02 and the 4×200 co-ed event at 1:53. Providence was runner-up in both of these events.

Women’s track & field

Two young newcomers dominated the women’s track and field events this year. Ariana Chipolone from New Jersey started off by winning the long jump with a distance of 13’6.25”. Sylvahna Menissian and Sarah Varadian, both from Providence, won the silver and bronze medals. Ariana also was victorious in the high jump by leaping 4’8”, way ahead of teammate Theresa Jelalian. Ariana’s 3^rd gold came in the 200-meter dash, where her time of 29.40 bested Worcester’s Melanee Melkonian.

The other rookie high-scorer was Tarvis Hintlian, who followed in the footsteps of her brother Andrew. She started off with a win in the 800 in a time of 2:36.20. Second place went to Shayna McCarthy from New Jersey who ran 2:49.60. Tarvis then eased to a win in the 1600 at 6:13.92, with Shayna in 2^nd again. The 2 girls went head to head again in the 400 where Tarvis won in 1:06.41 and Shayna won her 3^rd silver. Karoun Tcholakian of Detroit took bronze in the 800 and 1600 to go with her swimming silver and a total of 3 medals for the weekend.

There were 3 ladies who recorded 13 points at this year’s Games. Most noteworthy was Central Executive President Michelle Hagopian from Granite City. After winning golf on Friday, Michelle won the discus for the 9^th straight year by throwing 94’. Ani Sarajian of New Jersey took 2^nd. Michelle then won silver in the baseball throw behind the near-record of Melanee Melkonian. Her 13 points brought Michelle’s career total to 131, 2^nd among active women.

Melanee Melkonian coupled her baseball gold with a 1^st in the 100-meter dash, recording a time of 13.77. But she had to settle for silver in the 200 behind Ariana Chipolone. Melanee is a 2013 graduate of Clark University in Worcester where she was a star on the softball and field hockey teams. She holds their school record with 112 field hockey goals during her career.

The third 13-point women’s scorer was Lindsey Santerian from Philadelphia. Lindsey is the current record holder in the triple jump and leaped 29’7.5” to win by more than 4 feet over Theresa Jelalian and Sarah Varadian. Lindsey matched her brother’s win in the javelin throwing 82’8”, well ahead of Sarah Varadian who won her 3^rd medal of the day. But Lindsey was edged out in the 50-meter dash by Marina Pilibosian from Detroit. Pilibosian won the event with a time of 7.61 to Santerian’s 7.85. Marina also won a silver medal in the 100 meters, behind Melanee Melkonian.

The only track and field events not won by one of these ladies were the shot put and the 100-meter hurdles. New Jersey’s Ani Sarajian won the shot put for the 4^th time, throwing 28’11.75” with Arev Tossounian of Detroit getting the silver. Kenar Charchaflian from Worcester defended her 2013 hurdles championship in a time of 19.73. Greater Boston’s Ani Hackett was 2^nd and Theresa Jelalian took bronze, winning her 3^rd medal of the meet. Tamar Changelian from Detroit also won 3 medals by taking bronze in the 100, 200, and 400-meter runs.

The Detroit girls won the 4×100 meter relay in 58.97, while Providence came back to win the 4×200 event at 2:06.93. New Jersey took 2^nd in both events.