This weekend, all the minutes, hours, and miles spent running came together as runners made their bid for a chance to compete at the state finals on Nov. 2. Across four different divisions, many Blue Water Area runners punched their tickets to Brooklyn, whether as a team or individually. Local athletes who will be running at MIS are recapped below and featured in the video linked above. You can also view photo galleries at https://bluewaterrunning.zenfoliosite.com/. Please tag Blue Water Running when using downloaded photos.
Meet titles are links to results
On the boys' side, Anchor Bay’s Greg Vogt was the sole DI runner from the Blue Water Area to make it to the state finals out of Region 9, held at Goodells County Park. He finished ninth in 16:30: the individual champion was Harper Wesley (Utica) in 15:45. In the girls’ race, two Port Huron Northern runners qualified: Haley Sharp was 19th in a huge personal best of nearly a minute (19:52), while Samantha Langolf was right behind in 21st in 20:02, also a PR for her. Langolf was the last individual qualifier in the race dominated by top-ranked Romeo, who scored a perfect 15 points, taking first through seventh place. All varsity runners were under 18:40 and the champion, Annie Hrabovsky, ran a 17:42.
Joshua Macri accomplished the goal he had focused on most of the season: cementing his name in the history books as a D2 regional champion. “I still can’t believe it; it doesn’t seem real,” Macri stated after the race. Leading gun to tape, Macri won by 15 seconds in 16:24. Pushed from the runner-up position by teammate Xavier Roman (16:39 PR), Macomb Lutheran North went 1-2 and won the team title with 42 points, narrowly edging out Yale, who was second with 44. “It’s even better to share a win with my team,” Macri confirmed. “It makes it really special”. St. Clair claimed the third-place team qualification, scoring 72 points and making another run at MIS for the 25th year in a row. That’s a quarter-century of sending athletes to the best competition in the state.
Wyatt Murtos led the Bulldogs of Yale in third place, dipping under 17 minutes to run his PR of 16:58. In fourth was Connor Pepin of Cros-Lex, who stunned the field with a thirty-second PR to finish fourth in 17:00 and earn his first trip to Brooklyn. Pepin spent most of the season in high 17s to mid-18s and didn’t even run cross country last year, so this was a big accomplishment for the Pioneer. St. Clair was led by Brayden Prieskorn (8th; 17:13.7) and Ethan Kreger (9th; 17:14).
Other individual qualifiers outside of MLN, Yale, and St. Clair’s teams were Richmond’s Mason Pietrykowski - a freshman who just ran the Detroit Free Press half marathon last Sunday (10th; 17:18 PR) - and Sawyer Rosberg (21st; 18:02 PR). Marysville’s Brendan Koza was 16th in 17:30 (PR) and Armada’s Robert Carrigan was 23rd (18:06 PR) to also qualify.
In the girls’ race, the ever-steady Eva Thompson of Cros-Lex won the second regional race of her career, adding another championship to complement her 2022 title. Thompson won by over a minute in a season’s best of 18:46 and combined with the PR of 19:56 by teammate Brynn Hurley, the Pioneers were able to clinch a berth to MIS, taking third with 98 points to fourth-place Armada’s 103 in a tightly contested team race. Macomb Lutheran North won the girls’ trophy, taking first with 66 points, led by runner-up Samantha Whitlam in 19:47. St. Clair was second with 80 points with Ella Thornton as the top runner on the day for the Saints (9th; 20:08 PR). Macomb Lutheran North and St. Clair both had team spreads close to a minute for their runners.
Other individual qualifiers were Brooklyn Khon (5th; 20:01) and Abigail Denoyer (12th; 20:36 PR) of Armada, Lillian Rutallie of Marysville (11th; 20:26), and Lillian Bender (7th; 20:03 PR) and Saige Cole (8th: 20:05 PR) of Yale. Bender was 59th at regionals last year and has dropped almost a minute from her previous best and more than two and a half minutes since the season’s start, while Cole, a freshman, dropped 30 seconds in a week.
Julian Walker of Algonac dropped 11 seconds to take third in the D3 race at Columbus, running a personal best of 16:38. Pulled by the leader and eventual winner Nole Lorenzen (16:13) of Rochester Hills Lutheran NW, Walker and teammate Owen Beindit helped the Muskrats to a fifth-place team finish. Beindit was seventh in 17:00, a personal best by 23 seconds. Beindit was running in the mid-19s last year, so he has made incredible improvements this season, and both he and Walker are only juniors.
With the last qualifying spot in 23rd place (17:41), Earl Beattie of Marine City had the heartbreaking situation of being the first runner in the race to just miss qualification: Beattie was 24th in his PR of 17:42, with Almont’s Colton Grzyb (25th; 17:46 PR), Gavin Campbell (26th; 17:47 PR), and Adam SaintOnge (27th; 17:49 PR) all right behind. Kudos to these young men for huge personal bests.
With a team spread of two minutes, the Almont Raiders were able to take the third-place team qualification in the girls’ D3 race. Led by freshman Taylor Stanczak in fifth (20:59) and closely followed by Laila Evola (9th; 21:31) and Greta Schwarberg (21st; 21:31 PR), Almont assuaged some of the disappointment of their fourth-place finish at regionals last year. Two other individual qualifiers from Algonac were Kate Bennett (13th; 20:50) and Jasmine Walker (22nd; 21:33). The overall winner was Hailey Creisher of Leslie in 18:44.
The Dryden Cardinals had a great day at Deckerville: the boys’ team came home with a regional team trophy, while Cara Prusakiewicz ran a PR to win her first individual regional title (19:54). Logan Romain led the boys with a sixth-place finish in 17:42, while Claire Wright was an individual qualifier along with Prusakiewicz in the girls’ race, finishing 12th in a PR of 21:38. Other qualifiers out of this region were Kimball New Life Christian’s Jacob Campbell (11th; 18:22) and Julia Rogers (8th; 21:20).
Nico DiPonio of Austin Catholic finished ninth in 18:02, while fellow Crusader Cassidy Bowers was seventh (20:42) in the girls’ race, along with Cardinal Mooney’s Stella Behnan in 11th (21:12). Just a few seconds out of qualifying were Evan Jacobs (17th; 18:24) and Aaron Lenn (18th; 18:25 PR) for Cardinal Mooney.
CROSS COUNTRY STATE FINALS WILL BE HELD AT MIS IN BROOKLYN, MI ON SATURDAY, NOV. 2. YOU CAN FIND A LINK TO THE SCHEDULE HERE.
Collegiate Results
Macomb Community College and St. Clair Community College competed Friday, Oct. 25 at Goodells Park in the NJCAA/MCCAA Cross Country Championships. The MCC and SC4 men's teams, along with women Emma Dell and Erin Rowan (MCC) and Lily Lemanski and Laela Bhatti (SC4), punched their tickets to the NJCAA Division II National Championships in Richmond, Virginia on Nov. 9.
Men's All-Region and All-MCCAA
Dylan Penberthy: 3rd 26:08 MCC
Brandon Penberthy: 4th 26:15 MCC
Ethan McCombs: 10th 26:39 SC4
Acer Campbell: 12th 26:42 SC4
All-MCCAA:
Gabe Rusch: 21st 27:15
Women's All-Region and All-MCCAA
Lily Lemanski: 10th 20:11 SC4
All-MCCAA
Emma Dell: 12th 20:18 MCC
Erin Rowan: 16th 20:40 MCC
Laela Bhatti: 19th 20:49 SC4
Click for slideshow: photos courtesy of MCC/SC4.
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