Ellsworth On Course for More Big Finishes
September 21, 2018
By Chris Dobrowolski
Special for Second Half
ELLSWORTH — Running fever is running rampant in Ellsworth, and it’s got quite a grip on the small Antrim County school.
Despite having fewer than 100 students in their high school, the Lancers’ boys and girls cross country teams thrive on a statewide level, thanks to nearly two dozen runners who grace the team’s roster — a number that holds pretty steady from year to year.
“I like to believe I don’t do any recruiting,” said head coach Ruben Oviedo, in his sixth year leading Ellsworth’s program. “I simply invite kids. Honestly, I just want our kids doing something.”
Running is the avenue that many at the school elect to take. Sometimes they’re just following in the footsteps of an older sibling. Some start with other sports but become drawn in by friends who are on the cross country team. Others are persuaded into giving running a try by Oviedo, who has even sought out kids who aren’t involved in anything as they’re heading to the bus after school to see if they’re interested.
“It’s fun to try to get kids who wouldn’t be invited to a high school varsity sport,” said Oviedo. “It’s fun when they say, ‘I hate running.’ It’s fun to say, ‘You’re the kid I want’ and to challenge them.”
What all of them discover is a family atmosphere that welcomes each of them with open arms, and where they get an opportunity to develop and compete on a perennially strong squad.
“I think a lot of people just like being a part of something,” said senior Isaiah Romeyn, the top runner on the Lancers’ boys team. “Cross country is a lot different from other sports, where it’s more of a family environment. It’s a lot more like an actual family.”
That kind of vibe is what drew Oviedo to running in his own right. The 2008 Ellsworth graduate joined the cross country team his sophomore year and helped the Lancers reach the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals three straight years, highlighted by a sixth-place finish in 2007.
“That’s what kind of roped me in was so many friends and people were doing it,” remembers Oviedo. “Why not? (Former head coach) Kirk (Ikens) just made it all about being a team and making it fun.”
Oviedo has carried over that philosophy since taking over for Ikens in 2013.
“They let me punish them into running, but I like to say that running isn’t punishment,” said Oviedo. “I’ve never used running as a punishment. Most of the time I like to use it as an escape. Hey, we’re stressed out. We’re having a bad day. Let’s go run and lose our minds in the woods. That’s one of the things I’ve tried to put into place. We try to get out of Ellsworth, and we try to go somewhere else to run different places just so it’s not the same place all the time.”
The Lancers often have ended the season in the same place, however — the Division 4 Finals. The boys squad has put together a string of four straight Finals’ appearances, with last year’s fourth-place finish the school’s highest. They were the only team among the top five with an enrollment under 100 students.
The girls team has qualified for the Finals in back-to-back years, last year tying for 17th. Both teams have the capabilities to return to Michigan International Speedway — the annual site of the Finals — again this year, too. Ellsworth’s boys have six of their top seven back, while the girls return four of the top seven.
Romeyn earned all-state honors a year ago when he finished 13th at the state meet. His older brother Winter, a redshirt junior on the men’s cross country team at Michigan State, was a two-time all-stater in 2013 and 2014, finishing ninth and eighth, respectively, at the Finals. Winter also proved to be a big influence on getting Isaiah into running.
“He started me with running, and he encouraged me to join the team,” said Isaiah. “I ran because he was on the team. It was mainly because he was there. I wanted to be with him.”
Isaiah remembers watching his brother’s success, but also seeing what a tight-knit group the Lancers were and feeling connected himself.
“I could see that family aspect,” he said. “Everyone just kind of bonds and accepts one another. I really wanted to be part of that. I would watch his race, then go to the Ellsworth tent and just hang out with the kids — tried to be part of that. So, when I actually got the chance to be part of it, I definitely wanted to join.”
Romeyn is getting his biggest push within the team from junior Robbie Wise, who was Ellsworth’s fifth counter at last year’s Finals, but has seen his performance jump so far this season. A good summer of work equated to a fast start to the season and vaulted Wise into the company of Romeyn.
“I can’t believe how much effort I put into it,” said Wise, a football player who converted to cross country as a freshman. “My first year I would remember all these insane runs. Ruben would say, ‘OK we’re going out for six miles.’ Just one mile sounded insane. Now, as somebody who runs over the summer — I got over 150 miles in over the summer — six miles doesn’t sound near as bad.”
Seniors Lucas Sweet, Richard Adams, Alex Adams, and junior Caleb Godwin give Ellsworth a formidable veteran lineup that has shown it can compete with anyone in the state.
The girls team is anchored by a pair of sophomores in Christy Figueroa and Judy Veldboom. Figueroa has competed at the Finals the past two years, including with a 38th place as an eighth grader that was Ellsworth’s best individual finish in a 19th-place team performance.
“It was really stressful being in my shoes (as an eighth grader), but I enjoyed it,” said Figueroa, who started participating in the sport as a sixth grader and quickly proved to be a natural.
Veldboom burst onto the scene last season as a freshman and created a dynamic duo with Figueroa. The two were separated by six places and a total of 14 seconds at the Finals and have a healthy competitiveness between them.
“When she’s in front of me, it just pushes me to do better and pushes me to go harder,” said Figueroa.
This season Figueroa and Veldboom have seen eighth grader Maia Romeyn, the younger sister of Winter and Isaiah, enter the picture to give the Lancers even more depth at the top.
“She’s pushes me and Christy to keep going,” Veldboom said. “She’s one of my best friends, so she inspires me to run faster. She’s a great asset.”
Seniors Sarah Sitzema and Ana Oviedo provide additional Finals experience to the lineup.
Ellsworth is one of the few schools in the Northern Lakes Conference that has enough runners to earn a team score in league meets, which it’s dominated in recent years. On the Regional level the Lancers have formed a rivalry with East Jordan, a school just a few miles down the road but with more than twice as many students.
“I think we can get first place in the Regional and make it to states,” said Veldboom. “That’s my goal for this team. I think we have a really strong team.”
Ellsworth is undaunted about running against the Red Devils or any of the other larger schools it races. Those are the kinds of tests Oviedo likes to give his runners as they navigate through the season, and the Lancers have shown they’re capable of holding their own.
“It shows that we really put in the effort and want it,” said Wise, who has the bar set as high as possible for his team. “I hope this year we can win states. We got fourth place last year. I think it’s within our grasp.”
Chris Dobrowolski has covered northern Lower Peninsula sports since 1999 at the Ogemaw County Herald, Alpena News, Traverse City Record-Eagle and currently as sports editor at the Antrim Kalkaska Review since 2016. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) The Ellsworth boys and girls cross country teams after a Northern Lakes Conference meet this season. (Middle) Judy Veldboom, right, tries to get past a St. Ignace runner near the finish line of the House on the Hill Invitational. (Below) Isaiah Romeyn runs with a pack during the Central Lake Invitational. (Top two photos by Olivia Adams; below photo by Chris Dobrowolski.)
Ubly Ace Striding for More after Breakout Sophomore Season
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
August 18, 2021
Maze Gusa’s Athletic.net cross country profile looks like it belongs to two different runners.
During her freshman season at Ubly, a stress fracture caused Gusa to get off to a slow start. While she improved steadily throughout the fall, her season ended at the Regional, one place away from qualifying for the Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final.
Her best finish that year was 12th at the Greater Thumb Conference league meet, and she broke 22 minutes just once, running 21:32.6 in the Regional.
As a sophomore, that all changed. Gusa burst onto the scene, winning 11 of 15 events she competed in, and never finishing outside the top three – including at the Division 4 Final, where she finished third.
“Maze, she was not the runner she was last year her freshman year,” Ubly coach Garrett Jurges said. “Her freshman year she had a little bit of an injury, so she had a later start to the season, and she was dual-sporting, playing volleyball. She came back over the summer, and she put some serious training in and miles in.”
Gusa hopes to build on that with another strong performance as a junior, as she’ll lead an Ubly lineup which returns six of its top seven runners after placing sixth at the Division 4 meet as a team. She’s set a new goal for herself – lowering her current personal best of 19:38.7 down to 18:30 – and while she’s aware and ready for it, she knows there will be some added pressure this season as she won’t be allowed to come out of nowhere again.
“I feel like last season, every time I grew it would be like, ‘Look at her, she’s getting so much faster,’” Gusa said. “Now, all of the sudden, there’s all these expectations. If I’m not where I was last year, it’s like I’m not doing what I should be.”
While the expectations are going to be different, it’s not as though Gusa isn’t somewhat used to them. Simply carrying her last name at a cross country meet in the Thumb comes with a certain amount of expectation.
Maze is the third of four Gusas to come through Jurges’ program, following her sisters Haili (2019 graduate) and Josie (2021 graduate). Younger brother Utah is entering his sophomore season after qualifying for the Division 4 Final as Ubly’s No. 1 runner a year ago.
Haili was a four-time all-state finisher and sits third on Ubly’s all-time fastest times list. Josie had three all-state finishes and is eighth all-time at the school. Maze is currently fifth on the all-time list, and her goal of 18:30 doesn’t come out of nowhere, as that matches the school record set in 2004 by Jackie Rivard.
“It’s not super often (we discuss competition within the family), but it’s really fun when we do talk about it,” Maze Gusa said. “My brother is just crazy because he’s gotten so fast, so he’s the hardest to compare. Haili is saying that, ‘It’s OK if you beat my time, but you’re going to have to earn it.’ When I passed Josie, she was happy that I had worked for it. They’re all very supportive, so it really helps to push me.”
The disappointment of Regionals her freshman season pushed Maze as much as anything a year ago. She said she ran more than 500 miles in the spring and summer leading up to her sophomore year, transforming from a solid runner to one of Division 4’s best.
“It was really a big motivation for me – I was just always thinking about that one spot,” she said. “The biggest difference I actually had, and it was really a blessing in disguise, was COVID-19. It took out my track season, so I had all that extra free time. Instead of sitting around, I got out and ran. I started building a base for myself – running more miles, faster miles. On my 16th birthday, I ran 16 miles. It was a really intense summer.”
It paid off with a Regional title and the third-place finish at the Finals, something she was able to share with Utah and Josie, who were also competing there.
“It was really awesome, because she really wanted to do good,” Utah said. “It was super hot, and I didn’t know if she would be one of those people that it would slow them down a lot. She was crushed the year before.”
Maze played soccer at Ubly this past spring, which cut down her offseason miles. She said she was still able to get in about 250, but trying to squeeze them into a shorter timeframe did result in a hip injury, one she’s nearly fully recovered from now.
She does hope, though, that increased competition and being able to run again in bigger meets this season will help push her to reach her goals.
“I’m a very competitive person,” she said. “Whether it’s a board game or a race.”
Jurges agreed.
“She’s a competitor and a hard worker,” he said. “She’s one of those that when push comes to shove, at the end of the race, this girl is not going to beat me. She will pull everything out of her guts and sprint her down.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTO: Ubly’s Maze Gusa (369) races toward the finish line during last season’s Division 4 girls team championship race at Michigan International Speedway. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)