Friendly Foes Deliver Division 1 Show

November 2, 2019

Second Half reports

BROOKLYN – Carter Solomon could finally relax, a luxury he couldn’t afford himself for almost 3.1 miles.

The Plymouth senior had the fastest time in the state this fall and was fourth in the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championship last year, accomplishments that didn’t intimidate the other two runners who clung to Solomon in pursuit of the same dream.

When Solomon had finally shaken his rivals and was in the clear, he thrust his arms in the air in a display of emotion he rarely showed while winning races all season.

He had finally checked off the final box on one of the best high school cross country careers in Michigan history.

Solomon won the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 individual championship at Michigan International Speedway with a time of 15:01.2, the fastest time in any division Saturday.

“I think I came in as the favorite, but coming away with it still means a whole lot,” Solomon said. “People had me as the favorite, but these guys are coming for me. In my head, I was the third guy coming into this race. These guys are legit. I raced how I wanted to race, and it worked out.”

In his career, Solomon won a team championship with Plymouth last year, made All-America at Foot Locker and put himself in select company by earning all-state for the fourth time Saturday.

Solomon placed in the top 18 all four years. The only boy to accomplish that feat in the MHSAA’s largest classification since separate team and individual races were discontinued in 1996 was Rockford legend Dathan Ritzenhein, who made the top five four years in a row from 1997-2000.

Only two other boys have even been four-time all-staters in the top classification: Lake Orion’s T.J. Carey (2009-12) and Brighton’s Zach Stewart (2016-19).

Running stride for stride with Solomon for much of the race were Clarkston senior Brendan Favazza and Brighton senior Jack Spamer. Favazza finished second in 15:06.0, and Spamer was third in 15:17.1.

“It helps when you’re best friends with him,” Favazza said of Solomon. “He pulled up right beside me when I took the lead and he said, ‘Let’s go one and two together; this is it.’ I’m like, ‘This is the guy. I’m sticking with him the whole way.’”

While Spamer was third in the battle for the individual championship, he got the prize that Solomon and his teammates won last year.

With Spamer in third and Stewart in fourth in 15:30.7, Brighton won its first MHSAA championship since 1995 and third overall by a 136-154 margin over Dexter.

Senior Scott Spaanstra was 31st in 16:05.4, just missing an all-state berth by one place. Sophomore Evan Ross took 46th in 16:17.6, and senior Andrew Hanna took 114th in 16:45.8 to complete Brighton’s scoring.

It was the fourth MHSAA Final meet for Stewart and Spaanstra and the third for Spamer, but the other four Brighton runners were competing at MIS for the first time.

“We didn’t need to run any A-plus races,” Stewart said. “We just needed to have an average day. We came out and did that.”

Click for full results.

PHOTOS: (Top) Plymouth’s Carter Solomon (105) pulls to the front of the pack near the start of the Division 1 Final on Saturday. (Middle) Brighton’s Zach Stewart stays a few paces ahead of Plymouth’s Patrick Byrnes as the two went on to finish fourth and fifth, respectively. (Photos by Matt Yacoub/RunMichigan.com.)

Benzie's Jones Caps Legendary Career with 4th Title, Hart Makes History with 1st

November 5, 2022

BROOKLYN – Runners at Hunter Jones’ level don’t get racing advice from just anybody.

In the days leading up to his bid for history at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final, the Benzie Central senior chatted with the most legendary distance runner to compete at the Michigan high school level.

Jones’ coach thought it would be a good idea for him to talk with former Rockford star Dathan Ritzenhein, a three-time Olympian whose time of 14:10.4 at Michigan International Speedway in 2000 has never been approached.

“I had a phone call with him a couple days ago,” Jones said. “He just kind of coached me through what to do. It’s pretty cool we have that connection and we are 1 and 2 in the state.

“He just told me don’t worry about time. His advice was just go out and red-line the whole time, just go hard the whole time. I did that. My legs were pretty tired in the middle. I couldn’t push as much as I wanted to.”

Jones hoped to make a run at Ritzenhein’s course record, but strong winds at MIS threw that pursuit out the window. He had to be satisfied with putting his name in the record books as the first boy to win the LP championship four times under the MHSAA Divisional format and breaking the Division 3 record of 14:52.8 set by Ovid-Elsie’s Maverick Darling in 2007.  He is the third runner to win four MHSAA Finals boys titles and second in Lower Peninsula history, following only Central Lake’s Ryan Shay and his four Class D championships from 1993-96.

Hart’s Clayton Ackley, right, and Ithaca’s Parks Allen run stride for stride together toward the finish.Jones’ time of 14:46.50 surpasses the time of 14:49.62 by Hartland’s Riley Hough in 2020 as the No. 2 performance all-time at MIS.

Jones was aware of Ritzenhein’s legend well before he began targeting some of his times.

“I’ve known about him since I was probably in seventh or eighth grade,” Jones said. “Just looking at his times, that’s crazy. To get this close, I’m extremely happy.”

Jones comes from the same part of the state as Shay.

“To have that up-north connection with Ryan Shay, it’s great because there’s not a lot of people up there compared to a metro area like Detroit and Grand Rapids,” Jones said. “It’s great that someone where maybe they don’t have as many advantages as other people is doing well.”

Jones cleared the field by more than a minute. The race for second place was considerably more dramatic, as Clayton Ackey of Hart outleaned Parks Allen of Ithaca by three hundredths of a second with a time of 15:52.14. Jones was already in the middle of an interview when they battled to the line.

Jones never lost to a Division 3 or 4 runner during his four seasons racing in a Benzie Central uniform. He won all 11 of his races this year and 51 of 54 races during his career. His only career losses were to top Division 1 and 2 runners.

“I only had two races this year that I really had any competition,” he said. “The rest of the time, it was me winning by 40 seconds-plus. It is what it is. Hopefully my time holds up as the fastest today so I can get the Mr. Cross Country award.”

Hart won the team championship with 116 points, beating runner-up Traverse City St. Francis by 31. St. Louis was third with 161. The team title was Hart’s first and came after the Pirates finished runners-up in 2020 and 2021.

Hart had three runners crack the top 12 overall and the top seven in the team race. Following Clayton Ackley were senior Wyatt Dean in eighth in 16:20.05, senior Seth Ackley in 12th in 16:27.51, senior Caleb Bitely in 44th in 17:17.71 and senior Easton Vander Zwaag in 116th in 17:58.80.

St. Francis had its five scoring runners crack the top 74 overall, with its first runner 23rd-place Josh Slocum.

Click for full results.

PHOTOS (Top) Benzie Central’s Hunter Jones throws up the customary four fingers to symbolize his four championships as he crosses the line at MIS on Saturday. (Middle) Hart’s Clayton Ackley, right, and Ithaca’s Parks Allen run stride for stride together toward the finish. (Click for more from Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)