Mora Caps Career with D2 Title
November 3, 2012
By Bill Khan
Special to Second Half
BROOKLYN — When it was time to make a move, Connor Mora had no idea how it would play out.
All he knew was he wanted to finish his last high school cross country race with no regrets.
The Cedar Springs senior passed Mason’s Tanner Hinkle with three-quarters of a mile to go and kept surging toward the finish line, winning the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 championship with a time of 15:04.2 on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
Hinkle, who ran a stride ahead of Mora most of the race, finished second in 15:09.8.
“He’s a great competitor,” Mora said of Hinkle. “There wasn’t a point where I felt I had him until I finished the race. I guess I gave it all I had. If he had a better day than me, then that’s what it was, but I gave it all I can.”
Hinkle set a fast early pace, reaching the mile in 4:48. Mora was content to let Hinkle do the work for at least the first two miles.
“I went in ready to adjust my strategy with whatever the race threw at me,” Mora said. “When Hinkle took it out hard, I decided to just sit back and wait until the two mile to see where he would take it. He had me up until the two mile. That’s the point where I felt confident enough to go to the finish.”
Mora didn’t feel he performed well in past MHSAA Finals, though four top-15 finishes is a rare accomplishment in the larger-school divisions. He was 15th in 2009 (16:23.4), fifth in 2010 (15:39.0) and third in 2011 (15:33.2). Hinkle was one place behind him last year in 15:41.3.
Mora’s time was the fastest of the day in all four divisions. Erie Mason’s Nick Raymond won Division 3 in 15:05.1, while Milford’s Brian Kettle won Division 1 in 15:07.3.
“I haven’t always had great state meets these past years,” Mora said. “I guess I just usually have an average race.”
St. Clair edged Linden by a 114-128 margin for the team championship. Linden had three all-state runners (top 30 overall), but St. Clair had its five scoring runners in the top 47, while Linden’s fifth runner didn’t cross until 93rd place.
It was the first team title for the Saints, who had six top-10 finishes in the previous 12 years.
Senior Brennan Shafer led St. Clair, placing seventh among team runners in 15:39.6. Junior Cody Smith was 10th in 15:51.4, junior Trevor Holowaty 28th in 16:09.3, senior Dakota Hazel 34th in 16:17.9 and senior Andrew Snider 35th in 16:18.6.
PHOTO: Mason's Tanner Hinkle (right) and Cedar Springs' Connor Mora ran together most of the Division 2 Final before Mora pushed ahead for his first championship. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)
Fisher Chases History, Reigns Again in D1
November 1, 2014
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
BROOKLYN — Grant Fisher's only competitors in Michigan are ghosts from the past.
While the state currently has a strong crop of cross country runners, they can't even stay close to Fisher, the Grand Blanc senior who ended his MHSAA cross country career Saturday with one of the fastest times in Finals history.
The only question heading into the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 meet was whether Fisher could threaten the seemingly untouchable Michigan International Speedway record of 14:10.4 set by Rockford legend Dathan Ritzenhein in 2000.
High winds — the only thing that could touch Fisher on this day — ruled out that possibility before the race started. It would take perfect conditions for such a quest to be plausible.
Those hoping to see history had to "settle" for a dominating 14:52.5 effort by Fisher, well off the record but still one of the greatest performances the state has ever seen. His time ranks third in the 19-year history of racing at MIS behind Ritzenhein and former Rockford teammate Jason Hartmann, who ran 14:51 in 1998.
Ritzenhein is a three-time Olympian who once held the American 5,000-meter record. Hartmann finished in fourth place as the first American at the 2012 and 2013 Boston Marathons.
"Dathan is Dathan," Fisher said. "He's the best high school runner ever. For people to compare anything I've done to him, in my mind I shouldn't be compared to him ever, as nobody should. Dathan's in a class of his own.
“You can look at his professional career and it speaks for itself. I've met him a few times. He's a great guy and definitely someone I look up to."
Ovid-Elsie's Maverick Darling (14:52.8 in 2007) and Saline's Dustin Voss (14:54.45 in 2003) are the only other runners to break 15 minutes at MIS.
It was only the second time Fisher has broken 15 minutes. The first time came under ideal conditions in the Portage Invitational on Oct. 4, when he came within a second of Ritzenhein's course record with a time of 14:43.
"To do it at this venue means a lot," Fisher said. "You can look back, as everyone has recently, at some of the fast times people have turned in here. You see some of the big names that have gone on to do some pretty incredible things. To do it on this course with so much history and to do it with my teammates next to me means a lot."
Here's the scary part: Fisher still had at least one more gear in him.
His race plan was to cruise through the first mile, go hard in the second, cruise through a downhill stretch, then go hard down the final stretch. He took a look back while going around a curve just after the two-mile mark. He couldn't see anybody approaching, so he followed through with the plan.
"If someone was right on my heels, the race plan would've gone out the window and I'd have gone into race mode," said Fisher, who also is the reigning Foot Locker national champion after defeating a field in San Diego last winter.
The race for second place was much more exciting, with only 10.6 seconds separating the next eight finishers. Saline senior Logan Wetzel emerged from the battle as the runner-up in 15:19.2, 26.7 seconds behind Fisher. Anthony Berry of Traverse City Central was third in 15:21.1. Waterford Mott's Ryan Robinson, who was in second much of the race, took fifth in 15:25.4.
Junior Isaac Harding of Rockford was fourth in 15:23.2, leading Ritzenhein's former school to its first team championship since 2002.
The Rams won a tight three-way battle, scoring 140 points to edge White Lake Lakeland by six. Mott, the runner-up the last two years, was third with 148.
Rockford didn't have a senior in its lineup last year when it finished 12th in LP Division 1. Five of those seven runners were in the lineup Saturday, with one noteworthy addition. Freshman Cole Johnson was the team's No. 2 runner, placing 16th in 15:40.9. That's faster than Ritzenhein ran during his freshman year at Rockford, though his 16:22.3 was good for fifth place on a slow, muddy course in 1997.
Also scoring for Rockford were Paul Burke (57th, 16:13.2), Grayson Harding (58th, 16:13.5) and Grant Gabriel (102nd, 16:30.1).
Lakeland and Mott had five runners cross before Rockford, but the strength of its top two runners carried the Rams.
PHOTOS: (Top) Grand Blanc’s Grant Fisher finishes his second MHSAA Finals victory Saturday all alone on the final stretch. (Below) Saline’s Logan Wetzel and Traverse City Central’s Anthony Berry lead a tight pack racing for second place. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)