North Central's Jets Blast Off in D3 Final
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
October 19, 2013
HARVEY — Powers North Central coach Jerry Root and Stephenson junior Connor Cappaert were overcome with emotion following Saturday’s Upper Peninsula Cross Country Finals at Gentz’s Homestead Golf Course in Marquette County.
The North Central boys earned their first Division 3 title by edging Pickford 66-68. Third-place Cedarville scored 109 points.
“The whole team stepped up,” said Root, while shedding tears of joy. “These kids worked so hard. They never had a bad attitude one day. To step up the way these kids did today is amazing.”
Cappaert, who was choked up after the meet, captured Division 3 individual honors by covering the 3.1-mile course in 17 minutes, 39 seconds. He was followed by Bessemer junior Zach Mazurek (17:57) and North Central freshman Seth Polfus (18:18) and sophomore Bryce Holle (18:23) on the sunny and seasonably cool day.
“This is so awesome,” said Cappaert, who was crowned Division 2 champion a year ago. “I’ve got to thank God and everyone who supported me. I couldn’t do it without them and our team. Zach really turned it on in this race. The North Central guys ran great, too. I felt a little cramping with a half-mile to go, but I knew I had to keep going. It’s quite an honor being a champion in two divisions.”
For Mazuerk, it was simply a case of trying to stay with the leaders.
“I wanted to stick with the frontrunners and pace myself off them as much as possible,” he said. “Connor had a great race. He went out and took it.”
Polfus admitted he wasn’t sure if the Jets had won right after the meet.
“I thought Pickford or Cedarville had won,” he said. “Then, we saw Mr. Root with a big smile on his face. We knew then we had won it. This is a great day for our team.”
Munising, which captured the title the past two years, didn’t field a complete team this time.
Also, the Mustangs’ ace, sophomore Brett Hannah, slipped to 10th (19:02) after winning a year ago.
Division 1
Marquette captured its first Division 1 title in three years with 42 points, followed by Escanaba 75 and Houghton 86.
Sophomore Lance Rambo led the Redmen by winning in 16:56, followed by senior teammate Cole Rieboldt (18:07) and Houghton junior David Jazsczak (17:22).
“The course was very slippery and the times were slow,” said Rambo. “The water at Mile 2 made it challenging. But the most challenging part was in the end (rolling hills leading into the finish). You just had to push through it.
“It feels real good to win as a team. Our team ran probably one of its best races of the year.”
Rieboldt set a course record (16:22) in his previous outing in the Great Northern Conference meet Oct. 10 on the Dale Fountain Memorial Cross Country Course at Banat (in western Menominee County).
“I went out too fast,” said Rieboldt, who also plays on the school’s soccer team. “This is a tough course, and I was feeling it on the hills. The water at Mile 2 was a hazard. The course was pretty chewed up by the time we got out there. The turns were slippery, too.”
Marquette coach Dale Phillips was impressed with the performance by the team’s leaders.
“It was a two-man race,” he said. “They really ran together. It was just a matter of who had more left in the end. In the majority of the meets we had this year, these guys were 1-2. This is a very, very young team. Five of the seven guys were newcomers to varsity.”
Division 2
St. Ignace was crowned Division 2 champion for the first time with 57 points.
Hancock edged Ishpeming 67-69 for its first runner-up trophy since 1990.
Ironwood junior Jared Joki dominated the race in 17:09, followed by St. Ignace’s Brad Gustafson (18:18) and Andrew Sjogren (18:23).
“I had a pretty good idea I’d have a decent lead,” said Joki, who was crowned Indianhead Conference champion Thursday at neighboring Hurley, Wis., “although, I was mildly surprised by the margin of victory. I tried to follow a conservative approach. I ran a moderate race at the conference meet, so it didn’t affect me too much today. I really like this course and the atmosphere of being at the Finals.”
PHOTO: Runners compete for position early in Saturday's Upper Peninsula Division 3 Final. (Photo courtesy of RunMichigan.com/Paul Gerard.)
Rababeh, Lakeland Earn Long-Awaited Wins
November 5, 2016
Second Half reports
BROOKLYN – What Dearborn’s Riad Rababeh accomplished with a minimal amount of work was pretty remarkable.
It got him wondering what he could do if he trained with a purpose for his senior season of cross country.
The result of his effort was the MHSAA Division 1 individual championship Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
Rababeh had the fastest time of the day in all four divisions, posting a 15:24.8 on a course that had some muddy sections to win by a 16-second margin over Alpena senior Mitchell Day.
A year ago, Rababeh shocked himself by placing eighth in the MHSAA meet in 15:30.8. The year before, he was 124th in 16:45.7. As a freshman, he was 32nd in his Regional in 17:38.3, which didn’t come close to qualifying for the MHSAA Finals.
“My junior year, I didn’t do anything,” he said. “Then I went into cross country season and ran 15:30 at states and puked my brains out. This year, I peaked around 65 miles in the summer and I was doing a lot of workouts and a lot of good stuff. I legitimately trained this summer, and it paid off in the end.”
This year’s race was expected to be a battle between Day and Rockford junior Cole Johnson, who were second and third, respectively, last season. With newfound fitness, Rababeh joined the two of them at the front, then began to pull away at 2.5 miles.
He became the first Dearborn runner since 1930 to win the MHSAA individual boys cross country title, something he never imagined when he was far back in the pack two years ago.
“Maybe top 50, I was hoping, but my junior year just accelerated into something beyond what I ever thought it would be,” Rababeh said. “Now I’m here.”
In the team competition, White Lake Lakeland won its first MHSAA championship since taking back-to-back Class A crowns in 1996 and 1997. Lakeland, ranked fourth in the state, scored 125 points to easily beat runner-up Saline, which had 198.
Birmingham Brother Rice was third with 220, while top-ranked Novi was fourth with 225.
Lakeland put four runners in the top 26 in the team race. Sophomore Harrison Grzymkowski led the Eagles, finishing third overall and second among team runners in 15:51.4.
Also scoring for Lakeland were senior Zack Werth (21st, 16:18.6), senior Joel Woody (25th, 16:22.7), junior Drew Wenger (26th, 16:23.8) and junior Angelo Savich (51st, 16:43.0).
None of the other team contenders had more than two runners in the top 39 in the team scoring.
The MHSAA Cross Country Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Dearborn’s Riad Rababeh (206) stays a pace ahead of contenders Cole Johnson of Rockford and Mitchell Day of Alpena. (Middle) White Lake Lakeland’s Harrison Grzymkowski pushes through to finish third and lead his team to a championship. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)