One Mora Chance To Finish On Top
November 2, 2012
Mr. Competitive got the nickname from his fourth grade teacher, and he still loves to win.
He's enjoyed that feeling more times than most over the last three years. But Connor Mora nearly made a decision that would’ve deprived the state’s cross country community of its fastest runner this season.
Soccer was a serious contender for Mora’s talents as he contemplated what fall sport to play as a freshman. Not until the end of June that summer did the now-senior decide to join Cedar Springs’ cross country team instead.
“I’ve thought about it a lot, where my life would be if I chose to play soccer. I don’t know where I’d be right now,” he said.
And the rest is history. Or can become so today.
A Second Half High 5 recipient this week, Mora will run in his fourth and final MHSAA cross country championship race at Michigan International Speedway, and is expected to lead the pack.
To answer Mora’s question, had he chosen option two, he might have just finished patrolling the Redhawks’ midfield. He was “all right” at soccer and played it through middle school. But that’s when he also decided to run cross country with some friends who were joining the team.
Great call. Fast forward to Nov. 7, 2009, when he ran a 16:23.4 at MIS. He finished 15th at the Division 2 Final and was the fastest freshman in that race. Only Lake Orion’s T.J. Carey (16:18.2) was faster among freshmen from all four divisions.
In 2010, Mora cut his Finals time to 15:39. He finished fifth in Division 2 and was the fastest sophomore in any race by five seconds.
Last season he ran a 15:33.2 at MIS, good for third in Division 2 behind two seniors. And he was again second-fastest in his grade on the day, with only Carey in Division 1 edging him by a second.
So it makes sense that Mora enters his final high school cross country race with the fastest time in the state this fall by 11 seconds after breaking the 15-minute milestone with a 14:54 at his Regional a week ago.
That time broke his personal best by 20 seconds and the Cedar Springs school record by seven.
"The exciting thing for me as a coach was being able to call off his time with maybe 200 or 300 meters to go. That’s one of my styles; I’m not at the finish line, I’m away from the finish line letting them know where they’re at,” Cedar Springs coach Ted Sabinas said. “When I called out his time, I could see he instantly knew what that meant. He had put on an amazing 800 anyway to separate himself from Clark Ruiz (of Big Rapids). When he knew he had a chance to break into the 14s, that look on his face, that effort he put in, it was something to see.”
Breaking into the 14s for a high school runner is comparable to a running back rushing for 2,000 yards or a basketball player scoring 2,000 points in a career. It’s done on occasion, but only by the very best.
Sabinas has coached cross country at the school for 28 years. He’s watched the program emerge from its beginnings to an MHSAA team title contender, and he told Mora earlier this week that he remembers vividly when his all-time top runner broke into the 16s for the first time, and then the 15s too.
But he’s become memorable for more. Mora won MHSAA track championships in the 1,600 and 800 this spring, and owns the school 1,600 record of 4:09. He’s a 3.8 student and a leader who pulled in even his youngest teammates and helped them to feel included. Mora remembers the runners who pushed him when he was a freshman, and works to supply the same influence now.
“Certainly his times stick out. But it’s his nature and his personality,” Sabinas said. “He’s a leader on the team with his actions. He leads by the way he presents himself in practice. He doesn’t take an easy day. He leads in the classroom. We’ve got a close-knit group of kids here, and he leads the way.”
That will be the goal today. Mora has finished lower than first only once this season, nearly two months ago.
“My drive to win, that’s really what drives me. I don’t want to sound full of myself or anything, but I just want to be the best,” Mora said. “I want to set an example mostly for others coming up, who are in that position, and I want to give them someone to look up to.”
PHOTO: Cedar Springs' Connor Mora (left) rounds a turn during last season's Division 2 Final at Michigan International Speedway.
Benzie's 'Once-In-A-Lifetime' Champ Running Once More to Make History
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
November 4, 2022
When Benzie Central superstar Hunter Jones seeks his fourth straight MHSAA Finals cross country title Saturday, his race strategy will not change.
He plans to get the lead early, beat everybody in the first mile, pick up the pace in surges in the second mile and hang on with whatever he has left in the tank for the third mile.
And, perhaps as important, don’t get off course.
“I am kind of known as the guy that goes the wrong way,” Jones admitted with a laugh. “I’ve done it quite a few times.
“Now I have to make a conscious effort to walk the course before,” he continued. “You know I am always a little worried if there is no cart in the front to go in front of the race.”
Jones recalls almost following a cart off the course in one of his Finals. Luckily, he realized in time that the cart was leaving the course and he managed to avoid disqualification.
“The cart actually went off the trail to get out of my way, and I followed the cart,” he recalled. “I almost went off the course.
“I stayed in between the cones, and it probably cost me five seconds.”
He’ll be running the same course — Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn — that he’s dominated in winning Lower Peninsula Division 3 championships his first three years. And he’s coming off setting a course record at Remus Chippewa Hills, hosts of the Regional. That win finished a career Regional sweep for Jones, and he’ll be joined at the Finals by his entire team as the Huskies placed third.
The only year Benzie didn’t join Jones at the Finals was 2020 when the team was missing a top runner because of COVID-19. Dorian Olsen, Benzie’s number four runner, also will be appearing in his third Final as the only Huskies teammates to run with Jones all four years.
If Jones is successful in winning Saturday, he will become only the second Lower Peninsula runner to capture four Finals individual championships. The other was Ryan Shay of Central Lake from 1993-96. Shay went on to an All-America career at Notre Dame and ran professionally until his unexpected death in 2007 after he collapsed during the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in New York City.
Jones also has besting Jake Flynn’s three cross country Finals championships won for Benzie some 20 years ago on his mind as he seeks to become the first ever Michigan runner to win four with individual and team qualifiers competing in the same race. Shay won four championships during the era where separate Finals were run for team and individual qualifiers. Shay's championship as a freshman came in the individual qualifier race and his time would not have won the team race, but it's tough to say what might or what might not have happened had he been pushed by those he didn’t get the chance to run against.
Jones is well aware of the history, which also includes Brimley’s Austin Plotkin becoming just the second runner in state history to win four consecutive Finals titles when he finished his run at the Upper Peninsula Division 3 championship race in 2019.
“I would say it was a goal my freshman and sophomore year, and afterwards in became part of a plan,” Jones said of winning four titles. “It became a step in my bigger goals of going to nationals, getting All-American and national titles and stuff.
“I am on a good path,” he continued. “I feel like I have to keep improving and keep working hard.”
Jones will be going to Wake Forest next fall to join one of the elite Atlantic Coast Conference cross country programs. “We have a really good recruiting class for my years so all those guys will be pushing me,” Jones predicted.
Before that, he’ll also try to reach lofty goals for his senior track season including running a sub four-minute mile and going after the Benzie school record in the 400. Jones owns all of the long-distance school records at Benzie, and he’ll try to break those as well, setting the bar on those races even higher.
“Many before him set records that many thought may never be broken,” said Benzie coach Asa Kelly. “Hunter is different though.
“His current 5K PR (personal record) is 40 seconds faster than the previous record holder Jake Flynn, and he was a three-time state champion, Mr. Cross Country for the state of Michigan, and a Foot Locker All-American,” Kelly continued. “To put his legacy into perspective will take many years, and we still may never fully grasp the kind of runner Hunter Jones was.”
Benzie has a tradition of naming training groups after legendary runners, and team members fall into those based on ability level. Jones now has a group named after him. He is currently the solo member of that tier, and it may not ever change.
“Hunter has put himself in a separate class when it comes to the great Benzie runners,” Kelly said. “We have had so many tremendous runners come through this fine program.
“He is a once-in-a-lifetime athlete for a school like Benzie Central.”
Jones’ brother Rick and sister Sarah are among past standouts in Benzie’s rich track and cross country past. Hunter recalls watching his siblings compete, and also how he started running as a second grader and was winning races against fifth and sixth graders.
He hopes he’s had an impact on younger runners, especially the up-and-coming ones in Benzie’s middle school program. He’s looking forward to their futures as well.
“I feel like the people that are coming up now, like the middle schoolers and the freshman now, are going to be pretty good,” Jones said. “The younger kids definitely look up to me, and I try to do the right thing.”
Like many high school seniors, Jones has been surprised by how fast his high school days are vanishing.
“It’s gone by really fast,” Jones said. “I can’t believe it is almost four years already.
“I am sad that I am going to leave, but mostly excited that I get to go on and keep moving on to bigger things.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. 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) Benzie Central’s Hunter Jones (241) leads the pack during a race this fall. (Middle) Jones crosses the finish line first during last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 3 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Top photo courtesy of the Benzie Central boys cross country program; middle by RunMichigan.com.)