Otsego Ace, Chelsea Outpace D2 Field
November 3, 2018
Second Half reports
BROOKLYN — When Alex Comerford of Otsego decided it was go time, the race was over.
Nobody else in the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Final field could muster a response to Comerford’s 4:49.11 second-mile surge, one which turned a close race at the mile into a 2.1-mile victory lap for the champion.
Comerford made all-state for the fourth time, but for the first time as the winner, when he crossed the line Saturday at Michigan International Speedway in 15:23.6.
East Grand Rapids junior Evan Bishop was second in 15:35.2.
“It’s awesome,” Comerford said. “I couldn’t ask for any better people to do it with. All of my teammates, we’ve come so far this year from where we started. We have so many young guys.”
Comerford is the only senior on an Otsego team that finished fifth. Two freshmen and a sophomore scored for the Bulldogs.
At the mile mark, Comerford and James Gedris of Grosse Ile came through together in 4:51, five seconds up on the chase pack. It was time for a gear shift.
“I don’t always have the last half mile the other guys do,” Comerford said. “I really had to make a hard move with two miles to go. I felt like I could sustain that pace for a long time. I’m happy with the way it turned out.”
Comerford won 12 out of 13 races this fall, finishing fourth in the Spartan Elite race on Sept. 14. He finished behind Division 1 champion Nick Foster of Ann Arbor Pioneer, Division 4 champion Corey Gorgas of Saugatuck and Gedris.
In his career, Comerford finished 13th, ninth, second and first at the Division 2 meet.
Bishop was thrilled with his finish after placing 61st in Division 1 last year and 22nd in Division 2 as a freshman.
“Going into the race, I was expecting maybe best-case scenario third place today, because Gedris is very good from Grosse Ile, and Alex obviously,” Bishop said. “Those two have always had a decent size gap on me. In the second mile, I saw Gedris coming back to me. Alex was out of the picture, at that point. Gedris was kind of coming back. I was like, “I can get him.’ I put in a little tempo there over the middle mile and used that momentum to the finish.”
A year after winning its first MHSAA Finals championship, Chelsea repeated with 121 points. Fremont was second with 134.
The Bulldogs put together two distinct packs to pull out the victory. Senior Carson Rabbitt (11th, 16:15.8), senior Foster Thorburn (12th, 16:17.0) and junior Will Scott (14th, 16:18.4) finished within 2.6 seconds of each other in the first group. Juniors Zander Hartsuff (56th, 16:55.0) and Joseph Norwood (65th, 16:58.3) were 3.3 seconds apart to complete Chelsea’s scoring.
PHOTOS: (Top) Otsego’s Alex Comerford (325), Grosse Ile’s James Gedris (285) and Corunna’s Ben Jacobs (227) lead a pack of runners during an early stretch of Saturday’s Division 2 Final. (Middle) Chelsea’s Carson Rabbitt sprints to lead team champ Chelsea’s finishers. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)
Century of School Sports: Cross Country Finals Among MHSAA's Longest-Running
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 23, 2024
While we are celebrating multiple milestones this fall – the beginning of the MHSAA’s 100th anniversary, and our 50th Football Playoffs – we already can circle another notable date for the first season of the 2025-26 school year.
This time next fall, we’ll be on the cusp of our 30th Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals at Michigan International Speedway, which has drawn an average of 9,332 fans to those four championship races since becoming their home in 1996.
Boys cross country actually was one of the first sports to have postseason events organized by the newly-formed MHSAA. Annual boys cross country championship races had been run since 1922 (according to L.L. Forsythe’s “Athletics in Michigan High Schools – The First Hundred Years”), and although the 1924 Open Class Final – won by Ann Arbor High School – was competed before the MHSAA’s official start date that December, it is counted on the list of official MHSAA championships. Cross country would be joined that inaugural school year by boys basketball, boys swimming & diving, boys tennis and boys track & field as the first sports with MHSAA-sponsored championship events. Girls cross country would be added in 1978 – the 10th girls sport introduced that decade – as the first steps were taken to provide opportunities for all high school athletes.
Several changes over the 55 years have led to a Michigan high school cross country competitive format that has remained mostly unchanged over the last four decades.
Initially, Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula teams ran Finals together until the break in championship meets for World War II during the 1942 and 1943 seasons. Since 1974, the Lower Peninsula has been separated into four Class (previously) or Division (currently) groupings for postseason competition, and the Upper Peninsula into three. Also, from 1971-96, two individual champions were awarded in each Lower Peninsula Class/Division – a winning runner from a race of team qualifiers, and another winning runner from a race of only those who had qualified for the Finals as individuals. The current field again includes all team and individual qualifiers in one race.
The distance of the championship race was two miles through 1969, then 2.5 miles in 1970 and 1971, and then three miles through the end of that decade. In 1980, the race became the standard five kilometers (or 3.1 miles) run today.
As noted above, the Lower Peninsula Finals moved to MIS in 1996, and annually a course is charted that begins on the stadium infield, continues into the surrounding property and concludes alongside the racetrack’s finishing stretch.
The Upper Peninsula Cross Country Finals are among the most picturesque of any MHSAA championship competitions, run in late October generally against a backdrop of reds, oranges, yellows and greens as tree leaves begin to change and fall. This past weekend, Upper Peninsula winners were celebrated at Pictured Rocks Golf Course in Munising. The Division 1 Boys Final featured the three fastest times run in the history of U.P. championship races.
Lower Peninsula teams will run their Regionals this Friday and Saturday, with Finals qualifiers convening at MIS again Nov. 2 while chased and cheered by an anticipated 10,000 fans in Brooklyn.
Previous "Century of School Sports" Spotlights
Oct. 15: State's Storytellers Share Fall Memories - Read
Oct. 8: Guided by 4 S's of Educational Athletics - Read
Sept. 25: Michigan Sends 10 to National Hall of Fame - Read
Sept. 25: MHSAA Record Books Filled with 1000s of Achievements - Read
Sept. 18: Why Does the MHSAA Have These Rules? - Read
Sept. 10: Special Medals, Patches to Commemorate Special Year - Read
Sept. 4: Fall to Finish with 50th Football Championships - Read
Aug. 28: Let the Celebration Begin - Read
PHOTOS (Clockwise from top left) The 1998 Lower Peninsula Class D Final begins at Michigan International Speedway. (2) Caro’s Yami Albrecht (542) holds onto the lead ahead of Bridgman’s Brian Njuguna during the 2016 LP Division 3 Final. (3) Eventual runner-up Leah Kiilunen of Calumet (9) leads a pack at the 2012 UP Division 1 race in Munising. (4) Runners begin the 1949 LP Class B Final at Washtenaw Country Club. (Photos of 1998 and 2016 Finals by RunMichigan.com; 2012 Finals photo by Paul Gerard; 1949 photo from MHSAA archives.)