Pioneer Closes Finals with D1 Sweep
November 4, 2017
Second Half reports
BROOKLYN — On top of the normal pressure of racing in the MHSAA Cross Country Finals, runners in the boys Division 1 meet Saturday had to wait through two weather delays before taking the course at Michigan International Speedway.
Every team and every runner had different ways of coping with the extra dose of stress.
What did Ann Arbor Pioneer do?
Sing.
“We just act like it never happened,” Pioneer junior Nick Foster said. “Our team stayed loose and tried to act like it was a normal race, a normal start. We actually did start singing Bob Marley’s ‘Don’t Worry About a Thing’ to stay loose. It’s fun. We knew this was a good opportunity for our team. We wanted to execute.”
The Pioneers brushed aside the one-hour, 10-minute delay and swept the team and individual championships in Division 1.
Pioneer edged Plymouth by a slim 107-110 margin, while Foster unleashed a fierce kick to win a three-man battle for the individual title.
Rockford senior Cole Johnson was leading with the finish line in sight, but Foster stormed from behind to take the lead with about 20 yards remaining. Foster crossed the line in 15:16.1, Johnson was second in 15:18.2 and White Lake Lakeland junior Harrison Grzymkowski was third in 15:18.4.
“I realized it was coming down to the end,” Foster said. “I saw he was fading, so I tried to catch him. There was also someone right behind me. I just gave it everything I had at the end, just to see what happened. Cole’s such a good runner. I didn’t think it was possible.”
It was the sixth team championship for Pioneer, which last won in 2008.
“That’s more important to me than winning individually,” Foster said. “I just know if I get first, that’s the best I can do for the team. We have such a strong team this season with a lot of seniors. I wanted to do it for them.”
After Foster, the Pioneers’ next four runners finished within 16.8 seconds of each other. Senior Aldo Pando-Girard was 20th among team runners in 15:59.1, junior John Florence was 25th in 16:11.5, senior Jack Wallace was 26th in 16:12.0 and senior Philip Valtadoros was 35th in 16:15.9.
By coming in second, Plymouth had the best finish in school history, eclipsing third-place finishes in Class B in 1944 and 1947. The Wildcats hadn’t finished in the top 10 since taking 10th in Class A in 1961.
Led by sophomore Carter Solomon’s fifth-place overall finish in 15:24.2 and with only one senior in the top six, Plymouth might improve upon that showing next year.
Defending champion Lakeland took third with 130 points.
PHOTOS: (Top) Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Nick Foster crosses the finish line at Saturday’s Division 1 Final. (Middle) Pioneer’s Aldo Pando-Girard (5) and New Baltimore Anchor Bay’s Michael Zedan (888) race through a stretch. (Click for more from 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.
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.
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.)