Potter's House's Osterink, Hillsdale Academy Earn 1st Finals Wins
November 6, 2021
BROOKLYN — Lezawe Osterink’s arrival among the state’s elite was deferred for a year.
He was ready to make a run at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 cross country championship in 2020, but was unable to run at Regionals after breaking his collarbone on a training run.
Who says cross country isn’t a contact sport?
The junior from Wyoming Potter’s House showed up Saturday at Michigan International Speedway as a different runner than the one who had a respectable 55th place as a freshman in 2019.
Osterink completed an undefeated season by winning the Division 4 race in 15:50.60. He won by 23.76 seconds ahead of Concord senior Jonathan Mikovits.
Last year, Osterink was on track to get to MIS when he won the Pre-Regional meet.
“I broke my collarbone before Regionals, then I got COVID,” he said. “That was kind of a big disappointment. I couldn’t run at all. We were going to try to push it and try to win state that year.”
Osterink won all 13 races in which he competed this fall, giving him a 14-race winning streak going back to last season.
After racing at MIS as a freshman, he began to dream about becoming a Finals champion.
“I didn’t know if it would become realistic,” Osterink said. “I put in a lot of work. Our coach knows what he’s doing. I had good teammates to train with. That’s what I would say got me here.”
Osterink reached the mile mark in 5:03.3, giving him a 4.6-second cushion over Mikovits. The lead increased to 7.6 seconds when Osterink hit a two-mile split of 10:10.1.
“I could feel myself running away,” he said. “I was surprised. They went out good. They stuck with me for a while. I was scared of the guy behind me. I didn’t look back, but people who were there said he was close, so I had to keep hammering the whole time.”
In the team competition, Hillsdale Academy grouped its second through fifth runners only 13 seconds apart to win with a score of 154 points.
Senior Emil Schlueter gave Hillsdale Academy a low stick with his eighth-place finish in 16:49.75, good for sixth among team runners. Two eighth-graders scored for the Colts: Cole Bates (64th, 17:56.70) and Grayson Rorick (72nd, 18:02.22). Also scoring were sophomore Thomas Holm (51st, 17:49.17) and freshman Vincent Reagle (69th, 17:59.71).
It was the first MHSAA team championship for the Colts, whose best finishes were 10th-place showings in 2010 and 2018.
Concord had three runners in the top 22, but had to count runners who were 75th and 159th overall.
PHOTOS Potter’s House’s Lezawe Osterink approaches the finish of the Division 4 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Hillsdale Academy’s Thomas Holm (844) and Adrian Lenawee Christian’s Grant Long (764) push down the final stretch. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)
East Grand Rapids, Chelsea's Alford Take Next Steps as 1st-Time Finals Winners
November 5, 2022
BROOKLYN – The seeds that bore fruit Saturday for Chelsea junior Connell Alford were planted five years ago.
After making his first trip to watch the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals at Michigan International Speedway as a sixth grader, Alford began setting lofty goals for himself.
“In 2017, Chelsea won the team title,” Alford said. “That was my first state meet. Then I saw one of our runners get fifth. I thought, ‘You know what, I want to be a state champion one day.’ Since then, it’s always been a goal.”
Alford isn’t the only runner to dream of becoming a state champion, but he was able to make that dream a reality.
He dominated the field in the Lower Peninsula Division 2 meet, posting a time of 15:12.61 to outpace runner-up Carter McCalister of Monroe Jefferson by 24.93 seconds.
Running solo up front meant having to bear the full brunt of a strong wind. But Alford didn’t want to leave anything to chance after getting outkicked for fourth place last year by Dearborn Divine Child’s Michael Hegarty. Hegarty was fourth this year.
“I feel like there’s always a wind like that in the last 100 meters, like last year when I got fourth and got outkicked,” Alford said. “My game plan this year was don’t be in the final straight with anyone so I can’t be outkicked.”
Alford was the prohibitive favorite in Division 2 all season after winning eight of nine meets on his way to MIS and breaking 15 minutes twice. He didn’t see it that way.
“I still can’t totally believe it happened,” he said. “I knew with my performances there would be a shot, but after Regionals it was all open. It could have been anyone. We had super-fast Regionals. I knew there were crazy-fast people in the Regionals. It was still up for grabs in my mind.”
For the second-straight year, a runner from the Southeastern Conference White won the Division 2 title. Alford was preceded atop the podium by Pinckney’s Caleb Jarema, who now runs for the University of Michigan.
“I think last year I had Caleb Jarema in almost every race I ran,” Alford said. “That really helped. I learned stuff he did. I knew I could go off of what he did. He was such a strong runner. I used him as a model of, ‘Hey, I’m going to train so I can do that, too.’”
The SEC White flexed its collective muscles again in Division 2, with three of the top four teams hailing from that six-school division.
East Grand Rapids won the meet with 132 points, but the next three teams were from the SEC White. Chelsea was only five points out of first, Pinckney was 11 back and Adrian was 32 back.
While Chelsea, Pinckney and Adrian had runners in the top 10, East Grand Rapids won with the strength of its pack.
The Pioneers didn’t have a finisher until junior Ryan Brinker crossed in 28th place in 16:19.01, but he soon had company. Junior Alex Thole was 33rd (16:28.79), senior Elijah Robinson was 36th (16:30.52), freshman Jonah Workman was 45th (16:38.09) and junior Davis Christy was 46th (16:40.83).
The team title was the first in boys cross country for the Pioneers.
PHOTOS (Top) Chelsea’s Connell Alford travels the final paces of his LPD2 championship run Saturday. (Middle) East Grand Rapids’ Davis Christy (458) is among leaders of a pack heading toward the finish. (Click for more from Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)