Preview: Experience Takes the Lead
October 20, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Familiar faces could dominate photo finishes at Saturday’s Upper Peninsula Boys Cross Country Finals at Pictured Rocks Golf Club in Munising.
Two reigning individual champions are back from a year ago, as is the runner-up from the race where the winner has moved on. Reigning Division 2 and 3 team champions Ishpeming and Chassell, respectively, are expected to celebrate again for the fourth straight seasons – but so too is Houghton for the first time since 2011.
Races begin Saturday with the Division 3 girls at 11 a.m. and finish with the Division 1 boys at 1:30 p.m. Check back Saturday evening for coverage of all six Upper Peninsula Finals, and see below for more teams and individuals to watch.
Division 1
Reigning champion: Negaunee
2016 runner-up: Houghton
2017 top-ranked: 1. Houghton, 2. Marquette, 3. Negaunee.
Negaunee has won the last two UPD1 championships and finished 16 points ahead of Houghton last season. The Miners have three of their top seven back for this weekend, led by reigning champion Colton Yesney; he won last year’s race by 36 seconds. But Houghton brings back five of its top six including third-place Clayton Sayen and fifth-place Seth Helman, who like Yesney have continued to dominate this fall as seniors. Marquette is in the mix with its top three and four of its top seven back from last season’s third-place team, paced by reigning Finals runner-up and current senior Garrett Rudden.
Individuals: While Yesney, Rudden, Sayen and Helman give the field four of last season’s top-five finishers, none of the rest of the top 10 returns – although Negaunee sophomore Eric Anderson and senior Elliott Prusi were 10th and 11th last year, respectively. Marquette senior Luke Rambo, who won the Great Northern Conference meet title last week, also likely will be among the leaders. Gladstone junior Adam Bruce won the Mid-Peninsula Conference meet championship (although Yesney was unable to finish) and should find the frontrunners as well.
Division 2
Reigning champion: Ishpeming
2016 runner-up: Wakefield-Marenisco/Bessemer
2017 top-ranked: 1. Ishpeming, 2. Ironwood, 3. Wakefield-Marenisco/Bessemer.
The Hematites have won three straight UPD2 championships and did so last year on the strength of five top-10 finishers, with all seven racers coming in 21st or better. Although reigning champion Grady Kerst graduated, runner-up and now-junior Spencer Giroux, ninth-place sophomore Jonah Broberg, 10th-place junior Devin Tasson and 13th-place senior Kyle Pruett fill the top of this season’s lineup. Wakefield-Marenisco/Bessemer finished 12 points back last year and returns its top six runners who all finished among the top 16 at last year’s Final, led by fourth-place senior Isaiah Aili, fifth-place junior Devon Byers and eighth-place junior Uriah Aili. Ironwood finished a distant fourth last season but also has broken into the picture with an experienced group – junior Nick Niemi was fifth last season as his team brings back its top three and four of the top seven from that race.
Individuals: Total, seven of last season’s individual top 10 will race again this weekend – all seven are mentioned above. Led by Wakefield-Marenisco/Bessemer senior Tim Rowe, six who finished between 11-20 last season also are back including Newberry juniors Chase Canfield and Evan Griffis.
Division 3
Reigning champion: Chassell
2016 runner-up: Brimley
2017 top-ranked: 1. Chassell, 2. Munising, 3. Brimley.
Chassell also has won three straight titles and got past Brimley by 23 points to win last season’s championship. The Panthers bring back two of their top four, led by third-place finisher and now-junior Ben Tuomi. Brimley is fresh off a league title but also returns two of last year’s top four – with senior Austin Plotkin the individual favorite again after winning last year’s Final by 34 seconds. Munising was sixth in Division 2 last season but brings five of the top six runners from that race to this weekend’s finale.
Individuals: Cedarville sophomore Thomas Bohn came in fourth last season and only a second behind Tuomi. Stephenson senior Ethan Brown and Pickford senior Michael Satchell came in sixth and seventh, respectively, and only seven seconds back of Tuomi in third – meaning there could be a pretty tight pack chasing Plotkin, who won by 23 seconds.
PHOTOS: Houghton's Clayton Sayen (447) leads the pack during the Harger Invitational on Sept. 26 at Pictured Rocks Golf Club. Negaunee's Colton Yesney (591) is chasing and ended up winning the race. (Middle) Ishepming's Spencer Giroux came in fourth at the Harger. (Photos by Cara Kamps.)
Eberhard Surpasses Personal Goals, Becomes Linden XC Standard Setter
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
October 20, 2022
Kyle Eberhard has enjoyed running for as long as he can remember.
He joined a mileage club in elementary school. He said his days on the playground weren’t spent playing soccer like some of his classmates, but running back and forth.
Back then, he was simply having fun and blissfully unaware of a Linden High School distance program that was among the best in the state.
Now in his senior year, that love of running helped turn him into the best distance runner the program has ever had.
“Kyle had another year of really solid mileage and had a fantastic track season (as a junior),” Linden boys cross country coach Trevor Hall said. “Coming into cross country season, he was brimming with confidence. Running consumes his thoughts. He’s always thinking about, ‘How can I be a better runner?’ He just does everything right.”
Eberhard recently set the school’s cross country record, completing the 5K course at the Shepherd Blue Jay Invite in 15 minutes, 20.9 seconds. It was nearly 30 seconds better than his previous personal best, and 14.4 seconds better than the previous record, set by Roger Phillips in 2012.
“It’s crazy because my goal was just to get on (the program’s top 10 list),” Eberhard said. “And that was starting last year – by the end of my senior year, the goal was to get on there. I never envisioned getting on the top. There was a senior when I was a freshman, Tyler Buchanan, he’s (third), and I was like, ‘I’ll never be as fast as him.’”
The record started to become a reality for Eberhard this past track season. He set the school record in the 1,600 meters at 4:18.01, was a Regional champion in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 and was all-state at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals in the 800 (fifth) and 1,600 (eighth).
Track season also showed Eberhard’s range as a runner, as he was unbeaten in six 400-meter races, including winning the Flint Metro League championship.
“I’ve been training over the winter since my freshman year,” Eberhard said. “But last winter, I went a lot harder. I raced a lot more. I really focused on racing almost every weekend, and focused on what workouts I was doing, stuff like that.”
Track didn’t just bring confidence to Eberhard, it also brought college interest. Scholarship offers have started rolling in, including from Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan. He’s also visited Michigan State and Oakland, among others, with more visits upcoming.
“In late spring, I was getting more attention from track, and it’s been consistent since then,” Eberhard said. “I’ve been narrowing it down since the start of the summer, going on unofficials and stuff. It’s fun, but it’s also annoying sometimes.”
The recruiting process hasn’t distracted Eberhard from having the best season of his career. He’s won six of Linden’s first eight races, including the Duane Raffin Festival of Races at Holly.
Not among those wins is the Shepherd race in which he broke the record. There, he finished third, behind Thomas Westphal of New Baltimore Anchor Bay and Trent McFarland of Utica, two of the top runners in Division 1.
“I was definitely really locked in that day, just because I knew that was one of two or three chances I had to really run fast this season,” Eberhard said. “I knew I would have more than one person to chase after.”
Eberhard knew he was moving fast throughout the race, and it really hit home when he crossed the 2-mile mark in 9:50, which would be a personal best for him on the track.
“I’m only the cross country coach, but I think that might be the most impressive record of all the distance records at Linden,” Hall said. “Just to have him not just break the record, but blow it out of the water in a program where we’ve had some state runners-up and top-five finishers. We had a plan going in, and he executed it perfectly. It was just a gutsy race. You could see the effort on his face at every step. It was just so cool to witness.”
Eberhard’s time tied for the second-fastest in Division 2 this season with Pinckney’s Evan Loughride. Only Chelsea’s Connell Alford has run faster in Division 2 this season, and he’s done so three times, with his best time 14:53.2.
Eberhard and Loughride will meet at the Regional on Oct. 29 in Waterford, but they won’t see Alford until the Division 2 Final on Nov. 5 at Michigan International Speedway.
“I definitely want to win Regionals, which is going to be a battle,” Eberhard said. “The big one is to try to win the state meet, which is going to be hard with Alford there. I know I can compete with the other guys, but anything can happen. Our coach always says, ‘You’re better than you think you are.’”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Linden’s Kyle Eberhard, left, runs with a pack during the Shepherd Blue Jay Invitational on Oct. 1. (Middle) Eberhard (1222) follows Anchor Bay’s Thomas Westphal, far right. (Photos courtesy of Kyle Eberhard.)