Preview: Set to Launch New Contenders
November 1, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Four individual cross country champions who had won a combined seven MHSAA Finals titles finished their high school careers at Michigan International Speedway last year.
That means there’s plenty of opportunities for the next wave of runners at this weekend’s Lower Peninsula boys cross country championship races, and plenty of candidates ready to take the lead both individually and in what looks on paper to be wide-open team competition in at least two divisions.
A total of 995 runners will take to the course at MIS on Saturday for the four boys races, which begin with Division 4 at 10:50 a.m. Below are some of the teams to watch and a glance at each of the individual fields. Click for all Finals qualifiers, a map of the course and links to buy tickets and watch the live broadcast on MHSAA.tv, and come back to Second Half later Saturday for coverage of all four meets.
Division 1
Reigning champion: Plymouth
2018 runner-up: Walled Lake Central
2019 top-ranked: 1. Brighton, 2. Dexter, 3. Rochester Hills Stoney Creek
Brighton is favored to win its first boys cross country championship since 1995 bringing back its top three finishers from last year’s 10th-place team. Senior Zacahry Stewart was fourth in 2018, senior Jack Spamer was 18th, and Spamer is an individual contender with the state’s second-fastest boys time (14:48.1) this season. Stewart’s 15:07.1 season-best ranks eighth statewide covering all divisions, and senior Scott Spaanstra also returns from last season and could make a run at the individual top 20. Dexter is led by senior Owen Huard, whose 15:04 season best ranks seventh statewide after he finished 16th at last year’s Final. He’s one of four Dexter runners back from the team that finished third last season, and senior Nathan Larson was another top individual coming in 22nd. Stoney Creek finished 16th as a team last year with only one senior in the lineup, its fifth finisher. The other six all are back, with senior Sam Tarling last year’s top individual placer at 52nd.
Individuals: Plymouth senior Carter Solomon has three top-18 finishes at past Finals and came in second, five seconds off the lead, a year ago. He’s undefeated this fall and at his Regional ran the state’s fastest time of the season, 14:42.7. Total, four of last season’s top eight Finals finishers are back. Stewart, Clarkston senior Brendan Favazza (fifth) and Fraser senior Joey Tavalieri (eighth) join Solomon, and nine more of the top 20 placers in 2018 also are back in the field. Hartland sophomore Riley Hough has been another of the top runners in Division 1 this fall after placing 27th a year ago.
Division 2
Reigning champion: Chelsea
2018 runner-up: Fremont
2019 top-ranked: 1. Fremont, 2. Otsego, 3. Haslett.
Chelsea has won the last two Division 2 championships and is ranked No. 4 this week, having graduated its top two from last year’s team but returning its other five runners including senior Will Scott (14th individually in 2018). Last season’s team runner-up Fremont posted nearly a perfect score at its Regional last weekend and returns its top six runners from last year’s Final, led by juniors Nathan Walker (fifth) and Ben Paige (25th); Walker’s 14:52.8 at the Regional is the state’s third-fastest boys time this season regardless of division. Otsego graduated last year’s individual champion from the team that finished fifth, but returns five runners led by senior Hunter Zartman (21st in 2018). Haslett placed now-seniors Joseph Ecklund and Danny Ezzo 38th and 40th last season, respectively, in finishing eighth as a team, and total its top six runners are back this weekend.
Individuals: With four of the top six, six of the top 10, and 9 of the top 19 back from the 2018 Final, this also should be a fast race to the finish. East Grand Rapids senior Evan Bishop was the runner-up a year ago and he’s won every race this fall but one, finishing second to a runner from Ohio at the Spartan Invitational Elite Race at Michigan State. Bishop’s personal record (PR) of 14:56.4 from last weekend’s Regional was the fourth-fastest time in the state this fall. Dearborn Divine Child senior twins Anthony and Michael Hancock have the fifth and sixth-fastest times in the state this fall at 14:59.1 and 14:59.4, respectively, and they came in fourth and sixth at last year’s Final. Linden senior Tyler Buchanan (ninth) and Zeeland West senior Ethan Senti (10th) also are back from the top 10.
Division 3
Reigning champion: Caro
2018 runner-up: Pewamo-Westphalia
2019 top-ranked: 1. Hanover-Horton, 2 Charlevoix, 3. Hart.
Hanover-Horton was the team champion in 2017 and finished fourth a year ago. Four runners from the 2018 team will be back this weekend, with senior Garrett Melling (49th) the top returning finisher. Charlevoix brings back its top two and six of its seven runners from the team that finished 10th a year ago, with Blaise Snabes (64th) the top individual placer from that bunch. Hart was sixth last year and brings back four runners including junior Alex Enns, who came in 11th individually. He and his teammates are bolstered by a trio of freshmen who all finished among the top 19 as Hart edged No. 7 Benzie Central for last week’s Regional title. Saugatuck, last season’s Division 4 champion, is running in Division 3 this weekend and ranked No. 6.
Individuals: Benzie freshman Hunter Jones has been the talk of northern Michigan as one of the state and nation’s fastest in his grade, and his PR of 15:24.8 is nearly 22 seconds better than anyone else’s best in Division 3 this season. Saugatuck junior Nik Pettinga also joins the pack after finishing third in Division 4 last fall. There’s room for new contenders as the top six placers at last season’s Final all were seniors. Pewamo-Westphalia senior Hayden Germain (seventh) is the highest returning finisher, and he was edged by senior teammate Ashton Walker (14th) at last week’s Regional. Jonesville senior Carson Laney (eighth) and Morley Stanwood senior Aiden McLaughlin (ninth) also are back from the 2018 top 10, and New Lothrop junior Carson Hersch could make a big jump. He came in 44th at last year’s Final but has the second-fastest time in Division 3 this fall at 15:46.4.
Division 4
Reigning champion: Saugatuck
2018 runner-up: Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart
2019 top-ranked: 1. Breckenridge, 2. East Jordan, 3. Unionville-Sebewaing.
With Saugatuck in Division 3, there will be a new champion – and Breckenridge is seeking its first title since 1976. The Huskies were fourth last season without a senior in the lineup. All seven runners are back, with sophomore Mason Sumner coming off a sixth-place individual finish and posting the fastest time (15:43.4) in Division 4 this season. East Jordan was third last year with just one senior, and five of the top seven are back including seniors Ethan Nachazel (18th) and Ben Hardy (19th). USA was fifth last season with only one senior, and junior Bentley Alderson (12th) leads six returnees back at MIS.
Individuals: Although Carson City-Crystal junior Coleman Clark is the top returning placer after coming in fifth a year ago, half the top 10 and 11 of the top 20 will race again this weekend. Walkerville senior Shane Achterhof (seventh), Johannesburg-Lewiston junior Carlos Gascho (eighth) and White Cloud senior Reginald Richmond (10th) all are back from the first group. Webberville sophomore Nathan Lott ran the fourth-fastest time (16:20) in Division 4 this fall in winning his Regional after coming in 27th at last year’s Final.
PHOTO: Breckenridge’s Mason Sumner pushes the pace during the Shepherd John Bruder Classic earlier this fall. (Click to see more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Marquette Carrying Confidence Into Finals After Downstate, Out-of-State Successes
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
October 20, 2023
MARQUETTE — Marquette’s cross country teams are both seeking to continue championship runs at Saturday’s Upper Peninsula Finals at Farmhouse Cross Country Course in Gladstone – the girls for the second-straight season and the boys attempting a fifth-straight title.
Their travels far and wide this fall have the teams confident that success will continue.
The Marquette girls did something Sept. 15 no other Upper Peninsula team had been able to do, winning the Green division race at the Spartan Invitational at Michigan State University by edging Novi 142-143.
That was the first of multiple successful trips downstate, and Marquette also ran exceptionally closer to home and in Wisconsin against some of that state’s elite.
“I think we’re just really excited,” junior Monet Argeropoulos said. “We’re really looking forward to pushing each other as a team. That’s what keeps us strong. We just need to go down there and take care of business.”
Sophomore Ella Fure was seventh individually at MSU, and senor Abby Harma ran ninth against a field of Lower Peninsula Division 1 schools.
“That’s probably the highlight of the season from a team standpoint,” Fure said during Tuesday’s practice at the Marquette High School track. “We were all crying. At first they announced Novi had won from the unofficial results. We were a little disappointed, although we gave our best effort. Then they found a scoring error and discovered we had won. I think a lot of people were really excited. The car ride home was very good. It kind of flew by.”
After dominating the El Harger Invite at Munising on Sept. 26, Marquette traveled downstate and ran in the Shepherd Bluejay Invitational four days later where the boys placed fifth and the girls were 16th in the Elite division.
“It’s real different running downstate. We needed to get used to that situation and become more comfortable. I think our athletes know what to expect down there now,” Marquette coach Derek Marr said. “(The girls’) confidence really grew after winning at MSU, and a lot of that carried over into Shepherd.
“Many coaches believed the U.P. teams couldn’t compete downstate, and that upset me. I think we can compete with anybody if we believe in ourselves. We’ve trying to break that limitation.”
Marquette opened this season with two victories at home, dominating the Queen City Invitational on Aug. 18 and edging Macomb Dakota for the title in the Wildcat Invite on Aug. 26.
“I think that set the tone,” Harma said. “Downstate runners come up here for camps. They’re very fast. It’s easier to run fast with faster people. Winning the Spartan Invitational was very exciting, and three of us going under 20 minutes at Shepherd was a highlight. It has been a long time since a team from Marquette has done that.”
“I would say we had an exceptional season,” added junior Seppi Camilli, who covered the 3.1-mile course at Shepherd in a personal-best 16 minutes, two seconds. “Derek and Paige (assistant coach DuBois) did a great job preparing us. The girls winning by one point at Spartan was definitely the highlight. Competing downstate allowed us to exemplify our depth and talent. I think it makes us execute to show our skills.”
Senior Cullen Papin had similar thoughts about the early-season meets.
“Everybody showed up and really worked hard in our first meet,” Papin said. “In the Wildcat meet it was good to get pushed by the biggest school in the state, and it came down to a sixth-runner tie-breaker. That’s what it’s all about. It shows every runner is important.”
The Marquette boys were runners-up to nationally-ranked Stevens Point, Wis., at Neenah, and the girls placed fourth.
“That was definitely a confidence builder going down to Neenah,” Papin said. “It was exciting to see all the hard work the girls put in really pay off against some of the D-1 powers in the state at Spartan, and all seven of us going under 16:50 at Shepherd was cool. There’s lots of good teams down there.
“The atmosphere in practice is pretty good.”
John Vrancic has covered high school sports in the Upper Peninsula since joining the Escanaba Daily Press staff in 1985. He is known most prominently across the peninsula for his extensive coverage of cross country and track & field that frequently appears in newspapers from the Wisconsin border to Lake Huron. He received the James Trethewey Award for Distinguished Service in 2015 from the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.
PHOTOS (Top) Marquette's Ella Fure (526), Monet Argeropoulos (514) and Abby Harma (527) make up part of an early pack during the Wildcat Invitational. (Middle) Marquette's Seppi Camilli (497) runs to first place in the boys Wildcat race held on the campus of Northern Michigan University. (Photos by Cara Kamps.)