Rababeh, Lakeland Earn Long-Awaited Wins
November 5, 2016
Second Half reports
BROOKLYN – What Dearborn’s Riad Rababeh accomplished with a minimal amount of work was pretty remarkable.
It got him wondering what he could do if he trained with a purpose for his senior season of cross country.
The result of his effort was the MHSAA Division 1 individual championship Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
Rababeh had the fastest time of the day in all four divisions, posting a 15:24.8 on a course that had some muddy sections to win by a 16-second margin over Alpena senior Mitchell Day.
A year ago, Rababeh shocked himself by placing eighth in the MHSAA meet in 15:30.8. The year before, he was 124th in 16:45.7. As a freshman, he was 32nd in his Regional in 17:38.3, which didn’t come close to qualifying for the MHSAA Finals.
“My junior year, I didn’t do anything,” he said. “Then I went into cross country season and ran 15:30 at states and puked my brains out. This year, I peaked around 65 miles in the summer and I was doing a lot of workouts and a lot of good stuff. I legitimately trained this summer, and it paid off in the end.”
This year’s race was expected to be a battle between Day and Rockford junior Cole Johnson, who were second and third, respectively, last season. With newfound fitness, Rababeh joined the two of them at the front, then began to pull away at 2.5 miles.
He became the first Dearborn runner since 1930 to win the MHSAA individual boys cross country title, something he never imagined when he was far back in the pack two years ago.
“Maybe top 50, I was hoping, but my junior year just accelerated into something beyond what I ever thought it would be,” Rababeh said. “Now I’m here.”
In the team competition, White Lake Lakeland won its first MHSAA championship since taking back-to-back Class A crowns in 1996 and 1997. Lakeland, ranked fourth in the state, scored 125 points to easily beat runner-up Saline, which had 198.
Birmingham Brother Rice was third with 220, while top-ranked Novi was fourth with 225.
Lakeland put four runners in the top 26 in the team race. Sophomore Harrison Grzymkowski led the Eagles, finishing third overall and second among team runners in 15:51.4.
Also scoring for Lakeland were senior Zack Werth (21st, 16:18.6), senior Joel Woody (25th, 16:22.7), junior Drew Wenger (26th, 16:23.8) and junior Angelo Savich (51st, 16:43.0).
None of the other team contenders had more than two runners in the top 39 in the team scoring.
The MHSAA Cross Country Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Dearborn’s Riad Rababeh (206) stays a pace ahead of contenders Cole Johnson of Rockford and Mitchell Day of Alpena. (Middle) White Lake Lakeland’s Harrison Grzymkowski pushes through to finish third and lead his team to a championship. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)
Plymouth Wins 1st Title, Foster Wins 2nd
November 3, 2018
Second Half reports
BROOKLYN — Carter Solomon doesn’t mind losing a cross country race.
For the Plymouth junior, it’s all about the competition.
He got plenty in the form of Ann Arbor Pioneer senior Nick Foster, but Solomon got the victory he really wanted by leading Plymouth to its first championship at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 meet Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
The Wildcats were runners-up by three points last year, but came through in another close meet to edge surprising Walled Lake Central, 122-127.
Walled Lake Central came into the meet ranked No. 11, but this meet didn’t necessarily go according to form, with the exception of Plymouth. The Wildcats were ranked No. 1, but none of the other teams ranked in the top three finished there when it mattered most.
“I’m so proud of those guys after last year being runner-up,” Plymouth coach Jon Mikosz said. “To have the pressure on them all year and to be able to come back and pull it off is amazing.”
Solomon led the way, finishing second in 15:18.1. He battled Foster, the reigning champion, step for step until the Pioneer senior pulled away with the finish line in sight to win in 15:13.0.
“Unfortunately, this is only the second time I’ve raced him this year,” Solomon said. “The previous year, we raced three or four times. I love racing against him. I love racing against competition. It makes the race that much more fun.
“I love going out to races like this and testing myself. In a few weeks, I’m going to the Foot Locker regional. I know that’s a really stacked race. I’m super excited for that. I knew Nick was going to be there the whole race. He closed a lot harder than I did.”
Foster and Solomon were part of a five-man lead pack at the two-mile mark. Foster said he believed he could prevail if it came down to a kick at the end.
“I was pretty confident,” he said. “I knew a couple of those guys can finish pretty strong. I knew it wouldn’t come easy. With 700 meters to go, I felt good. I knew Carter was on me. I just had to keep going right through the finish. It was tough, but this is my third year doing it, so I knew it was going to be tough. But, like last year, I realized I have more left than I think.”
Walled Lake Central ran with a tight pack, its five scoring runners separated by only 16.2 seconds. The Vikings couldn’t overcome Plymouth’s strength near the front.
Following Solomon for the Wildcats were sophomore Patrick Byrnes (15th, 15:56.2), senior Brandon Boyd (33rd, 16:13.8), senior Jarrett Warner (60th, 16:31.9) and junior Tyler Mussen (63rd, 16:34.8).
PHOTOS: (Top) Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Nick Foster (11), Plymouth’s Carter Solomon (111) and Brighton’s Zachary Stewart (36) lead the pack near the midway point of the Division 1 Final. (Middle) Plymouth’s Patrick Byrnes pushes down the final stretch. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)