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USA Discovering New Winning Pack
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
September 1, 2020
Mike Peter knew his Unionville-Sebewaing boys cross country team would have to make adjustments for the 2020 season, and deal with a different set of circumstances.
And that was before COVID-19 gripped the nation.
“We lost some team dynamic – a team isn’t all about time and place all the time,” the USA coach said. “Two of our senior boys that left the team, they really brought a lot just as teammates to our boys side. We’re trying to find that again. It takes time to rebuild that again when the team dynamic changes. We’ll have to fight a little harder this year and try to find our new normal.”
The Patriots are coming off a runner-up finish at the 2019 Lower Peninsula Division 4 Finals, the best finish in program history. That followed a fifth-place finish the year before which had been the program best.
While they’re off to a slower start this season, they feel the pieces are there to continue that statewide success.
“I think we have a very good chance of coming back to state,” senior Bryce Langmaid said. “I think we have a chance to come back and be top-three again, or win a state championship.”
Three of the five runners who scored at the 2019 Finals are back, led by Langmaid who had an all-state finish at 22nd. Juniors Ty Pavlichek (38th) and Jacob VanHove (53rd) are back as well. The Patriots are without all-state finisher Bentley Alderson, who placed 16th as a junior but has decided to play soccer his senior year.
But the strength of USA’s 2019 team was its pack – all five scoring runners a year ago finished among the top 40 team scorers at the Final. That pack is something the Patriots are currently trying to establish.
“Since Day 1, we’ve been really close, really tight, and Coach has preached pack running,” Langmaid said. “That would be one of the biggest successes of how we run, and that carried over to how tight we are.”
While that pack is still looking to come together on the course this season, it was a big benefit through the spring and summer. With track season canceled because of the pandemic, and in a world of social distancing, Peter said his team did a good job of getting together to run in small groups.
“The nice thing is that there’s a brother and sisterhood with our group,” Peter said. “They are fantastic about texting each other, communicating with one another and getting out for a run. Once we knew track wasn’t going to happen, it was just about packing on miles, and I think for the mental health of a young person who is a person who competes, that was important. Our team is really good about reaching out to each other, and luckily, we didn’t have to meet to do it.”
Staying focused on running helped, but it wasn’t always easy.
“At times I wasn’t,” Pavlichek admitted. “I slowed down and didn’t run as much. When it came closer to the season I started to run more, and I was just hoping we could have a season.”
What helped them get through it, though, was each other.
“I know this put a lot of stress on families, friends and athletes in USA and Michigan,” Langmaid said. “I tried to stay close with everyone and talk with everyone to see how they’re doing. If someone wanted to meet up, I would do that to run with them and talk with them and let them get things off their mind.”
The Patriots have competed twice this season, at their own quad and the Ithaca Early Invitational. They were second in the quad (losing via tiebreaker to Mayville), and fifth at Ithaca.
“It’s hard to come out of a season where you’re second in the state and not feel that pressure again,” Peter said. “Sometimes, I think after having a year where we got first place at almost every meet, it’s hard to come back and uphold that. There’s an unspoken pressure that kids put on themselves, and they have to be OK with a second or third some of the time, and not always running your best time.”
While the results haven’t been there yet for the Patriots, just being back in competition and wearing the school colors felt like a victory.
“From my perspective, it was just wonderful to see a uniform of any of the schools,” Peter said. “It was nice to see kids from other communities at least roughly near each other, and competing. It was nice to see the joy they had to do something they loved.”
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) USA's Bryce Langmaid (736) races to an all-state finish at last season's LPD4 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Ty Pavlichek is another of three USA scorers back from the 2019 runner-up team. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)
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Dimambro Moves to Front of Fenton Pack
August 17, 2016
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
FENTON — Dominic Dimambro was the little kid who often tagged along with his older brother and his friends.
"When we were on the team, he was almost like a team mascot of sorts," said Fenton cross country coach Jesse Anderson, who ran for the Tigers from 2003-06. "We were able to pull out pictures of him out at cross country camp the first or second year he was running. I was on the team with his older brother, Joe. He's been around the running culture for a long time. He's always been very athletic. He's a kid who was able to breakdance and spin on his head when he was 4 years old, so that kept us entertained."
Ten years after Joe Dimambro and Anderson helped put Fenton on the state cross country map, the kid who used to be a source of amusement for the older boys is now the high school senior who has his sights set on big brother's school records.
Joe Dimambro, who went on to run at Michigan State University, holds Fenton's records in cross country (15:24.9 at the 2006 Portage Invitational) and 1,600-meter run (4:12.88 at the 2007 Midwest Meet of Champions). Dominic Dimambro's career bests are 15:48.5, which was good for a 23rd-place finish in last year's MHSAA Division 1 Lower Peninsula cross country meet, and 4:22.67 in the 1,600 from the Regional meet last spring. He went on to place 12th in the MHSAA LP Division 1 LP track and field meet in 4:23.43.
"He's always been coaching me and encouraging me," Dominic said of his older brother. "He wants me to go beyond what he did, so it's a friendly rivalry."
A decade ago, Anderson was a teammate who helped push Joe Dimambro to those school records. Now, he's a second-year coach who could help Dominic break two of the most impressive school records in the Flint area.
"It's great," Dominic said. "He's like a life-long friend of mine. He was friends with my brother growing up. I get to see a lot of him. I get him here at cross country. He's my boss at Red Fox (Outfitters, a Fenton athletic shoe and outdoor gear store). He's been my friend for life. He has a lot of running knowledge. He does a great job with everybody, not just the fast guys – everybody."
And there's one aspect of Anderson's training philosophy that Dominic particularly appreciates — the emphasis on keeping runners healthy.
"He's really done a great job," Dimambro said. "One thing that's been really good is injury prevention. We've had close to no injuries the past two years. He's helped us a lot."
That emphasis hits close to home for Dimambro, because his sophomore year of cross country and track was decimated because of an injury, then an illness. A problem with a nerve in his right leg shut down his 2014 cross country season after only four meets. His fastest time that season was 16:29.2, a time he eclipsed six times as a freshman, with a personal best of 16:17.6.
It was a devastating season for a runner who was the top freshman at the 2013 MHSAA Division 1 LP meet, placing 52nd in 16:24.5. He had to take six months off from running, smack in the middle of a promising high school career.
Once he returned to running, a bout of mononucleosis limited him to four meets the following track season. His best time that spring (4:42.37) was nearly 12 seconds slower than his best as a freshman (4:30.7).
"I was not happy during that time," Dimambro said. "It was really frustrating to see a couple of seasons slip through your hands. For a while, I didn't know if I'd come back to running. I'm really involved in the music program. I thought maybe I'll just stick with that. Now, I use it as encouragement, because I'm back in it and it's all the more reason to do better in the future."
One source of encouragement for Dimambro as he battled through that period was a group of fast running friends that included former teammate Jacob Lee, current teammate Andrew Bond and 2015 Grand Blanc graduate Grant Fisher. Lee was the MHSAA Division 1 LP champion in the 3,200 in 2016, Bond joined Lee and Dimambro on the all-state podium at last year's Cross Country Finals, and Fisher is a two-time national Foot Locker cross country champion who made All-America as a freshman at Stanford University.
"They helped me a lot get back on my feet after my injury," Dimambro said. "Just seeing the times they're posting and encouraging me. They're like, 'You've got to get back into it. You can be right there. You just have to spend some time getting back into it.' They're good training partners and also great friends of mine."
High school runners of Dimambro's caliber don't often have teammates who can keep up with them in workouts. He was blessed last season to have two teammates who could push him in practice and in meets.
At the Division 1 Cross Country Finals, Fenton had three all-state runners who were separated by only seven places and 4.9 seconds. Lee was 19th in 15:46.6, Dimambro 23rd in 15:48.5 and Bond 26th in 15:51.5 to lead the team to a ninth-place team finish. Dimambro and Bond are senior co-captains this year.
"It's always great to have people the same caliber all running together," Dimambro said. "When you have a bunch of other people you're training with, everybody else around you is going to push you. Having a bunch of guys running around the same time is good for the team. Last year, we had a lot of guys running around 18:30. Originally, they were around 20 minutes, but they were pushing each other in practice. No one wants to be the one losing to the others."
For all of Dimambro's accomplishments, he's never won a cross country race in high school. That will happen when you run for three years on a team led by someone like Lee, who now runs for the University of Michigan.
Dimambro had eight top-five finishes last year, with a second place to Lee in the Flint Metro League meet his best. He was third in the Regional behind eventual Division 1 Finals runner-up Mitchell Day of Alpena (now a senior) and Lee.
"I've always just been kind of like Jake's shadow in those races where we'd go 1-2," Dimambro said. "It'll be a little different this year. I wouldn't count out Andrew. He's in phenomenal shape. That kid's fit."
Anderson said he doesn't try to project a goal finish for Dimambro at the MHSAA Finals, because that can be dependent on other runners. He tries to get his runners to control what they can control.
"Our goal for him is to get an underlying strength that he can respond to different stresses in races later on in the year," Anderson said. "He's one of the smarter racers you'll encounter at the high school level. If he's in a pack of people in the same shape as him, I'll take him nine times out of 10. He's very tough and very smart."
Having two returning all-staters at the top of its lineup bodes well for Fenton, which won the Regional championship in Anderson's first season last fall. The Tigers ran in a Regional hosted by Bay City Western last year, but move to one hosted closer to home at Linden this season.
It's a Regional that includes White Lake Lakeland and Milford, two perennial powers who finished among the top seven in last year's Division 1 Finals meet. The top three teams from Regionals qualify for the MHSAA Finals.
"We've got our work cut out for us, but that's why we're here in the morning in the summer to take it day by day," Anderson said. "We'll worry about them when we get in a race."
Bill Khan served as a sportswriter at The Flint Journal from 1981-2011 and currently contributes to the State Champs! Sports Network. 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) Dominic Dimambro (55), flanked by teammate Andrew Bond (51), moves ahead in the pack during last season's Division 1 Cross Country Finals. (Middle) Dimambro works to stay ahead of a Northville runner during this spring's Division 1 Track & Field Finals. (Top photo by Carter Sherline/RunMichigan.com; middle photo by Bill Khan.)