Century of School Sports: Cross Country Finals Among MHSAA's Longest-Running
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
October 23, 2024
While we are celebrating multiple milestones this fall – the beginning of the MHSAA’s 100th anniversary, and our 50th Football Playoffs – we already can circle another notable date for the first season of the 2025-26 school year.
This time next fall, we’ll be on the cusp of our 30th Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals at Michigan International Speedway, which has drawn an average of 9,332 fans to those four championship races since becoming their home in 1996.
Boys cross country actually was one of the first sports to have postseason events organized by the newly-formed MHSAA. Annual boys cross country championship races had been run since 1922 (according to L.L. Forsythe’s “Athletics in Michigan High Schools – The First Hundred Years”), and although the 1924 Open Class Final – won by Ann Arbor High School – was competed before the MHSAA’s official start date that December, it is counted on the list of official MHSAA championships. Cross country would be joined that inaugural school year by boys basketball, boys swimming & diving, boys tennis and boys track & field as the first sports with MHSAA-sponsored championship events. Girls cross country would be added in 1978 – the 10th girls sport introduced that decade – as the first steps were taken to provide opportunities for all high school athletes.
Several changes over the 55 years have led to a Michigan high school cross country competitive format that has remained mostly unchanged over the last four decades.
Initially, Lower Peninsula and Upper Peninsula teams ran Finals together until the break in championship meets for World War II during the 1942 and 1943 seasons. Since 1974, the Lower Peninsula has been separated into four Class (previously) or Division (currently) groupings for postseason competition, and the Upper Peninsula into three. Also, from 1971-96, two individual champions were awarded in each Lower Peninsula Class/Division – a winning runner from a race of team qualifiers, and another winning runner from a race of only those who had qualified for the Finals as individuals. The current field again includes all team and individual qualifiers in one race.
The distance of the championship race was two miles through 1969, then 2.5 miles in 1970 and 1971, and then three miles through the end of that decade. In 1980, the race became the standard five kilometers (or 3.1 miles) run today.
As noted above, the Lower Peninsula Finals moved to MIS in 1996, and annually a course is charted that begins on the stadium infield, continues into the surrounding property and concludes alongside the racetrack’s finishing stretch.
The Upper Peninsula Cross Country Finals are among the most picturesque of any MHSAA championship competitions, run in late October generally against a backdrop of reds, oranges, yellows and greens as tree leaves begin to change and fall. This past weekend, Upper Peninsula winners were celebrated at Pictured Rocks Golf Course in Munising. The Division 1 Boys Final featured the three fastest times run in the history of U.P. championship races.
Lower Peninsula teams will run their Regionals this Friday and Saturday, with Finals qualifiers convening at MIS again Nov. 2 while chased and cheered by an anticipated 10,000 fans in Brooklyn.
Previous "Century of School Sports" Spotlights
Oct. 15: State's Storytellers Share Fall Memories - Read
Oct. 8: Guided by 4 S's of Educational Athletics - Read
Sept. 25: Michigan Sends 10 to National Hall of Fame - Read
Sept. 25: MHSAA Record Books Filled with 1000s of Achievements - Read
Sept. 18: Why Does the MHSAA Have These Rules? - Read
Sept. 10: Special Medals, Patches to Commemorate Special Year - Read
Sept. 4: Fall to Finish with 50th Football Championships - Read
Aug. 28: Let the Celebration Begin - Read
PHOTOS (Clockwise from top left) The 1998 Lower Peninsula Class D Final begins at Michigan International Speedway. (2) Caro’s Yami Albrecht (542) holds onto the lead ahead of Bridgman’s Brian Njuguna during the 2016 LP Division 3 Final. (3) Eventual runner-up Leah Kiilunen of Calumet (9) leads a pack at the 2012 UP Division 1 race in Munising. (4) Runners begin the 1949 LP Class B Final at Washtenaw Country Club. (Photos of 1998 and 2016 Finals by RunMichigan.com; 2012 Finals photo by Paul Gerard; 1949 photo from MHSAA archives.)
Sumner Sets Pace in Breckenridge Sweep
November 2, 2019
Second Half reports
BROOKLYN – Getting beat by Coleman Clark occasionally last year only made Mason Sumner a stronger runner.
Sumner, a sophomore at Breckenridge, competes regularly against Clark, a junior from Carson City-Crystal, because both schools are in the Mid-State Activities Conference.
They took their individual rivalry to the biggest stage in the state Saturday, dueling for the championship in the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final at Michigan International Speedway.
Sumner got the best of Clark this time, winning in 16:07.5. Clark was second in 16:16.8. A year ago, Clark took fifth in 16:22.7, just ahead of Sumner, who was sixth in 16:23.0.
“It’s nice to have that competition there,” Sumner said. “Last year, it was definitely back and forth a lot. He had the edge last year in wins. I built up my experience in racing and was able to win more this year. It’s nice to have that in earlier races and every race in the season, because then you’re used to it by state. You don’t get nervous and stuff.”
Clark, who was the conference champion as a freshman, welcomes the challenge from Sumner.
“It’s really nice having that competition at every meet,” Clark said. “When I was a freshman, he was in eighth grade, so my conference meets were really easy. I didn’t have competition. When he came up last year, I’ve had a lot of competition in conference meets. It pushes me to be better.”
Sumner and Clark sat back while Carlos Gascho of Johannesburg-Lewiston set the early pace. They pulled ahead at the two-mile mark, then Sumner made his move a half mile later.
“It went how I wanted it to go,” Sumner said. “I wanted to just sit there and kick. It was going to come down to who could kick at the end.”
Sumner led Breckenridge to its first MHSAA championship since the Huskies won Class C in 1976.
Breckenridge scored 72 points, while runner-up Unionville-Sebewaing had 131.
Colttion Vine was 10th among team runners in 16:56.9, Trent Carter 14th in 17:07.2, Ashton Gillis 19th in 17:15.4 and Colton Chovanec 28th in 17:33.8 for the Huskies.
PHOTOS: (Top) Breckenridge’s Mason Sumner (585) begins his move ahead of Carson City-Crystal’s Coleman Clark, Johannesburg-Lewiston’s Carlos Gascho and Webberville’s Nathan Lott. (Middle) Colttion Vine keeps pace as Breckenridge’s second runner to earn a top-10 finish. (Photos by Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)