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.)
Dow's Garces Runs with Legends, Romeo Makes Run at Legendary Team Score
November 2, 2024
BROOKLYN — When the name of Dathan Ritzenhein is brought up around current Michigan high school cross country runners, it’s a legendary name from the past whose exploits at Rockford took place before they were born.
The female equivalent is Ann Arbor Pioneer’s Rachel Forsyth, who shattered the girls course record at Michigan International Speedway only last year.
To Midland Dow senior Victoria Garces, Forsyth is not just a legendary name, but a contemporary. Garces was in the same race last year — albeit from a distance, like everyone else — when Forsyth posted her epic time of 16 minutes, 28.5 seconds to lower the MIS girls record by a jaw-dropping 23.6 seconds.
Forsyth seemed like she was on a different planet to Garces and anyone else who attempted to challenge her last fall.
Fast forward one year and Garces established herself as one of the all-time greats in Michigan cross country history by winning the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final in 16:37.1.
Garces’ time is the second-fastest ever at MIS and still a healthy 15 seconds lower than the mark Forsyth broke last year.
“Honestly, I’m in shock,” said Garces, who was fifth at both of the last two Division 1 Finals. “I’m just so grateful I’m here healthy. Last year states was a little bit of a challenge for me. I dealt with a little bit of an injury going in. Being here healthy, I just changed my outlook and I’m trying to focus on different things this season. I’m just so grateful to be anywhere near Rachel Forsyth’s time, because she’s just incredible.”
Garces knew she had a special race going when her and 2022 Division 1 champion Helen Sachs of Holland West Ottawa reached the mile mark in 5:24. At the two-mile mark, Sachs was first in 10:43.5, with Garces hot on her heels in 10:44.7.
“Helen started turning it on after the first mile,” Garces said. “I’m like, ‘I’ve never done this before,’ but I still felt pretty good, so I’m like, ‘All right, I’ll try it.’”
Garces broke away on a downhill before entering the stadium, hitting the three-mile mark in 16:04.1. She wound up lowering her personal record by 18.3 seconds.
“I was like, ‘Oh, wow, if I really bring this in, I can maybe get under 16:40,’” she said. “That was insane. I was not expecting to get a PR today, but it was super cool.”
Garces raced only six times all season, winning each time. She broke 17 minutes in all of her final three races.
Finishing third in 17:04.1 was Pioneer freshman Natasza Dudek, who shattered the MIS freshman record of 17:28.7 set by Romeo’s Annie Hrabovsky last year.
Romeo repeated as team champion with a dominant performance, putting six of its seven runners on the all-state podium with top-30 finishes.
The Bulldogs scored 61 points to best runner-up Saline by 82. Romeo had six runners across the line before Saline’s second runner finished.
Junior Natalia Guaresimo was sixth in 17:40.8, sophomore Annie Hrabovsky was 11th in 17:46.8, senior Lillian Deskins was 17th in 17:57.4, senior Violet Hrabovsky was 20th in 18:03.9 and senior Olivia Purdy was 22nd in 18:08.4 for Romeo. Even though her score didn’t count, junior Emmerson Clor made all-state by placing 30th in 18:21.1.
PHOTOS (Top) Midland Dow’s Victoria Garces eyes the finish as she pushes for what ended up the second-fastest girls time in Finals history at MIS. (Middle) Romeo’s Natalia Guaresimo (355) and Kalamazoo Central’s Annie Alkema surge toward the finish line. (Click for more from Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)