Longterm Investment Paying Off as Kingston Racers Pace Among State's D4 Elite
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
August 16, 2023
When dozens of Kingston elementary students made the decision during the mid-2010s to run cross country, they didn’t realize what they were building.
But their coach, Melinda Freeland, knew that for the program she was building to have a chance at success, it needed a foundation – even if it was more about simply getting involved with something positive at the time.
“It was always a fun thing,” she said. “There was never any pressure. It was just, ‘Do this race, have some snacks, and have a good time.’”
Fast forward to 2022, and the Kingston girls, all of whom had started running in third, fourth or fifth grades, found themselves finishing among the top four as a team at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final.
“I had high aspirations and high goals all the way through,” Freeland said. “I knew it was a good group when I started coaching them. Eight years ago, I had these kids as elementary kids. On both sides (boys and girls), I’ve been coaching them for a long time.”
The 2022 season wasn’t a culmination, however. It feels more like the beginning of the next step for the Cardinals, who have their top six runners back.
While the division’s top teams were filled with underclassmen – Johannesburg-Lewiston, Hillsdale Academy and Whitmore Lake, which finished ahead of Kingston, graduated a combined five runners from their top 7s – Kingston’s strong group of returners has the team excited as well about what’s ahead.
“We think it would be awesome to get top three, that’s something that we’re keeping in the back of our heads,” senior Gracy Walker said. “We want to start out strong this year. We started summer workouts in June, and it’s been pretty consistent since June. We’re definitely going to be more in shape this year. Our workouts have been a lot more intense.”
Spending significant offseason time on a sport can be tough in Kingston, where the best athletes are needed for multiple sports throughout the year, or sometimes during a single season.
Walker, for example, is part of the Cardinals’ highly-successful basketball program, which also demands quite a bit of a player’s time during the summer months.
“You just kind of have to find a way to make all of it work,” she said. “I have cross country in the morning and basketball at night. You try to make it work and do the best you can.”
Walker is one of two seniors, along with Zoe Van Rijn, on a still-young Kingston team. Meegan Flikkie is the lone junior, while three sophomores – Lilah Kiley, Molly Walker and Hailey McGuire – are back for their second seasons. Freshman Violet Tetil joins the group, which does feature just seven runners.
“I think we’re all so close together in our times, if one person can’t go 100 percent that day, the other person makes up for it,” Van Rijn said. “But we push each other more at practice. We all push each other to go better, and that really helps us. It’s so much fun going to practice every day. We’re more than just teammates – these are some of my closest friends.”
While Gracy Walker had the highest finish (24th) at the Final last fall, it’s Kiley that spent the majority of the season as the Cardinals’ No. 1 runner. Her personal best of 19 minutes, 45.6 seconds, which was good for second at the Regional meet, was the team’s best time of the season.
She started running in third grade, and she credits that extra time running competitively with having her ready to compete as a freshman – even if she wasn’t 100 percent sure what she was getting into at first.
“I always liked watching the Olympics, and honestly, when I thought about cross country, I automatically thought about track,” Kiley said. “I didn’t think I was going to be running around the yard and stuff. My first cross country meet, I was very surprised. I just liked running. I think it was sixth grade at North Branch, I came in first and I was surprised. I didn’t know my body could do that. That was the turning point for me.”
Gracy Walker was close behind Kiley with a PR (personal record) of 20:03, while Molly Walker and Flikkie both have PRs within a minute of Kiley, and Van Rijn has run 21:50.
“I think there’s a lot of motivation, with it being a small group, they all realize the role they have to play,” Freeland said. “It’s not a situation of, ‘If I run bad, somebody else will take my spot on the team.’ I was involved in the restart of Kingston cross country. Back in the 80s (1983), our girls program won a state championship for Class D. We’ve been told the story, they had five girls and there was a tie, so that fifth girl won it. Everybody has to contribute if we want to be a success.”
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) Kingston's Gracy Walker (2057) pushes down the stretch during last season's LP Division 4 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Lilah Kiley (2053) paces a pack at MIS last fall. (Below) Meegan Flikkie (2052) charges toward the finish. (Click for more from Carter Sherline/Run Michigan.)
'I just wanted people to go the right way'
September 12, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
They were running in the dark – a key scene-setting detail to keep in mind.
So being familiar with the course surely gave St. Johns’ cross country runner Taryn Chapko an edge during her school’s Under the Lights Invitational on Aug 18.
And yet, she didn’t take advantage of it as much as she could have – making the first night of her sophomore season more memorable both for Chapko and the competitor who crossed the line first that evening.
The 5K course was lit in many places by large construction lamps, lights from the tennis courts or other portable fixtures set up to mark the way. But admittedly, some points were a little dim. And that’s where Chapko became a guide, yelling to a small pack of frontrunners ahead of her when to turn.
That probably doesn’t seem like a big deal – unless you’re Goodrich junior Jillian Lange. Lange ended up winning the race in 19:16. Chapko finished third in 19:48 – instead of first, which might’ve been the case especially if she had allowed the leaders to continue taking a wrong turn about a mile in.
Going the wrong way could’ve meant turning around, doubling back and losing time – or being disqualified for cutting the course shorter.
“I know a lot more people (this year) just from running, from other schools. We’re all doing the same thing. We all want to get better. I like helping people get better,” Chapko said. “It’s the first race, and they want to feel good about themselves for the rest of the season, because if you had a bad first race you might start getting down on yourself. And I don’t want people to be upset, especially with a race that’s so much fun.”
To be honest, Chapko didn’t think her little bit of directing was a big deal either – until St. Johns administrators received an email two weeks ago from Goodrich athletic director Dave Davis, who expressed his appreciation for her sportsmanship after hearing about it both from Lange and his cross country coaching staff. “Please relay to Taryn and your coaches my appreciation for this simple act of sportsmanship and kindness,” Davis wrote. “We need more of that.”
“I just wanted people to go the right way,” Chapko said, recalling the race last week. “I saw the email and I was like, ‘It’s bigger than I thought.’
“I guess it doesn’t happen too often.”
Or at least not as much as it should – which, again, should make this race stick out among the many both will run over the next few seasons of their high school careers.
This was the third year St. Johns has hosted the opening night meet. The first race goes off at 9:30 p.m. It’s a neat way to change up the 5K distance these runners will tackle a number of times over the following three months.
But admittedly, starting after dusk leaves a couple of dark spots on the course – especially behind the tennis courts and near a barn about a mile in to the first of two laps, where Lange and the frontrunners with her nearly left the path.
This was the first time Goodrich took part in the Under the Lights race, and Lange said this week that she remembers feeling like a little bit of an “outsider” starting out because her team hadn’t run in the event before. But when Chapko yelled out which way to go, that changed.
“It was out of nowhere, she’d be like ‘left,’ or ‘turn right,’ or ‘go around this,’” Lange recalled. “It was really great of her to think of me as another person she could help.
“In cross country, you’re racing against these people (and) it can get pretty harsh out there. You want to win. Just the fact she was kind enough to let me stay on course, because at some points she was pretty close to me and she could’ve gone in front when I was in front because I screwed up and went too far. She was just being honest in the race, and that’s what I like about it. The kindness really makes the race what it is, because that was fair.”
The pair of standouts had crossed paths before. In both runners’ last cross country race before meeting again at St. Johns, Lange finished seventh at the Lower Peninsula Division 2 Finals in a time of 18:49. Chapko was 10th in 19:06. So finishing ahead of someone who had beaten her the last time out would have been an incredible way for Chapko to start this season – but not because Lange got lost.
There’s a kinship among distance runners, longtime Redwings coach Bob Sackrider has noticed over the years, and Chapko gets it. She also knows what it’s like to get off-course – she did so once as a freshman, and Sackrider has talked with his teams about how to handle that situation.
“Obviously there’s an enormous sense of pride that others recognized what we’re working toward,” Sackrider said of Davis’ note. “And I was thrilled that Taryn was able to have the wherewithal in the moment to employ what we’ve been talking about. It’s one thing to talk about it; it’s another thing to actually do it and actually be aware enough in the middle of the race to do it.”
Both runners have similar goals moving forward this fall. Both have times they are shooting to beat (and Chapko just did) – she said last week she was looking to break 19 minutes and she did so Saturday with an 18:56 at Bath, while Lange is hoping to break 18 after posting an 18:20 last October.
They both also are shooting to get their teams back to Michigan International Speedway and the MHSAA Finals on Nov. 4 – the next time the two are expected to cross paths again.
“It’ll be touching I guess. You make these friends, and you never see them, but you’re automatically just friends … (because) you have these similarities,” Lange said. “You can go up to a random person and be like, ‘Remember that time?’ That’s what I’m looking forward to.”
Geoff Kimmerly joined the MHSAA as its Media & Content Coordinator in Sept. 2011 after 12 years as Prep Sports Editor of the Lansing State Journal. He has served as Editor of Second Half since its creation in Jan. 2012. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Barry, Eaton, Ingham, Livingston, Ionia, Clinton, Shiawassee, Gratiot, Isabella, Clare and Montcalm counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Runners take off from the start of the Under the Lights Invitational last month. (Middle) Goodrich’s Jillian Lange pushes through the midpoint of last season’s Final at MIS. (Below) St. Johns’ Taryn Chapko sprints down the final stretch of the championship race last fall. (Top photo courtesy of St. Johns cross country, middle and below by RunMichigan.com.)