Performance: Lansing Catholic's Olivia Theis
September 21, 2017
Olivia Theis
Lansing Catholic senior – Cross Country
After missing out on winning her first Finals championship last fall by less than a second, Theis is undefeated at the 5K distance this fall. On Friday, she outpaced the toughest field the state has seen this season to date – running a personal record 16:59 to win the Spartan Invitational “elite” race at Michigan State University and earn the Michigan Army National Guard “Performance of the Week.”
Theis crossed the line first ahead of Hart junior Adelyn Ackley, who edged her to win last year’s Lower Peninsula Division 3 race at Michigan International Speedway. Also in the “elite” field were reigning LP Division 1 runner-up Anne Forsyth of Ann Arbor Pioneer, reigning LP Division 2 runner-up Anna Fischer of St. Joseph and a combined nine others who finished among the top 10 in either LP Division 1, 3 or 4 including sophomore sister Jaden. Lansing Catholic, which moved to LP Division 2 this season after finishing runner-up last year at MIS in Division 3, came in fourth at MSU on Friday behind two Division 1 teams and Hart.
Olivia did get her first Finals championships last school year, winning the 1,600 and 3,200 meters at the LP Division 3 Track & Field meet. Her 16:59 on Friday made her one of four girls who have broken 17 minutes this fall (Forysth, Ackley, and Traverse City Central’s Sielle Kearney – who came in fifth at the Spartan – are the others) after no one broke 17 in 2016. Theis is exploring her college options and carries a 4.0 grade-point average, with interests in becoming an occupational or physical therapist. Lansing Catholic is ranked No. 2 in LP Division 2 this week and seeking its first team MHSAA Finals championship in girls cross country to go with last year’s runner-up finish and another from 2000.
Coach Tim Simpson said: “She has the talent and then adds in a desire to work as hard as she has to. We are lucky because we have a few girls who will do whatever it takes. Olivia is tireless in her work and very conscientious about it. I literally have to reign in her training. The fact that she ran track has now given her well over a year of continuous training for running; she has stayed injury free as well. In that year of running she has earned her way onto big stages like the FootLocker Nationals and New Balance Track Nationals. In those meets she has done extremely well and pushed her times to new heights as well as her confidence in her abilities. Track season showed everyone including her just how talented she was, and it wasn't just cross country. She has broken records of many of the best runners ever from Michigan and even though she doesn't pay a lot of attention to that, she knows what it means. But she takes everything seriously, never overlooks anyone and is diligent about being prepared.”
Performance Point: “I know that the original plan was to go out and stay with the lead pack, and that’s what Jaden and I did, essentially,” Theis said. “Not even halfway in, a girl started breaking away, so I was like, I’ll go with her. And eventually I just ended up being able to break away from her – Adelyn Ackley, she beat me at states last year. I didn’t want her to be close enough to me where she could out-sprint me again. So I just wanted to keep going, and eventually I realized I could break 17. I had no idea what time I was going to be at, and then in the straightaway I saw it and was like, ‘Oh, I can do this.’ It’s definitely a huge accomplishment. I was definitely hoping to do that at MSU. I knew the competition would be really good, but I had no idea how I’d be feeling. I felt really good, and I’m really happy I took advantage of that level of competition. “
Division 3 to 2: “I think it’s going to be a lot more challenging team-wise. There’s a lot of teams in D2 that have a lot of pack runners. So they have a lot of girls not necessarily individually that are fast, but groups that are fast. I feel like that will be challenging for us as a team.”
Speedy sisters: “It’s really nice, because I can train with (Jaden) at home. It’s someone to push me. A lot of times you don’t want your sibling beating you, especially when she’s younger than you, so it’s pretty motivational. Sometimes it’s hard because we’re siblings, but sometimes we just have to use each other as competition. It’s great. I love having her on the team. I think (eventually) she’ll beat me easily. She already almost beat my (personal record) from last year; she’s a sophomore. I want her to beat all my times, and I think she can do it.”
Born to run: “I like how it makes me feel, and I like how it’s hard. I like challenging myself. I like knowing the people I’m racing, because I know I can talk to them afterward and be like ‘good job’ no matter what happens. I think running has allowed me to get to know a lot more people.”
Also born to help: The human body interests me, and I want to help people. (Occupational therapists) help you get back from injury, back into normal life, from illness back into real life, so I think it would be really cool to be able to help people do that.”
- Geoff Kimmerly, Second Half editor
Every week during the 2017-18 school year, Second Half and the Michigan Army National Guard will recognize a “Performance of the Week" from among the MHSAA's 750 member high schools.
The Michigan Army National Guard provides trained and ready forces in support of the National Military Strategy, and responds as needed to state, local, and regional emergencies to ensure peace, order, and public safety. The Guard adds value to our communities through continuous interaction. National Guard soldiers are part of the local community. Guardsmen typically train one weekend per month and two weeks in the summer. This training maintains readiness when needed, be it either to defend our nation's freedom or protect lives and property of Michigan citizens during a local natural disaster.
Previous 2017-18 honorees:
September 14: Maddy Chinn, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep volleyball - Read
PHOTOS: (Top) Lansing Catholic's Olivia Theis pushes toward the finish line during Friday's Spartan Invitational "elite" race. (Middle) Theis comes down the stretch with the clock telling her how close she is to breaking 17 minutes. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)
Milford Racing to Spell Victory Again
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
August 30, 2017
HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP – Cross Country at Milford is not so much a sport as it is a way of life.
That might sound a tad overstated. But you would have a difficult time convincing Nicole Gringling.
Gringling is a senior at Milford High. She’s competed at the Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals her first three seasons and played a big role on the school’s first MHSAA championship team in girls cross country last season.
The boys program has won five titles, all under Brian Salyers, the head coach for both teams.
An adopted child, Gringling latched onto the sport – and the people who are a part of the cross country community in this western Oakland County town – when she was in middle school. Gringling started swimming at age 4 and gave up the sports competitively seven years later for this opportunity to race outdoors instead.
“I fell in love with cross country,” she said. “Running is more fun (than swimming). I kind of have a rough background. I just have so much fun running with my friends. It’s where I belong.
“I’m definitely looking forward to running in college. It’s part of my personality.”
Milford returns five of its six top runners from a year ago, Gringling being one, and is again one the state’s top teams.
But that doesn’t seem to be important or at the top of the list of priorities for the team or Salyers. It instead gets back to what Gringling said: running cross country is fun. That’s what’s important. And if you win, well, that's makes it more fun.
To understand what cross country means to those in this community one must go back 50 years or more to when the legendary Lee Averill coached Milford’s cross country teams, boys and girls. Averill, a Milford graduate who died in 2014 at age 76, would go on to coach at West Bloomfield and lead his 1989 girls team to an LP Class A title.
Gene Balawajder took over the cross country program in 1970, and though he never coached an MHSAA champion, he came close and along the way was paramount in the continuation of a proud program Averill established. Balawajder’s girls team placed second to Dearborn Edsel Ford at the Class A Final in 1984.
Milford’s girls would win a number of county titles, including in 1988, a year when the boys finished third in at the LP Class A Final.
Salyers was a member of that boys team. That was his senior year, and although Salyers wasn’t one of the top runners (and a better basketball player at the time), he grew to love the sport. In 1996, after graduating from Western Michigan University, Salyers took over the program and Balawajder became the athletic director. To help with the transition, Glen Edwards, Balawajder’s longtime assistant, served as Salyers’ assistant the first two years.
Salyers knew then that he was taking over a special program, one he needed to embrace and enhance.
“The tradition is rich here,” he said. “It’s something we take pride in.
“In terms of having a cross country culture, it runs all through the school. When you put those letters on, M-I-L-F-O-R-D, you play for your school, your parents.”
The letters, those on the jerseys, has become part of Salyers’ imprint on the program – a touch that adds a little more pride. Seven runners represent each school at Michigan International Speedway, and each Milford runner who earns his or her place among those seven wears one of the letters, whether it be the block “M” or the “I” and so on.
Gringling wore the D her freshman year, the L her sophomore season and the letter I last fall.
Junior Victoria Heiligenthal, Milford’s top runner who placed 14th at MIS in 2016 and is the current county champion, is all in with the team aspect of the sport. Like Gringling, Heiligenthal competes in track & field too, her best events being the 800-meter run and the 1,600.
“Wearing the letters is one of my favorite things,” she said. “It’s really a lot of fun. All of the tradition the program has. Even the new conference (Lakes Valley) we’re in is something we look forward to.”
During the offseason, Salyers organizes events and camps to keep the athletes involved and fresh. He holds a team camp near Rapid River in the central Upper Peninsula where his runners train, but also get away from running and (with cell phones hopefully put away) have fun playing Frisbee or football – anything to create camaraderie and stronger friendships. There’s also a group camp, a much larger gathering where the underclassmen and the incoming freshmen mingle with the varsity squad.
“We have a saying,” Gringling said. “And that’s we care about each other more than the other team cares about their teammates.”
Salyers creates an upbeat atmosphere where winning isn’t the goal, but by having fun and working hard you, as an individual, will win even if it’s just by cutting a half second off of your best time.
“There’s a hometown feeling here,” he said. “It’s a fading element in high school sports. The transfers and all that is conflicting with that.
“I don’t know what high school sports will be like in 10 or 15 years. There have been a lot of changes. We try to keep an old-school atmosphere.”
And Salyers is not one to forget the past. When Milford won its first cross country title with the boys team in 2003, he had Balawajder come up to the podium with the team to celebrate in hoisting the trophy.
“That might be my proudest moment,” Salyers said.
There have been many.
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Nicole Grindling (far right) rounds a curve during last season’s LPD1 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Milford’s seven runners spell out their school name on the track after winning their first title. (Below) Victoria Heiligenthal works to stay ahead of another competitor during a race last season. (Photos courtesy of Brian Salyers.)