Preview: Changes Coming at the Top?
November 6, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
There could be a few changes on the trophy stand at the end of Saturday’s Lower Peninsula Girls Cross Country Finals at Michigan International Speedway.
But maybe not.
Reigning champions Birmingham Seaholm in Division 1, Grand Rapids Christian in Division 2 and Beal City in Division 4 all graduated pack leaders this spring – but remain among the top-three ranked teams in their respective divisions.
In an opposite scenario, two of the top three contenders in Division 3 didn’t run as a team at the Finals a year ago.
See below for the stories behind the team and individual races for all four divisions, and click for a full list of qualifiers for each and information on Saturday’s event – which this fall includes 975 girls.
DIVISION 1
Reigning champion: Birmingham Seaholm
2014 runner-up: Traverse City Central
2015 top-ranked: 1. Birmingham Seaholm, 2. Northville, 3. Brighton.
Seaholm graduated its top three from the championship run including the top two individual finishers in the LP Division 1 race – but the next three runners last season all finished among the top eight at last week’s Regional, with junior Audrey Ladd second and senior Patty Girardot crossing third. Northville won LPD1 in 2013 and then finished third last season with only one senior among its seven runners; all seven Mustangs finished among the top 16 at last week's Regional, led by senior Lexa Barrott in second place. She was 15th at the 2014 Final, and junior Cayla Eckenroth was 11th. Brighton finished only ninth a year ago but with three freshmen, two sophomores and a junior making up the top six. All seven runners were among the top 19 at last week’s Regional, with senior Jenna Sica third.
Individuals: In addition to the Northville pair mentioned above, seven more are back from last year’s top 15. Macomb L’Anse Creuse sophomore Karenna Duffey, Port Huron senior Rachel Bonner and Traverse City Central sophomore Sielle Kearney took third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Ann Arbor Pioneer sophomore Anne Forsyth was seventh and Romeo senior Emma Wilson was 10th. Wilson finished nine seconds ahead of Bonner at their Regional last week, and Kearney and Forsyth also won Regional titles – as did Farmington’s Maddy Trevisan and Grandville’s Madison Troy, who finished 12th and 13th at the 2014 Final. Milford junior Mallory Barrett, 17th last year, finished ahead of the Seaholm runners last week, and Royal Oak junior Grace Cutler and Saline sophomore Jessi Larson also broke 18 minutes in winning Regional races.
DIVISION 2
Reigning champion: Grand Rapids Christian
2014 runner-up: Otsego
2015 top-ranked: 1. Otsego, 2. Grand Rapids Christian, 3. East Grand Rapids.
Otsego finished a distant second to Grand Rapids Christian a year ago, but with no seniors and six underclassmen. The Bulldogs took seven of the top 12 places at their Regional with junior Megan Aalberts finishing first – she’s a strong possibility to improve on her fourth place at last season’s Final. Christian has won two straight LPD2 titles and can’t be counted out, of course. The Eagles put all seven runners among the top 11 at their Regional with junior Megan Schenkel third and senior Claire Brouwer fourth; Brouwer was ninth individually at the 2014 Final. East Grand Rapids was fifth at the Final with five seniors, but placed four underclassmen among the top 11 finishers in dominating this season's Regional. Sophomore Kate O’Connell, the team’s fifth finisher at MIS last year, came in second at the Regional.
Individuals: Aalberts is the top returning finisher from a year ago and Brouwer was third-fastest among racers who will be back. Hamilton junior Erika Freyhof was seventh a year ago and Whitehall junior Maya Hector was 12th, and Freyhof outpaced Holland Christian junior Kayla Windemuller 18:46-18:52 in one of the fastest Regional finishes in the division. Flint Powers Catholic junior Julia Vanitvelt, St. Clair sophomore Gabrielle Morton, Gaylord senior Alexis Smith and Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills senior Madison Goen all broke 19 minutes to win Regionals; Goen ahead of the Grand Rapids Christian group and Smith ahead of Hector.
DIVISION 3
Reigning champion: Ithaca
2014 runner-up: Shepherd
2015 top-ranked: 1. Traverse City St. Francis, 2. Lansing Catholic, 3. Benzonia Benzie Central.
St. Francis as a team will join reigning individual champion Holly Bullough at the Final this season after taking the top four places at its Regional with Bullough leading the way in an incredible 17:15.4 and freshman Katelyn Duffing and junior Emmalyne Tarsa both breaking 19 minutes. Lansing Catholic is expected to take a jump from sixth last season with its top three back and after taking the top three places at its Regional led by sophomore Olivia Theis, who broke 19 minutes and also was the top finisher for the team in 2014. Benzie Central also didn’t run as a team at last year’s Final; now-senior Stephanie Schaub was 23rd as an individual qualifier. The Huskies were the Regional runner-up to St. Francis placing all seven runners among the top 20 and five among the top 13.
Individuals: Bullough is the clear favorite and only three others from last year’s top 15 are back – Hart junior Sierra Albus (ninth), Clare junior Jasmine Harper (11th) and Ithaca junior Courtney Allen (12th). Watch for a trio of freshmen: St. Louis’ Brooklyn Filipiak, Hart’s Adelyn Ackley and Shepherd’s Amber Gall all broke 19 minutes at their Regionals, the latter two finishing ahead of Harper and Albus.
DIVISION 4
Reigning champion: Beal City
2014 runner-up: Kalamazoo Hackett
2015 top-ranked: 1. Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart, 2. Saugatuck, 3. Beal City.
Sacred Heart, third at the 2014 Final, has been a few steps ahead of two-time reigning champion Beal City this season and finished ahead of the Aggies again in winning their Regional. Irish junior Alexis McConnell finished individual runner-up a year ago and won the Regional in 18:53.9 as her team placed all seven runners among the top 11 and four of the top five. Beal City put five among the top 18 at the Regional, and senior Hannah Steffke leads the way after finishing sixth individually at MIS in 2014. Saugatuck was eighth at last year’s Final but paced by three underclassmen. Sophomore Paisley Sipes was the leader last year coming in 15th at the Final and won this year’s Regional followed by two more strong underclassmen – freshmen Thea Johnson and Rose O’Brien – as all seven runners came in among the top 12.
Individuals: Familiar faces will abound as 11 of last season’s top 15 will be back at MIS – including reigning champion Ava Strenge. The Battle Creek St. Philip junior dominated most of this season – but despite running an 18:50 at the Regional finished second by 10 seconds to Kalamazoo Hackett sophomore Mary Ankenbauer, who came in third individually at the 2014 Final. Waterford Our Lady senior Tessa Fornari, eighth last season, won in the fastest Regional time in the division at 18:27.3. Lutheran Westland senior Jenna Wisner, 10th last year, also won a Regional title, by nearly a minute.
The MHSAA Cross Country Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.
PHOTO: Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart’s Alexis McConnell (1848), Battle Creek St. Phillip’s Ava Strenge (1972) and Waterford Our Lady’s Tessa Fornari (1912) finished among the top eight in LP Division 4 last season and are among strong favorites this weekend. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
DaDamio Follows Sister as Elite Pacesetter
October 10, 2019
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
While the best part of a cross country or track race is the sprint to the finish line, it was actually having the race be over that excited Audrey DaDamio the most.
Growing up, DaDamio loved watching older sister Rachel, who finished second at the 2014 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Cross Country Final and won the 1,600 meters at the LPD1 Track & Field Finals the following spring. But Audrey enjoyed a postrace ritual with Rachel even more.
Once a race was over, Audrey DaDamio would join her older sister on the track or at the end of the cross country course and do a cool-down run with her, the only time the two could run together at meets since they were six years apart.
“I was such in awe watching her race,” DaDamio said.
Fast forward a few years, and more and more race fans are finding themselves in awe of watching Audrey DaDamio run.
Now a junior in high school and member of Birmingham Seaholm’s cross country team, DaDamio should be on the short list of contenders at this year’s Division 1 meet Nov. 2 at Michigan International Speedway.
DaDamio is off to a terrific start to this season. She won the first Oakland Activities Association Red jamboree in September in a time of 18:02.16. This past Saturday, she was the individual champion at the Oakland County meet held at Kensington Metro Park, besting a competitive field in a time of 18:09.3.
DaDamio also finished fifth in the “elite” race at the prestigious Spartan Invite at Michigan State University and has built on a performance that exceeded her expectations at last year’s LPD1 Final at MIS, where she finished 11th.
“My goal was to be top 20, so coming away 11th, I was really excited about that,” DaDamio said. “It definitely made my goals for this season a lot higher.”
DaDamio said she started running track in fifth grade, mainly because she was inspired by Rachel’s accomplishments.
“My goal was to be how she is,” DaDamio said of Rachel, who went on to run cross country and track at Notre Dame.
Before the MHSAA spring track season in March, DaDamio competed at an indoor national track event in New York, where she finished 15th.
She then finished fifth at the Division 1 Track Finals in the 3,200-meter run and placed seventh in the 1,600-meter run to set the stage for this cross country season.
Seaholm head coach Craig McCardell said a big reason for DaDamio’s success is how well she knows her body and how to train.
“She intuitively knows when she can train hard and when she knows her body needs to recover,” McCardell said. “From this, she has avoided interruption in her training caused by injuries.”
DaDamio didn’t run in the second OAA Red jamboree because of soreness after running in a meet a couple of days prior. Instead, she rested up for her winning performance at the county meet and has her eyes set on the third league Jamboree, the Regional meet, and of course, the Finals.
DaDamio said she has a goal of finishing among the top three in Division 1, and hopes learning some technical aspects of the course the last two years will pay dividends in November.
“Last year was kind of my first taste of being in a lead pack and being with girls who I know are very fast,” she said. “You have to put yourself into a position to be successful. Last year at states, by the two-mile mark, I wanted to be in the chase pack. That’s what I did, and it worked out. Hopefully this year, it will be kind of the same thing. That second mile, it’s going to be really hard. But I just have to stay mentally in the race.”
PHOTO: Birmingham Seaholm’s Audrey DaDamio races to an 11th-place finish during last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Photo courtesy of Seaholm cross country.)