Preview: UP Contenders Back for Firsts
October 18, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The first MHSAA Finals of cross country season will be run Saturday at Gentz Homestead Golf Course in Munising, and there will be more than a few familiar faces in the field.
Of 30 runners who posted top-10 finishes during last season’s three championship races, 20 are back this weekend – even as none of the reigning champion teams are picked by Upper Peninsula rankers to repeat Saturday.
Here's a look at some of the teams and individuals expected to cross the finish line first. Click for Saturday's race schedule and links to all qualifiers.
DIVISION 1
Reigning champion: Calumet
2012 runner-up: Escanaba
2013 top three: 1. Marquette, 2. Calumet, 3. Houghton.
Calumet has won the Division 1 title three of the last four seasons (following Marquette’s string of nine straight; Marquette also won in 2011), and those two stand to battle at the front again. Calumet sophomore Leah Kiilunen finished second to her now-graduated sister Tara last season, and is joined in this weekend’s lineup by last season’s sixth-place finisher, sophomore Abbey Helppi. Marquette has one top-10 finisher from last season returning, junior Calla Martysz, who placed fifth. But sophomore Lindsey Rudden was a major star during the spring’s Track & Field Finals and led the Cross Country Final until late in the race. She is considered the top runner in the entire Upper Peninsula.
Individuals: Three more top-10 finishers from last season will run again this weekend. Menominee senior Kameron Burmeister finished third, just three seconds out of second place, and Escanaba junior Aimee Giese will try to improve on last fall’s fourth place. Negaunee senior Wyleen Kniola will finish her career hoping to add to last season’s seventh place.
DIVISION 2
Reigning champion: Newberry
2012 runner-up: Ironwood
2013 top three: 1. Hancock, 2. St. Ignace, 3. Ishpeming Westwood.
Favorite Hancock is led by a pair of seniors who finished among the top 10 last season when the team finished third overall: Erin McKenzie, who ran seventh, and Anna Meese, who placed eighth. St. Ignace is back in Division 2 after winning the Division 3 Final last season, with junior Lilly Calcaterra leading the pack after she finished second individually in that division. Westwood returns senior Gabrielle French and sophomore Anastasia Bjork, top-16 finishers. Newberry isn’t ranked this week but brings to Munising its top three finishers from last season’s championship team: sophomore Natalie Beaulieu, (fourth in 2012), sophomore Bridget Stoetzer (fifth) and junior Gabrielle Young (ninth).
Individuals: Ironwood's reigning individual champion Jessica Gering won as a junior with a time of 20:40.9, 47 seconds ahead of the pack. Iron River West Iron County junior Tori Harris-Hoogenboom is back after finishing sixth, and Manistique sophomore Holly Blowers also returns to the Finals after placing 10th.
DIVISION 3
Reigning champion: St. Ignace
2012 runner-up: Dollar Bay
2013 top three: 1. Munising, T-2. Cedarville, T-2. Pickford.
With St. Ignace back in Division 2, the field appears a little more open as four Saints finished among the top 15 in 2012. Munising is seeking its first MHSAA championship and enters Saturday ranked No. 1 in Division 3. Senior Alyssa St. Amour is the team’s top returning finisher from last season’s Final, when she placed 17th but only 20 seconds outside the top 10. Seniors Taylor Perkins and Alexis Barr both finished among the top 18 for Cedarville last season, and Pickford is led by sophomore Heidi Hagen, who was sixth at the 2012 Final.
Individuals: Dollar Bay, last season’s runner-up, is led by sophomore Carli and freshman Cami Daavettila, who finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in 2012. Rudyard junior Kaylee Hoolsema could be the overall favorite – she finished fourth last season behind two St. Ignace runners and a graduated teammate. Brimley junior Emily Chartrand finished only six seconds back of Hoolsema, in fifth.
PHOTO: Ironwood’s Jessica Gering surges ahead of the field at last season’s Division 2 Final, which she won by 47 seconds in 20:40.9. (Photo courtesy of RunMichigan.com/Paul Gerard.)
Cook Running to Complete Historic Rochester Career with Top Finals Finish
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
November 1, 2024
When it came to making something good out of an overall terrible situation five years ago, Rochester senior cross country runner Lucy Cook certainly excelled.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020 as Cook started her eighth grade year, she said she was splitting her time between basketball and cross country.
But with gyms shut down and the safest form of exercise being anything outside, Cook got really busy running.
“I had time to stay consistent and do a lot more running. I’ve always been a multi-sport person, so I didn’t start focusing solely on cross country until I quit basketball in the eighth grade,” she recalled.
So, why was that so important?
“I kind of had a breakout year in eighth grade (in cross country),” Cook said. “That’s when I knew I could do something with this.”
Indeed she has.
Earlier this year, Cook became just the second runner to win four straight Oakland County titles.
She has finished in the top six in all three Lower Peninsula Division 1 Finals she has competed in, taking sixth as a freshman in 2021 and third both of the last two years.
Cook enters as one of the top LPD1 contenders again Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. And while there are other worthy challengers, Cook likely will be among a few favorites the rest of the field is watching most during the race.
“The last couple of times, I feel like I’ve been really nervous and it’s impacted by performances,” Cook said. “This time, I want to go into it a lot more calm and experienced.”
Cook certainly is used to running big races, and not simply for the fact she has done so well at the last three Finals meets.
Cook recalls starting to run in events at the age of 4.
“I was doing the Teddy Bear Trot toddler race,” Cook said, referring to a race that’s part of the annual Crim Festival of Races every August.
Cook has grown up to become the best Rochester racer since the legendary Megan Goethals, who won the Foot Locker national championship in 2009 and individual Division 1 titles in 2008 and 2009.
“She was definitely a name I heard around a lot, and I definitely aim to be as good as her,” Cook said.
Rochester cross country head coach Amy Oppat said one thing that has separated Cook from other runners is her determination to master new tasks.
“She just takes all of her experiences and builds on those,” Oppat said. “Every time she puts a new challenge in front of her and meets that challenge, she realizes she can continue to do that. She is open to being challenged and meeting demands.”
The main challenge so far this year has been to make sure she isn’t overdoing it with everything building toward Saturday.
“My coaches have doing a really good job of keeping me under control while practicing and racing,” Cook said. “Just try not to peak before states. The goal is to be at my best at states.”
Cook hopes to have a professional future in running, but first will be a college career at Michigan State after she recently committed to the Spartans.
Rochester obviously feels Cook will have a bright future at MSU, but the team and Cook hope she ends her high school career with one more major accomplishment missing from an otherwise full resume – that individual Finals championship.
“She’s strong, and she’s ready for big things,” Oppat said. “We’re glad she has been so successful here at Rochester.”
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Rochester’s Lucy Cook runs to her fourth Oakland County championship this season. (Middle) Cook races toward the finish during last season’s LPD1 Final. (Oakland County photo by John Brabbs, Finals photo by Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)