Sinke Family Has Bear Lake Primed to Compete for Championships Now, In Future
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
October 25, 2024
One Sinke is nearing the end of a high school running career seeking to qualify for a fourth-straight MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Cross Country Final.
A few other Sinkes are right in the middle of possible team and individual title opportunities.
Mason Sinke, who broke the Bear Lake cross country race record earlier this season, is about to finish his stellar career on 5K courses. He still has the spring track season ahead, and then he’s moving on to run for Hope College. Saturday, he hopes — or rather expects — to qualify for his fourth Final while vying for the individual Regional title at Benzie Central.
His team will not qualify for the Final due to an insufficient number of healthy runners. But the Bear Lake girls team – led by freshman Callie Sinke – has its eyes on qualifying for the Final and can’t help but think a state championship is obtainable in the near future.
A future boys title also isn’t out of the question as the Lakers have a strong middle school program as well. The middle school’s current number one runner is Johnny Sinke.
And all the Lakers cross country teams are coached by Tony Shrum and Kim Sinke. Shrum has headed up the cross country program, which co-ops with Onekama, since 2012. Kim Sinke, a former college distance runner, joined the staff this year. She is also the mother of Mason, Callie and Johnny Sinke.
Bear Lake is really hoping to start some strong winning streaks this weekend after long Regional championship streaks were common up until a decade ago. The Lakers are not unfamiliar with Finals appearances, but they’re looking for their first in a decade with the Regional trophy earned.
“For the girls, as long as we’ve got everybody healthy and racing, the goal is to win,” Shrum said of the upcoming Regional. “It would be our seventh girls Regional title in the program’s history, so they would be on a list with a pretty exclusive group.”
Shrum hopes the resting and recovering this week will allow the Lakers to put their best foot forward in the Regional. Bear Lake’s girls, the West Michigan D League champions this year, will be racing against some familiar foes.
There will be disappointment if there aren’t several Lakers listed among the top 10 finishers – and a handful in the top five are pretty much expected.
Callie Sinke, who is fighting through normal running injury challenges, and Addy Zeller are the Lakers’ top two runners and arguably the top two rated runners in the region. But injuries have slowed down the top two Lakers a bit.
“Right now Callie is about 20 seconds ahead of everybody in the field Saturday,” Shrum pointed out. “We have three of the top five girls when healthy in the region, and our fourth girl has top-15 ability and our fifth girl has been coming on.”
And these Lakers are young. Callie Sinke is a freshman and Zeller, hampered lately by a quad injury, is a sophomore. Melodie Hulinek, the number three runner who is coming back from a knee injury, is also a freshman. Natalie Brown, the current fourth runner, is a junior. Two other freshmen, Isabella Card and Peyton Buckner, may run for the fifth scoring spot, along with two other juniors, Lauren Pulido-Huber and Libby Daugherty. The co-op is without a senior on the girls side.
Shrum is excited about the opportunity this year and really the next three. He notes two current middle school runners will likely compete for varsity spots next fall.
“We’ve got a good core of girls coming back for the next four years,” Scrum said.
Zeller and Sinke attend Onekama High School. The rest of the girls team are enrolled with Bear Lake.
Mason Sinke is a senior at Onekama. He too has sat out a few races recently to rest and prepare for his last two career high school meets.
All season, he’s had a special partner and coach, Kaden Forward. The school record Sinke broke this year had belonged to Forward, who finished 13th in last year’s Final. Sinke was a few seconds behind Forward in the Final last year and finished 16th. He’s looking to take one of the top spots – if not first place – this Saturday and go on to a top 10, if not top five, at the Final.
The West Michigan D League features one of the top runners in the state in Alex Tyndall from Mason County Eastern. Tyndall finished 18th in last year’s Final, a few seconds behind Sinke. Tyndall and Eastern will be among many competitors Bear Lake has raced against week after week. A handful of other runners familiar to Mason Sinke will challenge him for a top-five Regional finish.
“Right now Mason would be the number two guy behind Alex coming in,” Shrum acknowledged. “We’ll see if he wants to chase Alex and push him and see if he can take Alex down. but otherwise I think silver at the Regional is a definite possibility for him.”
The Bear Lake boys team has no chance of qualifying for the Finals as two of its five team members are out with injuries. But Shrum holds strong hopes senior Greyson Hoeflinger will also qualify for the Finals as an individual.
Over the 35 years of the co-op’s existence, Bear Lake’s boys teams have won 23 Regional titles and the girls have won six.
“Between Mason and Kaden, they have really changed the mindset of our program,” Shrum said. “Callie is leading the girls on the same path.”
Bear Lake is looking forward to an influx of talented young runners on the boys side too.
“Our next set of boys teams could be banner raising, winning teams of the state final,” Shrum predicted. “We’re on the comeback collectively as a program.”
The future is bright, but the current boys and girls teams members should get the credit for getting Bear Lake back to its winning ways.
“To me it is exciting to get back on that level and compete for state titles and Regional championships in the next five, six years,” Shrum noted. “A lot of it really has to do with the current group of kids that we have and their dedication, their discipline, their excitement and enthusiasm for the sport.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Mason Sinke runs to his school record-setting 5K time Sept. 7 at the Bear Country Invitational. (2) The Bear Lake girls team take a trophy photo after clinching the West Michigan D League title. (3) Mason Sinke, middle, takes a photo with Bear Lake head coach Tony Shrum and assistant and mother Kim Sinke. (4) Callie Sinke runs a race this fall. (Photos courtesy of the Sinke family.)
Freeland's Hansen Not Focused on Joining All-Time Greats - But On His Way
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
September 29, 2023
The goal written on Matt Kaczor’s Post-It Note was sub-15 minutes, 15 seconds. That’s what the Freeland cross country coach was hoping for from star runner TJ Hansen during his junior season.
Kaczor tore it up after seeing Hansen run a single race this fall.
“Knowing what he did over the summer and where he was at, seeing what his 1,600 (meter) and his mile got down to, I had a feeling he could get under 15:30 quickly,” Kaczor said. “After the first race, I looked at my assistant and was like, ‘I’ve gotta rip up that Post-It Note. I don’t think our goal is on the level of where he’s at right now.’ At first, it was break 15:15. Once I saw him race at the Under the Lights (on Aug. 18 at St. Johns), I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s going sub 15.’”
Hansen ran 15:39.6 in that first race, and on Sept. 7, in Shepherd, he ran 15:13.9 to meet the goal written on the now-shredded Post-It Note.
This past Saturday, he ran 15:03.7 at the Cadillac Veterans Serving Veterans Invitational. It’s the fastest time recorded in Michigan this year, and a signal that Kaczor might be filling out a new Post-It Note before the season is out.
“The sub-15 barrier, that’s been something on my mind for a while,” Hansen said. “Now that I’m edging closer and closer to that, it’s been exciting. With how heavy my training has been, I wouldn’t expect (to have run this fast this early). Being able to run the times I am really paints the picture for what’s ahead.”
Hansen came into the season already regarded as one of the elite distance runners in the state. He won the 3,200 meters at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 Track & Field Finals this past spring. He’s also finished all-state (12th and fifth, respectively) the past two seasons at the LPD2 Cross Country Finals.
His current trajectory, however, would put his name near some of the state’s all-time greats. But that’s not something Hansen is focusing on.
“I really don’t like to compare myself to others,” he said. “I don’t focus on that. I try to be the best TJ Hansen that I can be. The best version of myself.”
Focusing on himself is almost necessary for Hansen, as he’s spending a lot of time during his races running by himself.
At each of the big events Freeland has run in this season, Hansen has finished at least 20 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. That includes all divisions of the Duane Raffin Festival of Races in Holly.
In Cadillac, where Hansen ran his current best time, he was a full minute ahead of the rest of the field.
“He’s just a special athlete,” Kaczor said. “I can’t see Freeland having someone like this in a while. He’s a generational talent. What’s crazy is, I had the school record when he was a freshman. He and Braden (Honsinger) broke it last year. But TJ has now dropped that school record (set in 1998) by almost a minute.”
Hansen’s achievements have already put him on a path to run at the next level, which is something of a family tradition.
His older sisters Peyton and Kiera are track & field athletes at Wayne State and Eastern Michigan, respectively. Their parents, Tim and Pam, were track & field stars at Central Michigan.
TJ has drawn the attention of coaches around the country, including from Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Colorado.
Having family members who know the process is a help for Hansen, and he said they’ve all been good about allowing him to choose his own path, whatever that may be.
“He’s from a good family that knows how to work and knows how to get things done,” Kaczor said. “He knows that if he puts in the work, he’s going to be at a good spot.”
While Hansen admits it can be a bit overwhelming, he’s using it as motivation to run faster and continue to put his name out there.
Also serving as motivation is 2022 Division 2 champion Connell Alford of Chelsea. Alford is among the elite group of runners in Michigan who have broken the 15-minute mark, doing it twice a year ago.
He currently has the state’s second-best time behind Hansen’s this year, running 15:09.1 at the MSU Invitational on Sept. 15.
“Whenever I see him drop a time, my main goal is to run faster,” Hansen said. “Whenever I see him run a good time, that motivates me to work hard.”
The two won’t see each other until the MHSAA Finals on Nov. 4 at Michigan International Speedway. It’s an opportunity Hansen is excited for, as it’s a chance to race and be pushed toward the lofty goals he’s set for himself. Kaczor is excited about it, too, even if it might mean having to replenish his supply of Post-Its.
“We don’t talk about winning the state title; we talk about making sure that we have great races on those days,” Kaczor said. “We can’t control how somebody else runs. It’s a matter of can we, if the weather is right and the course is in good condition, can we be one of the few guys that has run in the 14s on that course? That’s the goal. Put yourself in some great categories with those upper echelons and the greats of all-time.”
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) Freeland's TJ Hansen leads a pack during last season's LPD2 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) Hansen enjoys a moment of exhilaration after winning the 3,200 this spring at the LPD2 Finals at Ada Forest Hills Eastern. (Top photo by Carter Sherline/Run Michigan; middle photo by Dave McCauley/Run Michigan.)