St Francis, Benzie Built to Contend Again
September 15, 2017
By Dennis Chase
Special for Second Half
TRAVERSE CITY – “Begin with the end in mind.”
Those words were at the heart of Julie Duffing’s preseason message to her Traverse City St. Francis cross country teams last month.
“It’s something we always talk about,” Duffing said. “We’re not really concerned about what’s going on right now. These meets give us an idea, but it’s the end of October and early November that we’re concerned about. We say, ‘Keep the end in mind. Where do we want to end November 4th?’”
The girls ended right where they wanted last November, successfully defending their MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 title. They did it by turning a one-point loss to Lansing Catholic at the Portage Invitational into an 11-point win over the Cougars a month later at the Finals meet.
“They knew what had to be done,” Duffing said.
Well, the challenge might be even greater this fall, even though Lansing Catholic moved up to Division 2.
“They left, but now we have Hart,” Duffing said.
Hart, which finished seventh a year ago, stamped itself as the team to beat with a dominating performance at the season-opening Benzie Invitational. The Pirates won the large school division, topping Division 1 Traverse City Central by five points, 73-78. Benzie Central, which was third in Division 3 a year ago, was sixth with 165 and St. Francis seventh with 170.
To no surprise, Hart, led by individual Division 3 Final champion Adelyn Ackley, is ranked No. 1 in the first coaches poll. St. Francis and Benzie Central are tied at No. 2.
“They’re stacked,” Benzie Central coach Asa Kelly said of Hart. “As long as they stay healthy, they’ll be very tough to beat.
“But,“ he cautioned, “you can never tell. I think last year Hart was ranked fourth coming in (last year) and finished seventh.”
One month into the season, Hart has three runners with times among the top seven in Division 3. All are Ackleys (Adelyn at 16:54.5, Savannah at 18:43.6 and Alayna at 18:51.4). Benzie has two in the top 11 (Lucy Karpukhno at 18:51.1 and Sierra Pallin at 19:08.9). St. Francis has one in the top 10 (Joyana Tarsa at 19:08).
Kelly and Duffing, however, are of the same belief. They can’t worry about Hart. All they can control is how much their respective teams improve.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Duffing said. “We are coming along slowly, which is OK. We did last year, too. Our girls tend to come together for the bigger meets at the end of the season.”
The Gladiators, who run at Michigan State in the Spartan Invitational today, return five of their top six finishers from last year’s MHSAA Finals meet. Tarsa’s been the lead runner. She won the Buckley Invitational last Saturday with a time that was 42 seconds faster than a year ago on that course.
“Definitely a good thing,” said the 16-year-old senior, who finished eighth in LP Division 3 last year.
Katelyn Duffing gives the Gladiators a potent one-two punch when healthy. Her times have been slower than last year when she placed 11th at the Final. But the 16-year-old junior is also coming off mononucleosis.
“I feel 100 percent,” she said. “I feel a lot stronger. Maybe not quite (as strong) as in the past, but I’m working towards it. I still have time to improve.”
“If she comes back to form,” Kelly said, “they’re a whole different team.”
One runner who is making strides is junior Christine Scerbak, the No. 3 runner. She improved by 23 seconds at Benzie.
“She’s coming on,” Katelyn Duffing said. “She’s working hard and really pushing herself. She wants it. You can tell.”
“And that’s good because we need her up there,” Tarsa added.
Sophomore Libby Gorman, who was 35th at last year’s Finals meet, improved her times significantly at Benzie and Buckley, too.
Lauren Bramer, Nicole Polemitis, Madelyn Taylor, Abby Chittle, Athena Gillespie and Rori Richardson are battling for top seven positions.
After winning MHSAA titles the last two years, the Gladiators are not lowering their expectations.
Three-peating is their goal.
“We definitely have high goals,” Tarsa said. “We want to make it back and do really well. But we need to stay healthy. That’s one of my main worries.”
Julie Duffing is not thinking that far ahead yet.
“I go into every season hoping we do our best,” she said. “I’m not one to say we’re going to win it. That’s not how I coach. I go into it with the forethought that we have to work hard every day to get better.
“The girls set their goals at the beginning of the season and they said they would like to repeat. We (coaches) didn’t say anything about it. They know what they want to do, and we’re going to guide them.
“Hart is tough and you can’t count Benzie out. They’re tough, too. We’ll have to get tougher as the season goes on. But we’ll be ready.”
Kelly expects Benzie to be ready, too. The Huskies are led by two all-staters in Karpukhno and Pallin, who were 20th and 24th at last year’s Finals. Paige Johnston and Mary Claire Smeltzer are back and give Benzie a solid top four. Kelly’s mission was to find a No. 5.
And senior Hadley O’Connor, a first-year runner, is emerging as that candidate. She was fourth overall in the first Northwest Conference jamboree.
“She played volleyball three years and is a sprinter on the track team,” Kelly said. “She came to a summer running event, and four miles in she was still running with the top girls.
“I said, ‘Do you even know what you’re doing right now?’ She said, ‘I’m just running.’ I said, ‘You’re running with all-state girls, and you’re keeping up with them.’
“I thought she still was going to play volleyball, but the night before she called and said she was going to run cross. For her to show up was great news for us.”
Kelly, who coaches with his wife Tracie, said this could be one of Benzie’s best teams.
“Theoretically, it could be one of our top two or three fastest teams in school history, and we’ll probably be a longshot to win it,” he said. “Hart is that stacked.
“But we don’t talk about, ‘we’ve got to beat Hart, we’ve got to beat Hart.’ Right now we talk about how we can improve this team, how we can get our top five to where we want them and how we can get our 6-7-8-9-10 right on their heels. Those are the things we can control.”
Dennis Chase worked 32 years as a sportswriter at the Traverse City Record-Eagle, including as sports editor from 2000-14. 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) Benzie Central’s Sierra Pallin (7) and Lucy Karpukhno, (6) and Traverse City St. Francis’ Katelyn Duffing (222) all are back pacing top-ranked teams this season after running against each other at last year’s Regional. (Middle) St. Francis’ Joyana Tarsa, left, has been the fastest on her team this fall. (Below) Karpukhno’s best time also ranks among the top 10 in LP Division 3 this season. (Photos courtesy of the Traverse City St. Francis and Benzie Central girls cross country programs.)
Preview: 3 Racing for Individual Repeats
October 29, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
For the second straight season, many eyes at this weekend’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals will be focused on a girls race of the best from some of Michigan’s smaller schools.
Last season, the buzz was over Breckenridge’s Kirsten Olling and her pursuit of a fourth individual title. On Saturday, Macomb Lutheran North’s Gina Patterson will run for her third straight Division 3 title – but against her top rival, reigning runner-up Amber Way of Charlevoix. Patterson owns the fastest and sixth-fastest times in LP Division 3 history, but Way finished only 1.5 seconds behind in 2013 and owns the seventh-fastest finish on that all-time list.
Birmingham Seaholm’s Audrey Belf also is attempting to repeat, in Division 1, as her team tries to claim its second title in three seasons. Grand Rapids Christian, the reigning Division 2 champ, is favored again, while Cedar Springs’ Kenzie Weiler will attempt to finish her career with a second straight individual victory in that face. And Division 4 – as noted above – will have its first new individual champ since 2010.
See below for more of 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 976 girls.
DIVISION 1
Reigning champion: Northville
2013 runner-up: Saline
2014 top-ranked: 1. Traverse City Central, 2. Birmingham Seaholm, 3. Northville.
Seaholm, the 2012 champion, should push to reclaim the top trophy led by last season’s individual champion, now-senior Belf. She’s joined in this season’s lineup by juniors Mary Sanders and Patty Girardot, the fourth and fifth runners for the Maples in 2013. But Traverse City Central returns four of its top seven from last season’s sixth-place finish and three of its top four – seniors Ashley Ko and Graceanne Tarsa and sophomore Emmalyne Tarsa. Ko finished 12th in the individual standings and finished second at her Regional to freshman teammate Sielle Kearney. Junior Lexa Barrott finished 13th last season for team champion Northville, which returns two more of its 2013 lineup including 22nd-place Cayla Eckenroth, now a sophomore.
Individuals: Four more top-20 finishers from 2013 join Belf, Ko and Barrot in this weekend’s lineup. Grandville junior Valerie Wierenga improved from 16th as a freshman to third last fall and should remain among the lead pack, and Oak Park senior Ersula Farrow finished 21st, eighth and then seventh her first three seasons while running for Grosse Pointe North. Saline juniors Gillian Walter and Hannah Cummings also are seeking repeat top-20 finishes. Hudsonville senior Kelli Jackson ran a Division 1-best 17:48.3 to win her Regional and finished 21st at last season’s Final. Macomb L’Anse Creuse North freshman Karenna Duffey also cleared 18 minutes last week, winning her Regional in 17:58, while Grandville freshman Madison Troy was second to Jackson at Portage in 18:14.
DIVISION 2
Reigning champion: Grand Rapids Christian
2013 runner-up: Spring Lake
2014 top-ranked: 1. Grand Rapids Christian, 2. St. Joseph, 3. Otsego.
Grand Rapids Christian has won two of the last four titles and is lined up well for a repeat with four of last season’s top six running again. Senior Rachel Warners paced the Eagles and finished 12th individually last season, and the lineup has added standout freshmen Jenna Bishop and Sarah VanDyke and junior top-10 Regional finisher Michelle Koetje. St. Joseph didn’t make the Final as a team last season – sophomore Vanessa Veersma ran as an individual qualifier – but the Bears placed five among the top 20 at their Regional and four among the top 11 paced by freshman and fifth-place finisher Kaitlin Newton. Otsego finished only four points behind St. Joseph at the Portage Regional with two freshmen, four sophomores and a junior. But those sophomores were the team’s top four placers as it finished third at last season’s Final; Megan Aalberts finished 11th individually in 2013.
Individuals: Only three of last season’s top 20 graduated – so this field should be incredibly competitive. Weiler is the reigning champion and also finished runner-up as both a freshman and sophomore, but finished less than a second ahead last season of Detroit Country Day senior Jackie Bredenberg – and she’s also back. St. Johns senior Karrigan Smith is a track champion and returns after finishing third in this race a year ago, and Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern senior Morgan Posthuma (fourth), Grand Rapids South Christian senior Alexis Miller (fifth), Gaylord junior Alexis Smith (ninth) and Owosso senior Dillon McClintock (10th) also are among top finishers back in the field.
DIVISION 3
Reigning champion: Shepherd
2013 runner-up: Benzonia Benzie Central
2014 top-ranked: 1. Ithaca, 2. Manistee, 3. Lansing Catholic.
Ithaca finished only 10th a year ago, but with five underclassmen in the line-up – and all seven runners are back this weekend. Sophomore Courtney Allen finished 11th in 2013, and the Yellowjackets placed four among the top 10 in its Regional win last weekend. Manistee returns its top five from last season’s eighth-place team, including senior Annie Fuller (sixth) and junior Ashley Lindeman (ninth) from the individual top 10. Lansing Catholic was 13th last fall with a similar story; the Cougars have five runners back from the 2013 Final including sophomore Abigail Gilmore (14th individually) and finished runner-up to Ithaca at St. Johns over the weekend.. Reigning champ Shepherd is ranked No. 4 and does return five of its top seven including three sophomores who placed among the top 50 individuals.
Individuals: Only three of the top 14 from 2013 graduated, and much of the focus will be on the rematch of Patterson and Way. In addition to those two and the Manistee pair, four more of the top 10 also will run again: Holland Black River senior Allison Vroon (third), Ida senior Ashley Sorge (fourth), Hopkins senior Rachael Weber (eighth) and Clare sophomore Jasmine Harper (10th). Five of those returning eight won their Regionals. Traverse City St. Francis junior Holly Bullough was the Division 4 runner-up in 2012 and third last fall, and should be in the mix. East Jordan senior Kayla Keane finished fifth in Division 4 last season.
DIVISION 4
Reigning champion: Beal City
2013 runner-up: Breckenridge
2014 top-ranked: 1. Kalamazoo Hackett, 2. Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart, 3. Beal City.
Six of Beal City’s top seven are back from last season’s championship run including top finisher Hannah Steffke, 10th individually as a junior, and senior Hayley Neyer, who was 19th. Hackett finished 14th in Division 3 but returns its top four – and senior Lucy Ankenbauer, 25th individually in Division 3, would’ve finished 13th with her time in Division 4. Hackett had the top four and five of the top seven finishers at its Regional. Sacred Heart didn’t make the Final as a team last season, but sophomore Alexis McConnell finished 15th individually. The Irish put three among the top five – with McConnell the individual champion – in scoring 35 points to beat Beal City and win their Regional over the weekend.
Individuals: There will be a new champion – Breckenridge’s Kirsten Olling graduated after becoming the seventh to win four MHSAA individual titles. Bullough and Keane running in Division 3 leaves only two others and Steffke back from last season’s top 10 – reigning runner-up Tessa Fornari, a junior for Waterford Our Lady, and seventh-place Jenna Wisner, a junior at Lutheran Westland. Fornari won her Regional in 18:19. Hackett freshman Mary Ankenbauer was 41 seconds faster than sister Lucy in winning their Regional in 18:53.3.
PHOTO: Macomb Lutheran North's Gina Patterson finished just ahead of Charlevoix's Amber Way to claim last season's LP Division 3 individual title; both will run again Saturday. Click for more this weekend from RunMichigan.com.)