The Portage Invitational is one of the important cross country meets teams use to judge where they are at compared to some of the best teams in the state. This year, 40 teams met at the starting line at Portage West on Saturday and only two teams beat Dexter across the finish line in an impressive showing by the talented Dreadnaughts.
Brighton finished first overall with 102 points as the Bulldogs had three runners finish among the top eight places. St. Xavier (Ohio), who will not be invited to the MHSAA State Finals in November for obvious reasons, ran second with 113 points.
Dexter had two runners in the top 11 and three in the top 26 to finish third overall with 149 points. Saline was a close fourth (163) followed by Skyline (238). Pioneer (sixth) and Zeeland West (seventh) finished with 260 points. Caledonia was eighth (263), Pinckney ninth (316) and Hartland tenth (321).
In a sprint for the finish line, Dexter’s Owen Huard was third in 15:04.0, just a few ticks behind winner Mhalicki Bronson of Defiance (15:00.3) and Jack Spamer of Brighton (15:02.7). Dexter senior Nathan Larson was 11th (15:41.9) and senior Seth Read was 26th (16:07.8).
The Dreadnaughts at the finish line:
1. 3. 12 Owen Huard 15:04.0
2. 11. 12 Nathan Larson 15:41.9
4. 30. 12 William Buller 16:15.9
5. 79. 12 Finnegan Bell 16:49.4
6. 122. 11 Conor Kolka 17:12.4
7. 137. 11 Masanari Kimura 17:19.7
PHOTOS BY BARBARA READ
