After a season-opening loss to Pinckney, the Dexter boys’ cross country team bounced back with an impressive effort against a strong Adrian team. The Dreadnaughts scored a 26-31 win over the Maples on Friday at Heritage Park in Adrian.
“This meet featured a run up a steep hill at the Adrian course affectionately known as Big Bertha,” said Dexter coach Nate Lamb. “That’s just one of the exciting attributes about cross country and the opportunity to run different terrain all the time.”
Dexter’s Conor Kolka did a great job of conquering Big Bertha and navigating the rest of the course. The senior runner led from wire-to-wire with a strong
performance and a first-place time of 16 minutes, 48.62 seconds.
“Even in a dual meet, there was a lot of jockeying for position with places gained, lost, then regained again,” said Lamb.
Dexter senior Nathan Gariepy was third overall with a time of 17:25.98. Senior Sam Melvin was sixth (18:10.75) and junior Zach Sawin seventh (18:20.31) for the Dreadnaughts.
A pair of freshmen, Sam Gibson (18:36.78) and Brandon Anderson (18:38.16), worked together to give the Dreadnaughts six of the top 10 places in the meet.
Sophomore Owen Ackerman was 11th (18:42.62) and senior John Harm was 12th (18:43.43). Sophomore Rylan Teddy was 14th (18:56.74) and junior Adam Hauser was 15th (19:07.11).
Dexter lost to Pinckney 17-44 in the season opener on Aug. 28 at Manly W. Bennett Park. Kolka led the way for Dexter with a fourth-place finish time of 17:38.1. Gariepy was seventh (18:12.5).
Dexter will host Huron on Saturday at Hudson Mills.
