The Pioneer girls’ cross country headed south on Saturday and returned with a first-place finish at the annual Centerville Saturday Night Lights run in Centerville, Ohio. The Pioneers have always done well at this race and finished with 99 points to cross first in the 21 team event on Sept. 30.
Hilliard Davidson (Ohio) was second with 114 points, followed by Minster (Ohio) with 155 points.
Rachel Forsyth ran first overall with a time of 16:27.1, well ahead of second-place runner Bentley Thomas of Ursuline Academy who finished in 17:49.1. Senior Lydia Bowman ran 15th in 18:37.1 with senior Natalie Mello 28th (19:06.2), senior Katie Hume 41st (19:25.4), senior Sylvia Sanok Dufallo 49th (19:38.8) and sophomore Hana Moore 69th (20:12.0).
The Pioneers returned to the winner’s circle on Saturday with their first-place score of 127 points at the Portage XC Invitational at Portage West. The Pioneers were four points better than Brighton, who took second with 131 points followed by Holland West Ottawa (163), Okemos (176), Northville (191) and Saline (216).
Skyline was 12th with 407 points while Dexter was 21st with 548 points.
Forsyth kept her winning streak alive with a time of 16:49.2. The senior has finished first in all seven of her races. Her PR time is 16:18.4 (SEC Jamboree 2 on Sept. 27).
The Pioneers had two other runners – Mellow (16th, 18:53.4) and Bowman (19th, 19:01.1) – finish in the top 20. Hume was 40th (19:24), Quincy Behm was 54th (19:40.1), Moore was 57th (19:41.3) and Hanna Boggess was 108th (20:43.9).
Senior Allison Mayer led Skyline across the finish line with her 22nd place time of 19:05.8. A pair of freshmen were next – Irie Scrase was 46th (19:31.3) and Becca vanLent was 51st (19:37.7).
Dexter junior Alena Blumberg ran 33rd in the race with a time of 19:17. Fellow junior Addison Bruckman was 88th in 20:21.2. Sophomore Hannah Bougher was 119th in 20:47.3 and freshman Kodie Snyder was 143rd in 21:14.3.
