Pioneer, Dexter and Skyline all crossed the finish line among the top three at Regionals on Saturday to qualify for the MHSAA Division 1 State Finals on Saturday at MIS.
At Springfield Oaks County Park, both Skyline and Dexter finished near the top of the leaderboard in Region 4. Brighton ran away with the title, finishing first with 39 points. The Dreadnaughts were second with 92 points followed closely by SEC rival Skyline with 101 points. Howell took fourth with 118 points.
Howell sophomore Jack MacGregor took first in 15:42.22 followed by Brighton senior Tyler Brock (15:46.12). Dexter senior Julian Linebaugh was third across the finish line with a time of 15:51.83.
Dexter also had top 15 finishes from sophomore Coen Hill (ninth, 16:25.53) and senior Caleb Snyder (12th, 16:31.85). Senior Scott Smith was 31st in 17:14.44, junior Cole Doty was 37th (17:27.5), senior Landon Whitehead was 45th (17:41.53) and freshman Nicholas Reiser was 48th (17:42.15).
The Eagles didn’t have any runners crack the top 10 but what they did have was consistency from all of their runners placing between 15-36. That added up to a ticket to the State Finals.
Freshman Oskar MacArthur was 15th in 16:34:09 and junior Bruno Cifaldi was 17th in 16:40.53. Junior Zeke Lafferty was 21st in 16:46.42 followed by sophomore Matthew Guikema in 22nd (16:48.36). Senior Jack Robichaud was 26th (16:55.48), sophomore Nicholas Yuan was 29th (17:06.94) and sophomore Enshu Kuan was 36th in 17:18.03.
Pioneer finished with the top two individual runners at the Region 5 race at Lake Erie Metropark. The Pioneers ended up in second place with 50 points, behind champion Saline (32 points) and ahead of third-place finisher Bedford (89).
In a close race to the finish line, senior Beckett Crooks took first in 15:51.10 followed by teammate Kamari Ronfeldt, a sophomore, in 15:53.3. Junior Theo Sacks-Thomas also cracked the top 10 for Pioneer with his ninth-place time of 16:17.2.
Sophomore Walker Ledbetter was 18th in 16:53.8, junior Thomas DeJesus was 20th in 16:56.9, junior Quinn Davis was 29th in 17:31.8 and sophomore Colin Courage was 36th in 17:46.0 for the Pioneers.
Huron finished sixth at the Region 6 race at Willow Metropark with 170 points. Northville ran first with 26 points followed by Livonia Churchill (67 points) and Plymouth (75).
Huron senior Walker Brose qualified for the state meet by finishing 11th overall with a time of 16:14.7. Junior Thomas Conley had a strong race, taking 30th place in 17:01.8.
