The local girls’ cross country teams proved their dominance on Saturday as all four – Pioneer, Skyline, Huron and Dexter – all earned their driver’s license for a spot at the starting line of the MHSAA Division 1 State Finals on Saturday at MIS in Brooklyn. All four teams qualified at three different Regional races.
Let’s head out to Holly and the Region 4 race at Springfield Oaks County Park. As expected, Brighton dominated with 29 points to run first in the 12-team field. Then came the log jam that was the race for second place. Both Skyline and Hartland finished tied for runner-up with 85 points and Dexter was one point behind with 86 points resulting in all three teams getting passes for the State Finals. If four runners from one team place in the top 20 then that team qualifies for States.
Davison was a distant fifth with 143 points.
Brighton junior Lydia LaMarra was the individual winner with a time of 18:19.09 followed by Grand Blanc’s Grace Tykocki (18:28.32).
Skyline freshman Lucia Llanes had a tremendous first race on the big Regional stage with a third-place time of 18:51.32. Three other Eagles landed in the top 21 with sophomore Irie Scrase (16th, 19:29.97), sophomore Isla Tharp (18th, 19:35.97) and freshman Lila Edison (21st, 19:59.04). Junior Adrienne Stewart was 27th (20:34.47) and sophomore Gwen Stotts-Walshe was 35th (20:56.35).
Dexter senior Alena Blumberg led the Dreadnaughts with her 10th place time of 19:17.21. Sophomore Kodie Snyder ran 15th with a time of 19:23.31, senior Annabel O’Haver was 19th (19:43.64), senior Addison Bruckman was 20th (19:55.67), junior Amelia Cribbins was 22nd (20:04.13), freshman Layla Blumberg was 24th (20:05.62) and senior Hannah Sisson was 39th (21:01.42).
At the Region 5 race at Lake Erie Metropark, the Pioneer team finished second place with 41 points. SEC rival Saline ran first with 28 points. Woodhaven was third with 76 points followed by Bedford with 134 points. The impressive Hornets won the meet by taking six of the top 10 spots.
The Pioneers took two of the top three spots with freshman Natasza Dudek taking first place with a time of 17:28.0. Saline freshman McKinley Jones was a distant second in 18:13.2. Pioneer freshman Sienna Klemmer ran third in 18:32.30.
Pioneer had four other runners finish in the top 18: sophomore Nina Moore was 11th (19:41.8), junior Bridget Kerber was 12th (19:55.3), senior Lucy Pike was 14th (20:08.7) and sophomore Lucinda Gubbini was 18th (20:31.4). Senior Clara Peikert was 25th in 21:07.5.
At Region 6 at Willow Metropark, the host Huron River Rats ran second with 90 points. Northville took first with 54 points while Farmington ran third with 93 points.
Huron was led by senior Lucinda Paliani who ran fourth overall with a time of 18:56.4. Junior Leena Shelgikar also had a strong run finishing 11th in 19:33.0. Three freshmen then crossed the finish line for the River Rats: Zoe Bossmann (22nd, 20:19.8); Mira Shelgikar (25th, 20:28.3); and Sadie Bohnsack (28th, 20:36.7). Junior Tanishka Tewari was 43rd (21:37.7) and junior Nishka Kalantry was 50th (22:09.60).
