Just like on the girls’ side of the course, the Portage Invitational has long been one of those key mile markers along the course of the high school boys’ cross country season and Saturday’s event included four local teams among the crowded 38-team field.
Northville continued its strong season with a first-place finish score of 83 points to easily take the gold medal. Jenison was second with 106 points, followed by Brighton (164), Grand Haven (179) and Saline (257).
Pioneer had the best finish of the three local teams. The Pioneers crossed the finish line with 350 points to take ninth place. Dexter had a solid race, finishing with 456 points to take 16th place, while Skyline finished in 24th place with 583 points and Huron in 35th place with 853 points.
Running in only his second race of the season, Pioneer sophomore Kamari Ronfeldt took first place overall with a time of 15:02.3. His first race of the season came Sept. 24 when he won the SEC Jamboree 2 at Pioneer. Ronfeldt, who took fourth place at last year’s State Finals as a freshman, won a close race at Portage, beating out Jenison’s Seth Conner who was second in 15:05.8.
Pioneer junior Beckett Crooks continued his strong season with a sixth-place finish time of 15:35.4. And Theo Sacks-Thomas, another junior, landed in 40th place with a time of 16:22.8.
Other Pioneers to cross the finish line were junior Thomas DeJesus (135th, 17:25.3), junior Quinn Davis (172nd, 17:42.6), sophomore Leroy Li (214th, 18:13.9), and sophomore Cooper Ankeney (221st, 18:19.4).
The Dreadnaughts were led by three seniors: Julian Linebaugh (18th, 16:00.7), Caleb Snyder (49th, 16:26.5) and Landon Whitehead (98th, 17:02.4). Sophomore Coen Hill was 136th (17:25.5), junior Cole Doty was 160th (17:36.8), freshman Nicholas Reiser was 168th (17:41.5) and sophomore Nick Martens (222nd, 18:21.8).
Skyline junior Bruno Cifaldi was 94th with a time of 17:00.1. Other Eagles crossing the finish line included freshman Oskar MacArthur (107th, 17:09.2), senior Jack Robichaud (117th, 17:15.9), freshman Sage O’Lor (127th, 17:20.5), sophomore Nicholas Yuan (143rd, 17:28.2), junior Kyle Krasan (148th, 17:31.2), sophomore Matthew Guikema (170th, 17:41.9) and freshman Martin Gehrke (180th, 17:47.1).
Huron senior Walker Brose led the River Rats across the finish line with a time of 16:36.1 to finish 60th. Junior Jamal Samaha was 174th (17:43.8), junior Thomas Conley was 181st (17:48.1), sophomore Charles Cools was 219th (18:18.6), junior Francisco Dura was 230th (18:29.3), senior Jonah Kraft was 246th (19:06.5) and senior Soren Stone-Palmquist was 262nd (20:15.8).
