Raquel Serna of St. Louis gave it a shot in the Division 3 cross country girls’ race on November 3 at the Michigan International Speedway, but she fell to Gina Patterson of Lutheran High School North, who had a winning time of 17:43.4. Serna’s time was 17:59.95.
Lumen Christi Catholic won the team race. Lansing Catholic was fifth, while Shepherd was ninth, Clare was 12th, and Nouvel Catholic Central was 25th.
“We were very excited,” said St. Louis coach Jay Puffpaff. “She ran a 22-second PR on Saturday. She ran the best race of her high school career and the last race, so we were very excited. She’s worked hard for four years to get to that point. Her big goal for the year was to break 18. She just snuck under.”
“I was excited but kind of disappointed I didn’t win, being my senior year,” Serna said. “I’m happy with the time I got.”
At the last half-mile mark, Serna realized she probably wasn’t going to win. “She [Patterson] came out of nowhere and surprised me and probably a lot of the other runners too,” Serna said. “I went out there and ran as hard as I could. The first 2½ miles were really good for me.”
Serna became a three-time all-stater. She finished fourth as a freshman, was injured as a sophmore, and finished second as a junior.
“She tried to hold on at the end but didn’t quite have enough,” Puffpaff said of Serna’s final race.
Besides Serna, other area all-staters were Kaylie Rhynard and Taylor Thrush of Shepherd, seventh and 20th in 18:25.9 and 19:01.6, and Emma Frost of Lansing Catholic, 19th in 19:00.6. Victoria Harper of Clare was 21st in 19:04.7.
Also for Lansing Catholic, in team placing, Frost was 14th, while Mary Delaney was 29th in 19:31.0, Amy Hicks 46th in 20:06.4, Emily Hoban 73rd in 20:38.1, and Josephine Brown 75th in 20:42.2.
For Clare, in team placing, Lindsay Winter was 30th in 19:36.1.
For the boys, Lumen Christi Catholic took first, while Freeland was fifth and Ithaca sixth. Lansing Catholic finished 10th, Hemlock 11th, Saranac 12th, Clare 13th, Farwell 22nd, and Reese 24th.
For Ithaca, Stephen Merchant was 19th for team placing in 16:23.8, while Kaleb Coston was 22nd in 16:38.2, Alik Helms 41st in 1:02.5, and Kaleb Baublitz 56th in 17:11.4.
“There were a lot of teams clustered at the same level,” said Ithaca coach Tim Lambrecht. “The one wild card for us was Steven. He had a high ankle sprain. He was less than 100 percent the previous three meets. At regionals, he was our fourth or fifth runner. State is a whole different ballgame.
“We were confident but somewhat apprehensive. It wound up that six of our top seven guys ran all-time personal bests. For Kaleb Baublitz, who didn’t, that was his second fastest time.”
As for Merchant, “He came back strong for us,” Lambrecht said. “This is clearly the best performance the boys’ team has ever had. We’re pretty excited.”
Alex Stowell led Freeland with a time of 16:19.3 for a team placing of 15th, while Brent Wegner was 31st in 16:51.1, and Garrett Bila 32nd in 16:52.6.
“We had a pretty good meet,” said Freeland coach Jason Robinson. “We didn’t perform 100 percent to what we thought going in. But that was after the success we had in the middle of the season. Our season goal was to be top five and we did finish fifth. We had some meets like at Portage where we got second place and other meets where as a group we ran some faster times.
“We thought going in that anybody ranked first through eighth in that whole mix had a shot at a trophy at the state finals. We were hoping to be in there as well. To finish fifth is what we wanted as a team goal. We did a good job of taking care of business and making it happen. Alex is a sophomore and finished 22nd overall. I had three people battle for that top spot all year.”
Individual runners getting all-state for top 30 finishes were Keenan Rebera of Lansing Catholic, fifth in 15:42.5; Mitchell Hoffman of Hemlock, 11th in 16:10.8; Tim Young of Saranac, 12th in 16:10.9; Tyler Jensen of Ovid-Elsie, 15th in 16:13.9; Stowell in 22nd; Hunter Nivison of Clare 26th in 16:21.1; and Merchant 27th.