Wildcats win first since 2006; Maples stand tall with fifth straight
BY DAN STICKRADT
CORRESPONDENT
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
LYON TWP. — Although Novi and Birmingham Seaholm held down the No.1 rankings in cross country this week in Division 1, it was not a right of passage for the two powerhouse programs at Saturday’s 56th Annual Oakland County Championships.
Both the Wildcats and Maples had to earn their trophies.
Novi’s boys and Seaholm’s girls both rose to the occasion in a field of nearly 50 schools to gain the traveling trophy at Kensington Metropark.
Novi’s boys captured their first title since 2006 with 84 points, landing four in the top 30 and having all five scorers inside the top 40 to emerge from the pack.
White Lake Lakeland was second with 122 points, while Rochester Adams (153), Milford (187), Lake Orion (190), Novi Detroit Catholic Central (196), Birmingham Seaholm (197), Oxford (237), Rochester (247) and Clarkston (287) rounded out the top 10.
“This is an important meet to win. There’s a lot of pride winning this meet,” said Novi coach Robert Smith. “Teams that do well here usually do well at the state meet. That’s what we’re hoping. I thought we had a really tight pack. We had four runners in the top 30 for All-County and our No. 5 runners just missed. Having our pack do well was the big difference.”
Jackson Grzymanski of Lakeland was the sole runner to break the 16-minute barrier on the picturesque and difficult 3.1-mile course that winds through the Possum Hollow section of Kensington Metropark. Grzymanski clocked 15:56 to win by five seconds.
“At the (recent) Jackson Invite I finished in second place and I was bummed out. I knew I could do better,” said Grzymanski. “I thought I ran really strong and I think this will really help with my confidence. I am really building towards the state meet.”
Pontiac Notre Dame Prep’s Brendan Fraser was second in 16:01, followed by Walled Lake Westerns John Petruno (16:08), Novi’s Joost Plaetnick (16:09), Rochester’s Kyle Johnson (16:13), Walled Lake Western’s Jake Bleibtrey (16:17), Berkley’s Andrew Bill (16:22), Walled Lake Central’s Jared Hill (16:25), Novi’s Gabe Mudel (16:28) and Oxford’s Gabe Hogan (16:31) in the top 10 charts.
John Landy (17th), Scott MacPherson (21st) and Adam Ditri (33rd) aided Novi’s winning effort.
Seaholm’s girls captured their fifth straight title — which ties Clarkston (2001-2005) for the most consecutive titles — after the Maples amassed 57 points. Seaholm edged Milford (67) by a mere 10 points in the most closely contested Oakland County race in several years.
“Too close,” sighed Seaholm coach Jeff Devantier. “It’s kind of funny that after the meet last year I stuck around with Milford (coach Brian Saylers) and we talked about everybody that we both had coming back and the kids coming up and that we would both be up here again this year. That’s exactly what happened. A lot of people thought because we graduated our No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 runners from last year that we would drop. I knew what kind of talent we still had on this team. Our seniors have never lost this meet. And five of our top seven are not seniors. We’re still going to be one of the better teams the next couples of years.”
Waterford Mott was a distant third with 131 points, while Lake Orion (203), Rochester Adams (205), Clarkston (238), Rochester (268), Walled Lake Northern (270), Farmington (273) and Troy (296) also finished in the top 10.
An All-Stater in both the 800 and 1,600-meter really during the track season, Milford junior Mallory Barnett used her strong kick to win the individual crown. In a nip-and-tuck race with Royal Oak’s Grace Cutler, Barrett surged ahead of Cutler down the stretch to clock 18:19. Cutler finished in 18:22, comfortably in the runner-up slot.
Farmington’s Maddy Trevisan (18:35), Seaholm’s Audrey Ladd (18:40), Milford’s Victoria Heiligenthal (18:49), Seaholm’s Patty Giradot (18:50), Mott’s Rylie Robinson (18:55), Milford’s Nicole Grindling (18:55), Farmington’s Abby Inch (18:57) and Mott’s Katie Osika (19:06) also finished in top-10 territory.
“I’m not sure what Cutler runs in track, but I felt with my foot speed that I could (pull away),” said Barrett. “It’s a great accomplishment winning this race and carrying on the tradition (of dominant runners from Oakland County).
“I think this is a confidence boost for our whole team. We think we compete with the best in the state like Seaholm and Waterford Mott,” continued Barrett. “We don’t know what we can do yet. We haven’t reached our peak. But we’re hoping to do really well at the end of the season.”
Rachel McCardell (13th), Mary Sanders (16th) and Emily Rooney (18th) also help Seaholm compile the team score for the victorious Maples, which actually had six runners in the top 25 (Kati Beckman placed 24th) and all seven runners inside the top 40 to pull ahead of runner-up Milford.
The Mavericks had five in the top 30 but could not track down the top-ranked Maples.
The top three teams in the girls race — Seaholm, Milford and Mott are all in the same Mott regional in three weeks.
“It’s all teams that could very well be in the top five or top six at the state meet,” reminded DeVantier.