Scott Keyes
Sports Scene
A year ago, Heritage cross country runner Evan Chiplock ran most of the season injured but still managed to finish fifth at the Division 1 state finals.
This season, Chiplock is healthy and is emerging as a possible front-runner to win the state title during the state cross country finals to be held at Michigan International Speedway on November 5.
During the September 16 Spartan Invitational, Chiplock shattered his own school, record, winning the race in a time of 15 minutes, 18 seconds.
He easily broke the 5-kilometer school record of 15:32, which he set last season.
“We are obviously in a much different place than we were one year ago,” said coach Gary Loubert. “I have my top six back, and Evan got his opportunity to compete in a very competitive field early this year and did well, so we are setting some pretty high goals, but they feel achievable. During the Spartan race, it was the first time Evan was challenged at all, and he had a small lead starting somewhere in the second mile, so I think he can drop a little more time immediately if someone runs on his shoulder later in the race. There are a lot of guys out there that can do it. He will see one at Carson City in a couple weeks if the divisions stay as posted. Connor Mora from Cedar Springs, amongst others, is currently listed as in the race, so that could be a great opportunity. The Carson course is not as fast as MSU so we will see.”
Loubert said the team started off ahead of where they were a year ago and he expected that, considering they are a veteran group of runners. Loubert’s top seven runners include Chiplock, Tom Acosta, Mitchell Ellsworth, Brandon Scharich, Nate Cruz, Bobby Leddy, and David Jensen.
“What I was a bit surprised by is Gabe Acevedo and Shane Kaiser challenging for those top seven spots,” Loubert said. “We had our top six runners returning, so we just need to take a step forward from last year to be competitive. Gabe and Shane give us depth and they are both juniors, so that gives us four [with Nate Cruz and Brandon Scharich] solid guys to build our group around next year. I also have a rookie sophomore named Nate Derdowski that ran 17:31 and a junior that ran 17:45, so we should be in pretty good shape for 2012.”
In the meantime, it is business as usual for the Hawks and Loubert, who felt he got a real idea of where the team stood after the Spartan Invitational. The only meet that Heritage has lost was at Michigan State, and the team finished fifth out of 36 teams. Heritage is gunning for its fifth Saginaw Valley League Championship in a row in 2011, as well as its fifth consecutive Saginaw County Championship. Heritage lost the region to Grand Blanc last year, so Loubert said the team’s goal is to reclaim that title , which will make it four out of the last five if they do.
“Grand Blanc returns a nice team, and we got the Traverse City schools back in the region,” Loubert said.
“Five of my top seven have already set their PRs and the next two are closing in on theirs, so we are off to a good start. We have to get a little stronger in the middle of the race to stay in contention. I feel we are a little behind some of the other teams because we haven’t raced as much as they have so far, but we will close the gap in the next couple weeks after some key workouts are completed.”