John Raffel
Sports Scene
Mason was first in Division 2, Lansing Catholic Central and Hemlock were second and third in Division 3, and Sacred Heart Academy was second in Division 4 to highlight the state finals’ performance in cross country this season.
DIVISION 2
Mason posted a score of 92 in the boys’ meet to take first place over runner-up St. Joseph, which had 129. Ionia was third with 134 and Cedar Springs fourth at 205. Haslett was 11th at 205.
For Mason, Tanner Hinkle was fourth in 15:41.3, while Alex Whitmer was sixth in 15:54.3, Joe Cecil was 11th in 16:05.9, Mason VanDyke 25th in 16:18.1, and Jacob Hansen 77th in 16:05.6.
“It feels really, really good,” said Mason coach Charles Miller. “It’s something we’ve worked for. We made it a goal that this year we could win this thing if we did everything right, worked hard, and trained hard. We knew we had the talent.”
It was Mason’s first boys’ cross country crown.
“We’ve been ranked No. 1 all year, so we knew if we ran like we did in the past, we came in with a shot to win it,” Miller said.
For Ionia, Brandon Winter was 12th in 16:06.4, Connor Montgomery 15th in 16:07.6, Brice Brown 20th in 16:12.1, and Nick Whary 26th in 16:18.1
Cedar Springs was led by Connor Mora, who was third overall in 15:33.2, Aaron Brooks, who was 36th in 16:27.8, and Austin Sargeant, who was 42nd in 16:40.
Big Rapids’ Clark Ruiz had a time of 15:53.1 for fifth place overall.
“It’s all right,” he said. “Top five is good, I like it. That’s the highest I’ve finished.”
A year ago, Ruiz had his previous high finish of 19th.
“I was hoping to win,” he said. “Who doesn’t really? But I’m happy with it.”
Ruiz said he had a rough first mile.
“After that first mile, I kept getting boxed in,” he said. “I struggled to break through.”
At the end, “I had to hold off people,” Ruiz said. “And I did.”
Alex McCormick of Haslett was 23rd in 16:16.4.
DIVISION 3
Lansing Catholic Central’s Zachary Zingsheim was the top runner in the Division 3 boys race in 15:48.2.
Calvin Christian was first with 56, followed by Lansing Catholic Central with 65, and Hemlock with 195. Clare was sixth, Pewamo-Westphalia eighth, and Frankenmuth 10th.
“We were hoping to win the state championship,” said Zingsheim. “We put ourselves in the position to win it and we ran great. We lost to one of the best teams I’ve ever seen, Calvin Christian. I just wanted to do my part.”
When it was announced that he was state champion, “words can’t describe how I feel,” Zingsheim said. “It’s just starting to set in. I started running in the sixth grade. I always idolized and looked up to the guys who finished first. I thought I had a chance and want to get to the lead of the pack soon and try to run with the guys. I knew if I could, I have a good kick and try to give myself a chance.”
Zingsheim gave his best shot. to improving from his 33rd place finish last year. “I ran more miles than I ever have,” he said. “I was waking up before school and running and after school, sacrificing to be here today and do something like this.”
Also for Catholic Central, Keenan Rebea was ninth in 16:05.2, Jimmy Hicks 12th in 16:13.6, Joe Marrah 28th in 16:34.5, and Austin Winter 43rd in 16:53.9.
“We were hoping for first,” said coach Tim Simpson. “We thought we had a good shot at them. That’s a really good team. We thought we could give them a shot. They beat us by 90 last year.
“Zac worked hard all year. He was four-time all-state in track last year. He put in a lot of miles this summer and got himself ready for cross country.”
Catholic Central finished second to Calvin Christian last year, too, but it was much closer this year.
“This year, we only lost by nine. We worked so hard during the off-season to try to narrow that gap,” Zingsheim said.
Hemlock was led by Jaime Keck, 38th in 16:49.4, and Cody Clark, 57th in 17:03.4.
Clare was sixth, led by Jonathan Harper, who finished 16th in 16:29.7.
It was one of the fastest state final times ever registered by a Clare runner, coach Adam Burhans said.
“I feel great,” Harper said. “I gave it everything I had. It was my last race, my senior year.”
Kurtis Hall of Shepherd was 19th in 16:23., Eric Edmond of Frankenmuth 20th in 16:25.3, and Stephen Merchant of Ithaca 27th in 16:33.3.
DIVISION 4
For the Irish, Casey Voisin was fifth in 16:20.2, Ben Schilling seventh in 16:33.3, Cooper Terry 22nd in 16:59.6, Andrew Mumford 32nd in 17;17.2, and Jim English 33rd in 17:17.8
“As far as how the guys ran, it was more than I expected,” said Irish coach Chad Zitzelberger. “We’ve got four seniors and said four years ago when they got together that we were going to try to win the state championship. We fell a little short of that. But second place, we got a trophy and we were on the podium.
“I knew the potential was there. I knew we were a top two team. We trained together all summer.”
Voisin said he did not run his best race at the state finals. He was the sixth individual while taking fifth among teams that were contending for points.
“In the end, it wasn’t a bad day,” he said. “I thought we ran very well. It wasn’t our best day. But we ourselves went out there to have a chance to win. Concord ran out of their minds. But we had a fantastic season, one of the best in school history. We’ve been dreaming of this. It didn’t go quite the way we wanted to, but it worked out pretty well. It’s a great feeling that we took second in the state.”
Potterville was fourth in Division 4, led by Norman Emineth, 15th in 16:45.7, Tyler Larson 19th in 16:49.7, Kyle Hardy 20th in 16:56.8, and Sam Traver 24th in 17:04.1.
Breckenridge, ninth with 252 points, was led by Nate Partee in 21st in 16:58.1 and Jesse Corbat 28th in 17:13.1.
Individually, Dave Dantuma of Crossroads Charter Academy was seventh in 16:20.2.
“I was pretty happy,” Dantuma said of his all-state effort. “I felt I gave it everything I’ve got. I beat a lot of guys that normally beat me by quite a bit.”
“Normally I do pretty well at big meets.”
It was his first year for running cross country full-time.
“I’m happy,” he said. “I put in a lot of miles this summer. It’s really helped me.”
Bohdan Hartman of Fulton was 16th in 16:39.7. Nick Pung of Beal City was 26th in 16:48.3.
DIVISION 1
Rockford was seventh with 220 points and Heritage was eighth with 231 points.
Evan Chiplock of Heritage was 38th in 16:09.7. Austin Benoit of Rockford was 39th in 16:11.5.