By John Raffel
The final cross country race this season at Michigan International Speedway was incredibly close.
Rockford had 99 points, edged Northville’s 101, and barely won its second straight Division 1 state cross country title on Nov. 7.
In the team race, Isaac Harding (15:10.14) was first, Cole Johnson second (15:15.0), Grant Gabriel 19th (16:04.4), Grayson Harding 23rd (16:04.4) , and Matthew MacGregor 54th (16:24.9).
For the overall race, Harding was first and Johnson third for all-state honors.
Being an individual champion and a member of the first-place team in Division 1, “both collectively are the biggest goals I’ve had for this year,” Harding said. “I went for both equally. The best I can do for my team is to go for first individually. They’re both equally as good.”
Harding nearly broke 15 minutes at Portage this season. “Today wasn’t as fast for the times, it seems,” he said. “It was windy. But I’m happy. I was racing more for place than I was for time.”
It was Harding’s first individual state title. “Individual champ was a goal I’ve had since the start of my freshman year,” he said. “I was looking at how I could set myself up for that.”
Harding, a senior, had to hold back Mitchell Day of Alpena, who was not running with a team. Day was second overall (15:13.4), three seconds behind Harding. “I had to kick it in the last 400 to 500 meters,” Harding said. “I gave it every thing I can to go for the finish.”
Sophomore Johnson wasn’t that far behind the top two runners. “I thought, individually, I did pretty well,” he said. “The end of the race worked out pretty good for me. It strung out, and I was able to kick down some people at the end. From a team standpoint, it really worked out perfect because we won by two points. Every single move that was made in that race mattered.”
Johnson and his teammates couldn’t celebrate until after the close results were finally announced. “At first, when I crossed the line, I was a little disoriented and couldn’t really make sense of what was going on,” he said. “A little later, I got a little nervous, because I did well but wasn’t sure how the rest of squad did.”
It was a personal record for Johnson, who enjoyed having a teammate like Harding. “I’m blessed to have him as a teammate,” Johnson said. “I owe a lot of my success to him. It’s awesome to have competition every day at practices and not just at races.”
Other area runners earning all-state honors for finishing in the top 30 were East Lansing’s Jacob Stanton, who was 10th (15:33.1) and Evan Myer, who was 30th (15:56.9).
“It was pretty good,” Stanton said. “I put myself in the top five up until the two mile. After that, the front guys took off and I had to hold on. I started cramping up.” His 15:33 was his fourth best time, “which was pretty good, considering the conditions,” Stanton said.
He was 31st in the state last season. “It was the mileage I put in during the off-season,” Stanton said.
Myer got the last all-state spot. “I’m pretty happy,” he said. “I wish our team would have been here. I’d rather win as a team. It was a great honor to be all state. I think my race was okay. It wasn’t my best. I think I went out a little too fast, and I’ve been sick the first part of the race and I wish it would have been higher.”
Grand Ledge’s Christian Hubaker was 25th (15:49.6). “It was a tough race,” Hubaker said. “The wind was really tough when you’re out there. I thought it was okay. I pushed myself and gave as much effort as I could.”
Hubaker was at the state finals last year but didn’t earn all-state honors.
Fenton had three-all-staters. Jacob Lee was 19th (15:46.6), Dominic Dimambro was 23rd (15:48.5), and Andrew Bond was 26th (15:51.5).
Rockford was seventh in the girls’ Division 1 race, led by Camryn Gabriel, who was 24th in the team meet in 18:36.3 and 32nd overall.
For the individual race, junior Emily Wall of Midland Dow was an all-stater by taking 21st in 18:24.5. “I thought it went well,” she said. “I thought the conditions were pretty decent. It wasn’t cold, rainy, or windy. I did way better than I thought I was going to,” she said. “I PRed and did much better than I did last year.”
Wall was at the race last season and said that the experience helped. “It showed me what I was capable of and showed me what the course was like,” she said. “I understood what was happening more.”