By John Raffel
Corunna harbored state title hopes in Division 2 boys’ cross country but fell a few places short.
Fremont won with 69 points, while Clio finished third (172) and Corunna fifth (174) on Nov. 7 at Michigan International Speedway..
Noah Jacobs, a junior, led Corunna in first (15:30.5) for the team race. He was second overall, behind senior Morgan Beadlescomb of Algonac (15:26.5).
“I ran about what I wanted to,” Jacobs said. “I got beat by this kid in the last 300 meters. There was a really big group, and with 600 to go, I took the lead. Around 300 to go, Morgan passed me. I tried to stick but couldn’t hang around.”
“I’m happy with the season, and I’m happy with how I executed the race,” Jacobs said. “I raced the plan but didn’t end up with what I wanted to have as the final outcome.”
Jacobs and his teammates had hopes of taking first place. “We wanted to win,” he said. “We thought if we were on as a team, we could win. It’s a pretty big disappointment to me we didn’t at least get second and come out with some hardware. We were in a good position to do something like that.”
Corunna’s Ben Watson was also an all-stater by finishing 12th (16:02.9). “I thought it went pretty well for me individually,” he said. “Some of our guys had a rough time during the race, and we weren’t able to do what we wanted to as a team. It was good for me overall. One of our guys had problems getting out. Another one of our guys had trouble along the way.”
It was still a memorable season for Corunna. “We had a very good season with lots of trophies,” Watson said. “It’s a very good season, good team. I’d do it again.”
Other local all-staters were Dillon Haviland of St. Johns, who was 10th in 16:01; Ethan Talkjonick of Clio, who was 17th in 16:09; Ben Geer of Mason, who was 21st in 16:13; and Josiah Quinn of St. Johns, who was 27th in 16:18.
Geer earned all-state honors for the first time. “That was a big goal for me,” he said. “I felt really good up until the last mile or so, then I started to die a little bit. That’s a PR for me, so I’m glad I got a PR. I’m not a very even runner. So my strategy is going out fast, and I had a good start, so that definitely helped me.”