Varsity Highlights

On a crisp, cool autumn day, the Pioneer Men’s Cross Country Team competed in the Gabriel Richard High School Invitational meet at Hudson Mills Metropark.  The Pioneers came in third place, with 89 points, following first place Pinckney with 25 points, and second place Plymouth High School, with 61 points.

Coach Sleeman, resting his top squad in preparation for Divisionals next Thursday, ran his second varsity team today.  This gives more athletes a chance to perform with some of the areas’ top runners, and allows them another opportunity to experience competition at the varsity level.  Both Pinckney and Plymouth fielded their top runners today -- very competitive teams as we've seen earlier this season at Holly and Portage.

The course design is of a wide, grassy field that runners outline in a rough rectangle for the first mile.  Then, the path narrows at the entrance to a loop in the woods.  Runners have several sharp turns in the woods section of the course.  There is a mild gradient back there, as they circle a hollow, then the runners emerge to the field once again.  They pass the second mile marker behind the starting line, then run a modified woods loop the second time before heading down the straight-away to the finish chute. This course appears to be slower than some; the first-place time, posted by Pinckney’s Tanner Pesonen, was 16:12.1.  This was not a record-setting race for any of our varsity runners today, most running ten seconds or more off their best times, so these Pioneer men should be proud of their strong showing here.  This Pioneer squad beat eight other teams, some of whom entered their top varsity men.

The Pioneers started out fast, right up with the front runners from Pinckney and Plymouth.  Senior Joe Frakes and Norwegian exchange student Sebastian Ag traded off the lead for their team during the first mile.  Lead runners began to stretch out to a small pack in front, and Joe used his long stride to keep pace with them.  Sebastian remained focused and determined to keep up as well.  Joe stayed up with the lead runners well into the third mile

Joe crossed the finish line in 16:35.8, his fastest yet for the season and just seconds off his PR, placing fifth overall.  Sebastian was just behind Joe, narrowly missing the top ten ranks, coming in eleventh with a time of 16:55.1.  Well done, guys.

Seniors Bradley Baker, Lucas Arias and Kevin Chaperon, all experienced varsity runners by now, ran their race and showed a powerful presence on the course, encouraging and supporting each other along the way.  They all finished within ten seconds of each other; Brad on top with a 22nd place in 17:22, Lucas in 24th place in 17:25, and Kevin in 27th place in 17:29.8.  It’s great to see Kevin racing again; he was suffering from a stress fracture, at last report.  Stay healthy, everyone!

Completing the varsity team today were senior Ethan Warren and junior Noah Kaczor.  Both had limited experience running varsity before this race, and both stepped up to show their talent.  Ethan finished in 37th place overall in 17:49.4, and Noah in 43rd place in 18:12.1. Looking good, men!

Click here for MLive report on the Gabriel Richard Invitational.