Varsity Highlights
 
After a few days of drizzling rain, it was a relief to see sunshine for the Pioneer Men’s Cross Country Team’s second SEC Jamboree competition, hosted by Bedford High School at Indian Creek in Temperance, Michigan.  The Pioneers won handily, scoring 26 points for first place.  Saline followed with 66 points and Bedford came in third with 70 points.

The park is shaped in a long rectangle with soccer fields in the center, a small stream on one side and bounded by tall woods on three sides.  The men started out at one end, ran at an angle to a gravel path on the perimeter, across the tree line at the end, then turned back toward the direction of the starting line.  Spectators were easily able to view the first mile and a half, as the ranks thinned out and the boys ran along a backdrop of greenery.  After cruising the rectangle for the second time, the guys entered the woods, racing on a narrow, sandy path for nearly a mile, emerging to make the sprint back to the finish.  The top three Pioneer varsity runners, seniors Nathan Karr, Nick Kern, and Adam Kern, went out strong and stayed in the forefront for the whole race.  After the woods, with a kick to the finish, Nathan led the pack, taking first place from Monroe’s top runner.  Next for the Pioneers, it was a pleasant surprise to see Adam surging to the finish in third place; he must have passed Nick in the woods.   Not one to give up a place easily, Nick followed right after his twin to capture fourth place.  Great to see these guys run so well and perform to their ability.  The course didn’t allow for especially fast times.  It is an unrelieved flat with various running surfaces, as athletes switched from grass to gravel to wooded path and back again.

Pioneer ended up with five men in the top ten places.  Muhammad Sani finished 8th and Andy Sanz-Guerrero came in 10th.  Nice work, Pioneers! Sebastian Ag in 16th, Joe Frakes in 18th  and Kevin Chaperon in 19th placed eight guys in the top 20.  It’s wonderful to see the depth in this team.  Keep up the good effort!  Lucas Arias came in 29th and Niko Rombes came in 34th, as Coach Sleeman entered 10 varsity runners for this competition.  What a good opportunity for so many seniors to gain varsity race experience.

Read here for MLive report on the SEC Jamboree #2.

JV Highlights
 
The Pioneer Men’s reserve squad must have keenly observed the varsity team, as they mirrored their efforts to earn a clear victory over their competition tonight.  Bradley Baker, a determined look in his eye, went out strong and kept the lead to win his first race for the cross country team in 17:46.  Congratulations, Brad!  Ethan Warren took second place with a time of 18:05, making good on his commitment with Brad to come in one-two this evening.  Noah Kaczor, one of our few Junior runners, is showing real zeal and intent on making those varsity ranks.  Noah finished at 18:16 on the clock, in 6th place, and lowered his PR by 5 seconds.  Jon Diep came in 7th, Tyler Leach 8th, and John Fonte 16th with a PR almost half a minute better than his last best time.  Way to go!  Junior Colin Egerer took his PR down by 6 seconds, Steve Merritt by 2 seconds, and Jack McWhinnie by 6.  Freshman Lee Criso reduced his PR by half a minute, and exchange student Felix Schmid shaved his by 17 seconds. It is truly gratifying to see this improvement – the fruits of your focus and effort at practice all week, men.

New to the team just this past week is Dusan Hibela, an exchange student from Slovakia.  Dusan is new to distance running, but completed the course in 99th place with a time of 26:04.  Welcome to the States, Dusan; we wish you success and fun with the Cross Country Team!