State Meet Highlights

The Pioneer Men’s Cross Country Team came out today to run at the Michigan International Speedway, the daunting venue for the Michigan High School Athletics Association State Championship.  This young team has come so far this year, and Coach Sleeman was very pleased to see their efforts pay off at the Regional Championship Meet, where their finish place qualified them to participate today.

The Varsity team was greeted with a nice turn-out of supporters, from parents, friends and family to alumni runners, parents and grandparents.  Early on, the mood was relaxed and cheerful.  The weather was quite a switch from the chilly wind at Regionals; today was warm and sunny, just cool enough to be comfortable, and the ground was dry but not dusty.  The guys were visibly nervous before the race, jumping and stretching, with music playing into earphones to keep thoughts calm.

At last it was time for the team to practice their strides out from the stating line.  The starting boxes seem to go on forever at MIS, and with so many athletes from so many schools competing, it’s difficult to spot our purple and white uniforms.  POP! Goes the sound of the starting gun, and the stampede of hundreds of young men at the peak of their training charging forward is most impressive.  The Pioneers were nestled in the middle of the pack of runners, jostling for position early as the wide swath narrowed when it turned to exit the racing oval.  As he has all season, Senior Captain David Torres led his team off the blacktop track and into the Michigan countryside. The spectators rushed out to see the men run by, and they curved around a marshy circle to run along a stand of woods.  Freshman Eddie Codrington looked relaxed and steady as he loped by, and Sophomores Galen Burrell, Max Shpilband and Dean Brigham were pushing through heavy traffic early in the race.  Freshman Costa Willets never looks worried, he just runs fast and always looks light on his feet.  Sophomore Boris Burman seemed focused and ready to take on the competition.

The course is next visible at the end of the first mile, and the guys swerve in a line very near the MIS track before turning out again to loop around a pond.  At this point, there is a lot of teamwork visible, as the guys tried to catch their teammates and run together.  Galen and Eddie were together some of the time, Max and Dean as well, but David was concentrating on passing runners from other schools.  Every Pioneer put his heart into this race, and the front runners set a blistering pace.  Spectators rushed along, panting to try and see the guys re-enter the oval toward the finish.  The arc is so wide it’s hard to keep visibility of the runners while rushing forward to see the finish.  David had his best race of the season, chopping almost thirteen seconds off his former fastest time and proving his worth to the team, as he has all year.  Eddie put a kick on that put many an older runner to shame.  He came flying across the finish line at 16:45 and could be the top Pioneer next year with David graduating.  Galen ran a fantastic race here, slicing off more than four seconds from his PR, and powering through the seventeen-minute barrier.  Max did a great job at the meet today.  Although his finish time was not his fastest, considering how he shattered his PR at Regionals, this race was right in line with his best times for the year. And then there is Dean; quiet, low-key Dean, who had a jaw-dropping performance at States today.  Dean poured it on in the second half of the race and accelerated near the end to pass runners all the way home.  Dean took a whopping nineteen seconds off his last best time, finished as fifth Pioneer today, and will certainly be gracing the Varsity ranks next year.  No wonder Dean couldn’t stop smiling when the race was over.  Costa finished in 17:12, not his quickest of the season but simply fantastic for a freshman runner in a competitive race of this nature.  Costa has so much talent and really does make the sport look easy.  Not to worry, Costa, we know it isn’t!  Pioneer’s final competitor Tyler had a good day, finishing under seventeen and a half minutes, well under his time last week and right in line with his best this season.  It has been simply wonderful to see the progress this entire team has made over the season.  All seven gained valuable experience competing at the State level.  The team finished 23rd overall with 541 points.  Congratulations for earning your way here, and for an exciting and competitive showing by all of you!