Varsity Highlights
 
The Pioneer Varsity team ran Saturday morning at the Jackson meet.  They were accompanied by a handful of teammates; the rest of the guys participated in a morning practice.  It was a lovely Fall day, with mild temperatures and plenty of sunshine following an early morning mist.  Pioneer captured fourth place with 123 points.

The varsity squad consisted of GalenBurrell, Costa Willets, Max Shpilband, Eddie Codrington, Dean Brigham, Boris Burman, and Nick Aukerman.

Jackson's Ella Sharp Memorial Park is a mostly flat, grassy course with a gradual hill up to a gazebo.  The men run up and down the hill twice, and times are typically low here, so there are usually lots of personal records set on this course when the weather is fine.  The guys galloped out on the straightaway and set a blistering pace to contend with teams from all over Michigan.

Today was Costa's day to dazzle the spectators, keeping up with the front runners and bursting with energy at the end of the run.  Costa sliced almost half a minute from his last best time, and earned a fourteenth place finish overall.

Galen, who had paced his teammates earlier, also set a new personal record here, and stayed right with Costa to finish in 15th place, in a time of 16:30.

Max had a fantastic run here in Jackson.  He reduced his best time by over 15 seconds, stayed up really well with Costa and Galen, and finished in 25th position, earning honors (along with all those in the top 30 at this race).  Way to go, MAX.

Eddie finished just after Max in 16:46, another excellent time and another solid performance from one of Pioneer's top athletes.

Dean didn't have his record time at this race, but ran well, just seven seconds off from his best time set last week at Holly.  Well done, Dean.

Nick Auckerman, newest member of the Varsity squad, proved his worth here today, running a new best record time by almost 3 seconds, capturing the sixth man position and staying focused and determined throughout.

Boris tensed up a bit, and ended up as seventh man here, which will not likely remain the case for long, if Boris has anything to say about it!  Keep up the hard work at practice, Boris!

Keep working as a team and support each other – you will certainly gain momentum together.
 

JV Highlights
 
The meet in Jackson's Ella Sharp Memorial Park is one that has had a high number of schools participate in the past.  This year, it more was more lightly attended, but still offered plenty of competition for the Pioneer Men's Cross Country reserve team. Varsity runs tomorrow morning;this is the only event of the season that divides the two races.

It was perfect weather for running: cool but not cold, with low humidity, bright and sunny, and warm but not hot, with big puffy cloud formations high in the late afternoon sky.

The boys lined up on the east side of the row, and powered off fast when the starter gun sounded. Out in front were Jacob Johnson, Mark Flamme, Rob Frakes, and Zach Fogel. Into the first 1000m, Dexter, Lakeland and Saline were the front runners, and Saline's sheer numbers were impressive.  By then, Lucas Arrivo had battled his way to the front of the Pioneer squad, and faced a lot of yellow shirts. Just behind Lucas came Mark and Rob running together, supporting each other. After the journey into the trees, the Pioneers emerged,  led by Lucas, followed closely by Tyler Leach, Dan Fonte, Rob, and Jacob. After them came a long stretch of Pioneers, with Will Jibsob and Ancel Kalakailo running together part of the way. Jacon Norton and Ancel's rivalry was heated at this race, and Ancel was determined recapture his position in front of Jacob, who enjoyed beating him the last couple of meets. At the two mile mark, Lucas was followed by Dan and Rob, with Tyler chasing them down, Mark and Jacob were just behind.  Ancel and Will were followed by David Kellam, who ran so well here today, he is really building speed through his hard work!

On the sloping course down from the rotunda, Lucas used his momentum nicely to overtake a Lakeland runner and move up in the ranks. In the home stretch, the Dexter front runner was all alone, followed by a pack from Saline. Lucas, Rob and Dan were passing other runners all the way towards the finish line.  Tyler came in strong at the end, as did Mark.   Lucas came in tenth overall, fantastic, Lucas!! Rob, Dan and Tyler followed, claiming 18th, 23rd and 26th places, respectively. Great to see four guys in the top 35!! Jacob Johnson, who struggled with a chest cold this week, battled congestion in the last mile but still finished  really well; he was 33rd overall.  Ancel (48th) and Will (49th) came next.- Will is flirting with the 19 minute milestone and will bust through that barrier this season for sure.  David Kellam came in 73rd and took almost a minute off his last best time, great to see that progress! Jacob Norton came in just behind Ancel, so world order has been restored for the week. Josh Bender set a new personal record today, and was happy about that, but he's ready to break twenty and will be even happier when he reaches that goal.
Congratulations to all those who established new personal records here today! Here are the standings for the rest of the reserve team:  Dario Potter (80), Willian Yang (84), Tristan Edwards (99), James Oh (109), Nick Liu (127), Zach Fogel, Alex Kim (152), Stone Mathers (189), Jerry Chen (204).