Varsity highlights

The Pioneer mens varsity cross country team had a solid performance at the Gabriel Richard Invitational. Pioneer placed 4th, the best invitational placing of the season. Also, Pioneer improved its placing from 2000 for the first time this season (the team placed 5th in 2000). It was a good day.

Just like last year, Pioneer entered a second varsity team. The varsity B team placed 16th and scored 337 points. This was a nice improvement from the B team score of 433 points in 2000. So both varsity teams ran well.

Senior James Naughton had an outstanding day. James took 5th place with a personal record (PR) time of 16:02. Although James just missed breaking the magical 16:00 barrier, he did register the fastest time by any Pioneer over the last five seasons. Great job James.

Soren Berg was next for Pioneer. Soren proved that his Portage race was no fluke. Soren finished 21st, his best invitational placing ever, and ran a PR time of 16:51. Way to go Soren. Andy Harvey, Joe Anderson and Jeff Hubbard all ran solid races to complete the scoring for Pioneer.

There's quite a battle going on to determine the 7th man on varsity. Four Pioneer runners (Kevin Goehring, Mike Roth, Mortie Stensones-Fornaess, Marty Everin) ran between 17:41 and 17:51 on Saturday. In a normal year, 17:50 would be a guarantee of a varsity spot. But not this year. This will make for a very interesting race on Thursday, the final race before the Regional meet.

Varsity team results

Team                     Points
1. Novi                    89
2. Grand Blanc            107
3. Saline                 120
4. AA Pioneer             137
5. Livonia Stevenson      147
6. Livonia Churchill      155
7. Plymouth Canton        157
8. South Lyon             175
9. Brother Rice           198
10. Saline B              244
11. Pinckney              248
12. Berkley               266
13. Walled Lake Central   279
14. Adrian                287
15. North Farmington      314
16. Pioneer B             337
17. Detroit Cath Cent B   408
18. Livonia Franklin      448

Pioneer varsity runners

Name                     Place  Time
James Naughton              5   16:02  PR!  (-11)
Soren Berg                 21   16:51  PR!  (-7)
Andy Harvey                31   17:06
Joe Anderson               35   17:10
Jeff Hubbard               46   17:24
Takashi Gould              49   17:29
Kevin Goehring             59   17:41  PR!  (-11)
Mike Roth                  62   17:44  PR!  (-6)
Mortie Stensones-Fornaess  69   17:51  PR!  (-1)
Marty Everin               70   17:51  PR!  (-2)
Sam Milgrom                92   18:31  PR!  (-3)
Jesper Jarnevik            97   18:43
Carl Duke                 105   18:58
Nick Wilkenson            113   19:18
Weather: 45, mist, course a little soft

Junior varsity highlights

Dan Moyer was the top finisher in the JV race. After battling illness, Dan came back and ran a PR time of 18:44. Great work Dan.

Phil Dokas, Jeff Nao, Tom Bergman and Nick Wickstrom all improved their PR's by more than 30 seconds. Walker Rutter-Bowman and Josh Salvner also ran PR races. It was a solid day for the JV team.

Name                 Place  Time
Dan Moyer            18     18:44  PR!  (-30)
Walker Rutter-Bowman 20     18:46  PR!  (-6)
Phil Dokas           28     18:52  PR!  (-34)
Parry Garff          --     19:28
Josh Salvner         --     19:33  PR!  (-5)
Jeff Nao             --     20:06  PR!  (-40)
Alex Reynolds        --     20:24
Erron Morton         --     21:03
Tom Bergman          --     21:15  PR!  (-48)
Nick Wickstrom       --     21:37  PR!  (-38)
JP Decker            --     22:47

Final notes

The next race is the final SEC jamboree at Hudson Mills on Thursday. The boys race will start at 4:00.

PR! - new personal record, refers to all-time PR, not just the best time of the season