Varsity highlights

On a beautiful crisp, clear fall day in mid-Michigan, Pioneer once again made a powerful statement to the rest of the state, by running away with the Division I team championship at the very competitive Don Baese Carson City Invitational. Runner-up Rockford was 30 points back. And to demonstrate the depth that this team has, the Pioneer "B" team finished a very impressive 15th place out of 29 teams participating in this meet.

Led again by Senior Co-Captain Morty Stensones-Fornaess (16:18), Senior Co-Captain Takashi Gould (16:22), and Junior Peter Christmas (16:34), Pioneer once again had three finishers in the top ten. This is quite an accomplishment given the size of this meet (it was a lot bigger than most of us expected!). These three continue to lead Pioneer to one victory after another. Junior Craig Marlatt (17:12) finished in 31st place as he knocked :03 seconds off his season best time. Junior Eric Anderson (17:19) ran another PR and finished in 36th place, as both Craig and Eric inch closer to breaking the 17:00 mark. Senior Kyle Kulseth ran another impressive race with a season best time of 17:40. And Sophomore Ben Bross (17:42) had a personal best time as he consistently continues to improve.

The Pioneer "B" squad had a field day at Carson City. Personal best times were all over the place, as this team showed it could compete with any team in the field. Led by Junior Will Barden (17:45), Junior Leo Callender (17:49), and Junior Mark Antonuk (17:56) breaking the 18:00 mark for the first time, and Senior Dale White (18:05), personal best times were abundant. Freshman Charlie Clavell (18:02), who would have finished in 7th place in the freshman race had he run in it, also ran a PR by :10 seconds and continues to impress everybody with his steady drops in time. Nick Ochal (18:23) and Lang Burghardt (18:35) rounded out the "B" teams very impressive performance. Great job to everyone!

Varsity team results

Team	                      Points
1. Ann Arbor Pioneer "A"	83
2. Rockford	               113
3. GR Forest Hills Northern    168
4. Grand Ledge	               192
5. Grand Rapids Christian      195
15. Ann Arbor Pioneer "B"      378

Pioneer varsity runners

A-Team
Place	Runner	                  Time
3rd	Morty Stensones-Fornaess  16:18
4th	Takashi Gould	          16:22
9th	Peter Christmas	          16:34
31st	Craig Marlatt	          17:12
36th	Eric Anderson	          17:19 PR! (:04)
55th	Kyle Kulseth	          17:40
57th	Ben Bross	          17:42 PR! (:13)

B-Team
62nd	Will Barden	          17:45 PR! (:33)
66th	Leo Callender	          17:49 PR! (:39)
77th	Mark Antonuk	          17:56 PR! (:08)
84th	Charlie Clavell	          18:02 PR! (:10)
89th	Dale White	          18:05 PR! (:25)
118th	Nick Ochal	          18:23
133	Lang Burghardt	          18:35

Junior varsity highlights

With seven JV runners participating in the Varsity race, this was an opportunity for this group to step up and continue the impressive running Pioneer's JV has shown all season long. And with a phenomenal number of PR's at Carson City, these guys were impressive!

Sophomore Jon Voiles (18:01) had an outstanding day, beating his previous best time by 15 seconds and finishing 9th in the JV race. Sophomore Mack McDonald-Wilkens (18:13) and Junior Yan Charniauski (19:01) demolished their personal best times and led Pioneer to an impressive 5th place finish in this large JV field, even while fielding two varsity teams.

Other notable performances were Sophomore Joe Stapleton (19:21), Sophomore Nick Rivard (19:58), Junior David Del Zoppo (19:59), Junior Jake Holmes (20:03) all running PR's, and in Nick and David's case breaking the 20:00 mark for the first time!

But the race of the day has to go to Junior David Hanss (20:34) who not only ran a season best time, but accomplished this feat with only one shoe on! His shoe was knocked off early in the race, but he kept on running. This was truly an impressive run given the fact that this course was rough and sometimes rocky, as David's foot can attest to.

Congratulations to our JV squad!

Pioneer JV runners

Name		        Time
Jon Voiles		18:01 PR! (:15)
Mack McDonald-Wilkens	18:13 PR! (:34)
Jeff Nao		18:41
Yan Charniauski	        19:01 PR! (:56)
Tyler Vane		19:02
Jon Levinsohn		19:19
Joe Stapleton		19:21 PR! (:08)
Adam Fisher		19:22
Nick Rivard		19:24 PR! (:34)
Miles Atwell		19:41
Jamie Fogel		19:54
Jon Strader		19:56
David Del Zoppo	        19:59 PR! (:32)
Jake Holmes		20:03 PR! (:32)
Greg Johnson		20:16 
David Hanss		20:34
Dan Zhang		20:36
RJ Stefl		20:58 
John Boonin		21:15
Jason Robertson	        21:28
Lars Zwannenburg	21:44 
Tommy Held		21:55
Paul Kimeldorf	        22:33
Zach DeGeorge 	        DNF

Pioneer Freshman runners

Led by Taylor Deluca (19:04), Pioneer had a strong showing in the Freshman race. Taylor crushed his previous best by :47 seconds. Kinshuk Rajan (21:54) and Chris Lanius (22:14) also blazed to personal best times with improvements of :44 seconds and an incredible 1:40 respectively. Obviously these young men enjoyed having an exclusive race for freshman. Great job guys!

Name		        Time
Taylor Deluca		19:04 PR! (:47)
Kinshuk Rajan		21:10 PR! (:44)
Chris Lanius		22:14 PR! (1:40)

Final notes

This is a big week for the Pioneer cross-country team. On Tuesday in Saline we have SEC Jamboree #2. And on Saturday the nationally recognized Portage Invitational in Portage, Michigan. For those of you who have never been to this meet it is a great invite, and we have a link to their website in the "Links" section of this website. Check it out, and more importantly, come to the meet! We will have the opportunity to compete against the best teams in the midwest at Portage. We're sure our runners will make it worth the drive! Go Pioneer!

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