Varsity highlights
The Pioneer Cross Country team traveled to the Jackson Invitational
on a perfect day for running, narrowly losing by seven points to a
young Pinckney squad. Although Pioneer did not take home the
championship there were some fantastic runs, and we may quite
possibly look back at this meet at the end of the year as the
stepping stone to bigger and better things. Only time will tell!
For the fourth straight meet Senior Captain Peter Christmas ran away
with the individual championship with another sub 16:00 time of
15:58. In his normal fashion of wearing down the competition with an
unrelenting pace, Pete dominates his races so convincingly that he
usually runs by himself without anybody left to push him. A good
problem, but we're sure he is looking forward to the day when he is
truly tested. Keep up the good work Pete! Senior Captain Craig
Marlatt ran to another top ten finish with a 9th place finish and a
personal best time of 16:32. This was a top-notch field of runners
at Jackson, so a top ten finish is very impressive as Craig is slowly
emerging as one of the states top runners. Congratulations on a
great race! Senior Captain Eric Anderson finished in 16th place with
a time of 16:50, and is still looking for that breakthrough race.
Freshman sensation Dan Culbertson had a historic day with an 18th
place finish and for the first time in his short career broke the
17:00 mark with a time of 16:53. Our records indicate that this
would be the fastest time for a freshman dating back to at least
1998, if not further. What is also impressive is that we are only
half way through the season, who knows how fast Dan will be at the
end of the year. He has been the surprise of the 2005 season!!
Junior Mac McDonald-Wilkens also had a personal best time of 17:11
finishing in 32nd place, and continues to be a big contributor on
this varsity squad. Senior Leo Callender finished in 40th place with
a time of 17:32 to round out the varsity participants.
Junior varsity highlights
On a beautiful autumn Friday afternoon, the Pioneer JV squad traveled
to the Jackson JV Invitational and they came to win. That they did,
as spectators were left wondering if Pioneer was the only team
competing. A sea of purple streamed in as Pioneer took 7 of the top
10 spots. All seven finished in times less than 18 minutes! Out of
the 31 Pioneer runners who finished the race, 19 posted PRs and an
additional 4 had season bests.
Sophomore Taylor DeLuca took control of the race before mile two and
never looked back, increasing his lead to cross the finish line 22
seconds ahead of his competition. Taylor nailed the number one spot
with a PR of 17:27. Seniors Will Barden (17:49), Lang Burghardt
(17:53), and Mark Antonuk (17:54) took the 2nd , 3rd , and 5th
places. Junior Jamie Fogel (17:55) and Sophomore David Cogswell
(17:56) set PRs as they took 6th and 7th place. Junior Paul Versluis
grabbed 8th place in 17:59.
Notable among the plentiful PRs was Sophomore Max King (19:24),
knocking 53 seconds off his PR to fall below the 20 minute mark.
Sophomores Dylan North (20:22) and Mujahed Ahmad (20:38) both fell
below the 21 minute mark by cutting 1:41 and 1:18 off their previous
bests. Sophomore Jacob Whiten (21:15) continues his streak of PRs,
shaving another 1:06 off this PR to go below the 22 minute mark.
Congrats to all of you!
The freshmen continue to improve every meet, bringing in 5 PRs.
That's a whopping 83% who improved on their previous best! Chris
Cain (20:58) continues to lead the pack, breaking the 21 minute mark
and cutting off 1:19 from his PR. Dan Kellman (21:25) fell below 22
minutes for the first time, shaving 43 seconds off this PR. Nate
Moseley (22:10) and Brian Diehr (25:09) also brought home PRs. But,
the guy who inspired us all was Jim Fitzpatrick (32:43) who took an
impressive 3:18 off his PR. Great job!!
Final notes
We have a short break in the action with the traditional Cider Run on
Saturday October 1st, followed by two great meets beginning with Jam
#2 Wednesday October 5th at Bedford and then the Portage Invite on
Saturday October 8th. Don't miss these meets, there will be plenty
of great competition and fast times!
PR! - new personal record, refers to all-time
PR, not just the best time of the season
The 2005 Honor Roll has been updated
Go Pioneers!