| GR Christian, EGR girls give glimpse of things to come Sunday, September 19, 2004 By Steve Ungrey
The Eagles and Pioneers were tied for the championship at Saturday's Sparta Invitational with 47 points. Grand Rapids Christian withstood the 1-2 punch of EGR's Laura Malnor (18:18.2) and Nikki Brown (18:41.2). Grand Rapids Christian's Jessica Koster helped the Eagles by taking third overall in 19:16.4. But it was Christian coach Doug Jager's daughter, Jessie, who gave the title to the Eagles. Her time of 20:35.5 was eight seconds ahead of EGR's Kristina Buschle for the tiebreaker. "This was good," Doug Jager said. "It was a good competitive race today. I know this is a race between us and East Grand Rapids that will come down to the end and we hope to run well." The Division 2 regional will be held Oct. 30 at Lowell. Malnor, the defending Division 2 state champion, was coming off a performance Sept. 11 at the Midwest Meet of Champions that was subpar by her standards. "I didn't feel too well that day," said Malnor, who ran an 11th-place time of 19:00 during the meet, held in Columbus, Ohio. "It's great experience to have been at a big meet like that." Having a teammate running close behind helped Malnor. "It was good to have someone there running with me, it helped out," Malnor said. "My time's better now than it was at this time last year." Like Jager, East Grand Rapids coach Nick Hopkins is expecting a close battle all season between the two schools, with the regional being key to either team's state-title hopes. The Pioneers won their first cross country state championship last year. "We're way ahead of where we were last year," Hopkins said. "The team was definitely up for the mini-matchup and we're going to learn from what happened today." Grandville, coming off Wednesday's double loss in the O-K Red Metro to Rockford and Forest Hills Northern, rebounded in the Blue Division. The Bulldogs scored 32 points, 28 points ahead of runner-up West Ottawa. "It was a big day for us," Grandville coach Thad Karnehm said. "Kelsey (Bristol) had a stronger, smoother race than she's had before and that was huge for us. Now we've got a pretty good 1-2-3 lineup but our fourth and fifth sports are still up for grabs. Our team isn't where it should be yet." West Ottawa's Amber Brunmeier recorded a personal-best time of 19:10.4, breaking the Blue record of 19:19 set last year by Bristol. Ashley Lehmann (19:30.6) and Felicia Mondry (19:51.9) went 2-3 for Grandville, with Bristol coming in seventh overall (20:27.2). Bristol still is recovering from mononucleosis. The White Division race saw South Christian's Lori Burgess lead her team to a championship, her time of 19:15.6, more than 53 seconds ahead of Otsego's Jenna Matthews (20:08.4). The Sailors won the title with 22 points. Belding was next with 64. "I'd never run this course before so I didn't know what to expect," Burgess said. "I think we have a really good team this year and we've done well so far." "I think we're gaining on our competition," South Christian coach Mike Winkle said. "We thought we'd come here and do well, this is a fair course and the downhill straight shot to the finish line helps us out." The Silver Division race saw Kent City's Mollie Ringer run 20:12.6, 37 seconds ahead of Saranac's Teresa Sabin (20:49.9), as the Eagles took first place. Kent City's 26 points was well ahead of Forest Hills Eastern (68). It was only the second healthy race for Ringer, who was sidelined by a pulled hamstring for part of the summer. "Mollie came back and ran confident today," Kent City coach Jill Evers said. "She's good to go." |
West Catholic runs off with title Sunday, September 19, 2004 By Steve Ungrey It was the type of day that made West Catholic cross country coach Denny Scully want to pinch himself. But this was not a dream. The Falcons entered Saturday's Sparta Invitational with only one dual meet under their belts and a load of pressure on their backs. But the defending Division 3 state champions did not buckle, posting a score of 32 points to win the White Division championship by a wide margin over South Haven (83) and South Christian (103). It was a day in which everything turned out right for West Catholic. The Falcons broke a course record previously set by an alumnus, two inexperienced freshmen ran under 18 minutes and everyone ran well despite injuries to two of the school's top runners. "I'm really happy about this," Scully said. "We wanted to get comparable times to what we had a year ago. We wanted our times to show we were working on running the right way." Everything went the right way, as evidenced by the individual championship won by Andrew Bissonette. His time of 16 minutes, 35.3 seconds, broke the previous record of 16:41 set by West Catholic's Tom Clifford in 2000. All five lead runners for West Catholic finished in the top 10. "I couldn't believe how well we did," Bissonette said. "I know it's (Scully's) training that helped us out. He's always told us to trust in the program." "We knew we had a chance to go this fast," said Ed DeVries, who took ninth in 17:28.5. "We all just wanted to work hard, set our new team personality." West Ottawa swept to the Blue Division team championship with a score of 44 points, once again beating Jenison (59). This is the second time in a row West Ottawa has beaten Jenison, after the Wildcats surprised the Panthers in a dual earlier this month. "We are continually looking back at that first dual and trying to stay in front of those green shirts," West Ottawa coach Chris Knoll said. "We were also concerned about Lowell. Our guys just continue to meet those high expectations." Tim Zeerip was the highest finisher for West Ottawa, coming in third (16:37.2) behind Grandville's Jeff Kosters (16:20.5) and Jenison's Mike Carsen (16:20.8). In the Gold Division, Grand Rapids Christian had all five of its lead runners in the top 20 as the Eagles took the title with 58 points. Christian finished ahead of Sparta (72) and East Grand Rapids (80) in a crowded field. "We were inexperienced coming into the season," Christian coach Doug Jager said. "Only two of our guys (Joel Schut and Chris Molnar) ran varsity last year, and today Bill (Stroo) ran a very gutsy race and did a good job. Joel did a great job, too. He didn't pass Bill until the final mile, but traditionally Joel has been a slow starter." Schut was fourth overall (16:44.4) and Stroo eighth (17:06.1). Cedar Springs' Dan Cramer won the meet in 16:00.7, far out in front of Ionia's Doug Richards (16:26.6). The Silver Division race saw two Carson City-Crystal runners break the record of 16:39 set last year by Morley-Stanwood's Landon Peacock. Adam Ryan (16:33.3) and Deven Duflo (16:38.8) topped Forest Hills Eastern's Seth Bjorlie (16:44.6). Forest Hills Eastern finished second with 56 points, 22 behind Carson City-Crystal. Kent City took third with 81 points.
|