Sparta's sixth man produces in O-K White title run

The Grand Rapids Press

The importance of having five strong runners on a cross country team is obvious.

But there's something to be said for depth as well. A team's sixth runner doesn't factor into the score -- unless there's a tie, as there was Monday at the O-K White Conference meet.

Sparta's sixth runner helped the boys team remain perfect, as the undefeated Spartans tied East Grand Rapids with 64 points. Sparta's sixth runner, Brad Dauber, was 12 seconds faster than the Pioneers' sixth, Paul Abbisi (18:29 to 18:41).

It was Sparta's first O-K White title, stopping EGR's string of three straight league championships. The Spartans won an O-K Gold boys championship in 2002.

"This is what we've been saying all year," Sparta co-coach Ted Smith said. "Teams like Northview, East Grand Rapids and Cedar Springs posted a lot of good times today. I knew everyone would come through for us."

Eric Stouten was the highest-finishing Sparta runner, coming in third (17:00) behind Cedar Springs' Dan Cramer (16:15) and Tyler Emmory (16:57).

"That's a fast time for this course. You can add at least 15 seconds to your time running here with all the hills and footing," Cramer said. "If we'd have run Saturday this would have been a mess."

The event originally was scheduled for Saturday but was postponed because of lightning and heavy rain.

East Grand Rapids coach Doug Morse thought his team ran the best race it could, and thinks the Pioneers are heading into Saturday's Division 2 regional at Lowell on a good note.

"The kids ran their best race they could; we weren't that close to Sparta in the conference (duals) so it was good to see them do well in the league meet," Morse said.

EGR's John Hayes was sixth overall, in 17:13.

In the girls race, EGR sophomore Nikki Brown won the conference championship in 19:17, 33 seconds ahead of senior standout and defending Division 2 state champion Laura Malnor.

"I thought this was really awesome," Brown said. "We're such a deep team, we have the help to take people's places if we have off days. I felt bad for Laura because this was her senior year."

Malnor was injured during a race last week at Greenville, when she accidentally was tripped by another runner and fell on her left arm. The injury has not been fully diagnosed, but Malnor may have suffered torn tendons in her left hand.

"I can still feel it when I'm running," Malnor said. "I wasn't feeling my best today, but it was still good for us to come in 1-2 like we did. We're pretty confident now going into regionals. We're just hoping we peak at the right time."

East Grand Rapids won its second consecutive conference title, scoring 24 points to Lowell's 82. Unity Christian was third, with 84 points.

"We were able to get five runners in the top 10 and that was a great accomplishment," EGR coach Nick Hopkins said. "This will prepare us well for regionals. We really have one of the toughest regionals in the state."