After an exhilarating regional meet at Ella Sharp Park, the boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams qualified for the Division 4 state meet.
For the boys’ team, Maddox Hutchinson led the pack in 12th place. Close behind him was Paul Herendeen in 15th place. Not far from them was Dustin Hamilton in 19th place. Trailing him was Keaton Smith in 23rd. Liam and Lleyton Bauman ran very similar races, with Liam in 42nd and Lleyton in 45th. After them came our last runner for the boys’, Zane Jason, in 56th. These efforts got the boys’ team third in the meet, clawing their way into the qualifiers.
All-conference runner Maddox Hutchinson ran a personal record of 18.07. After asking Hutchinson about what he thought about his performance and how he prepared for the race, he stated, “We really pushed through the hard like never before. Before the race, we really tried to promote positivity and enforce the lesson you have to do to do this.”
All-conference runner Paul Herendeen was very noteworthy, coming in 15th place by running an 18.34. This is a huge milestone for Herendeen as it is his first year running cross country. When asked about this achievement, Herendeen states, “The feeling is amazing. I put in the work, everyone else puts in the work, making it to regionals my first year honestly just feels amazing.”
For the girls’ team, all-conference runner Haley Stimer was in the lead. She had a season record of 20.49, pushing the Lady Jackets to second in the race qualifying them for states. Junior, Cieara Barrett also ran a season record, coming close behind Stimer in 11th place running 21.25. Close behind them was freshman Mya Barrett running a personal record of 21.49, earning her 14th place. Our next runner was sophomore Hannah Ryan, running a personal record of 24.10, achieving 26th place. Last but not least was senior Paige Morris, running a season record 27.15 placing her in her 39th.
When asked about how she felt about going to the State meet, Stimer explains, “I’m really happy we’re going to States as a team. It was really close with the points as there was a team one point behind us and one point ahead, so we all really had to try our best.”
When asked how she and her team were going to prepare for the state meet, Cieara Barret notes that, “We’re definitely going to do a couple of workouts, most importantly make sure everyone is rested, and ready for states!”
The state meet will be held this Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. Our community wishes them the best of luck and hopes all their hard work pays off.
