The most dramatic change of the Fall sports season is arguably with the Munising cross country programs, as the Mustangs move up to Division 2 of the MHSAA U.P. competition. It will make another state championship a little harder for the Munising girls.
“We won’t walk in with as much confidence as we may have had the last couple years about taking a title,” Mustangs Head Coach Mark Kinnunen said, “but they know what kind of work needs to be done so they can make that difference.”
Munising lost two standout seniors in Monique Brisson and now-Bay College runner Hattie Cota, who finished third and fourth respectively at last year’s state championships. Kinnunen says there is still great talent on the team, but there are just less bodies than before with only six high school girls on the team.
“We’re smaller than last year in overall numbers, where we could have six, seven, even eight girls that could contribute at the varsity level and we don’t have that this year,” Kinnunen said.
“Each individual performance is bigger.”
Leading the way will be Olivia Cotey and Kate Mattson. Cotey was known as one of last year’s standout freshmen, fighting with champion Samantha Taylor of Newberry and Superior Central’s Kiera McDonnald for the best freshman time in Division 3.
Mattson was returning from injury, but still managed to finish in the top 15 at last year’s championships. Both would be in the top 15 in the Division 2 rankings, with many of the runners faster than the pair competing for teams without enough runners to register a team score.
Both the boys and the girls teams have enough to score a varsity team event. Five runners are required to register as a team, with seven the maximum amount of varsity runners per team.
For the Mustang boys, they have slightly larger numbers with seven runners. Danny Goss is hot off a strong track and field season to lead the squad, both in time and as an upper classmen.
The challenge for the boys team is based on their youth, with four freshmen making the team. The group of Nolan Dolaskie, Orin Shalom, Blake Lakosky and Johnny Nord have a mix of talent and drive to be successful.
“You put those four in with Danny Goss and we could do something special this year without setting expectations too high,” Kinnunen said.
The Mustangs boys and girls teams will start with the Marquette Invite today before running the team’s first home meet at the Vartti Invite next Tuesday, August 22 at 10 a.m. at Valley Spur.
