It was a very successful Skyline Central Conference meet for local schools, as the Superior Central and Munising boys cross country teams grabbed the top spots on Wednesday, Oct. 4.

Led by SC’s Will Spranger and Munising’s Nolan Dolaskie, the Cougars and Mustangs scored 30 and 45 points respectively in the multi-school field. Rapid River took third with 55 points. Munising’s Blake Lakosky (ninth) and SC’s Cody Moore (10th) and Carter Korpi (14th) also medaled.

Neither the Mustangs nor Cougars were able to field enough scoring runners to score on the girls side. Olivia Cotey finished fifth overall as the top local runner, finishing less than 30 seconds behind champion Hope Varoni of North Central. Kiera McDonnald was the top SC girls runner, finishing 13th with a time of 26:14.

MunisingAssistant Cross Country Coach Scott Lucking also wrote on Munising’s races.

This week featured the Skyline Conference meet at Rapid River for our teams. There was a slight twist in the race course this time from when we were there 10 days ago. The course was set up for the athletes to run it backwards. This change seemed to have a positive effect on the athletes. The varsity girls got things started. Unfortunately, they were without the services of four runners due to a conflict with tennis. So only two girls ran in the race. Olivia Cotey placed 5th in 23:38.3, and Avery Seymour placed 17th in 27:45.2. With only two girls participating no team score was given. Olivia received a medal for her 5th place finish. On the boy’s side, Danny Goss came down with an illness which kept him out of the meet. Therefore, it was up to the rest of the team to step it up. Here were their finishes: Nolan Dolaskie
(7th, 20:10.5), Blake Lakosky (9th, 20:31.9), Keelan Hase (20th, 23:07.9), Nathan Petersen (27th, 24:24.4), John Nord (28th, 24:29.2), and Frank Carlson (30th, 25:16.4). Axl Richards ran in the JV race capturing 4th place in 29:59.5. As a team, the boys finished 2nd. Medals were given out to the top 15 places, so Nolan, Blake, and Axl all medaled. The whole team continues to improve as we enter the final stretch of the season leading up to the UP Finals. Keep your eye on the prize boys!

For the middle schoolers, they showed up with a very strong number of participants ready to capture the team title. They ran a 1.9 mile course through open fields and trails. Here are their results. Emma Conklin had another stellar performance beating the field by 48 seconds enroute to her individual victory (1st, 13:58.0). She was followed by Aliyah Shalom (3rd, 15:01.6), Addie Bowerman (4th, 15:22.0),
Maddy Kulppi (11th, 16:32.7), Karter Goings (14th, 16:39), Taylor LaFlamme (15th, 16:40.2), Peyton Dyer (18th, 17:21.0), Ava Prunick (24th, 18:05.5), Sophia Vandevelde (28th, 18:22.5), Kenadie Perron (29th, 18:25.8), Carianne Dolaskie (33rd, 18:47.6), Amber DeFrancesco (34th, 18:55.5), Khloe Kortman (45th, 22:35.1), Brynnlee Meyer (48th, 25:52.1), Maddy Graves (46th, 29:17.9). As a team, they ran away with the team championship over 3 other teams. With their top 10 finishes, Emma, Addie, and Aliyah all medaled. Great job ladies!!! Our 3 middle school boys also came in with some solid performances. Leading the way was Braylin Calhoun (6th, 13:58.5), Evan Kelto (8th, 14:39.1), and Sully Ford (9th, 14:42.3). All 3 boys earned themselves a medal for their efforts. Fantastic job to all the middle schoolers!!! Keep working hard and improving. We coaches are very proud of you!