The Mustang cross country team had a busy schedule last week as they traveled to away meets at Manistique on Wednesday and downstate to Holly on Saturday. They had great results at both events with solid performances by all runners. Starting with the Manistique Cross Country Invitational, both the boys’ and girls’ varsity teams placed second in their events. With both teams fielding complete teams for the first time this season, they had strong performances which propelled them to their solid team finishes. The girls were led by Olivia Cotey (7th, 24:22.3). She was closely followed by Kate Mattson (9th, 24:25.7), Addie Bowerman (12th, 24:42.1), Dayne Behning (14th, 24:50.1), Elizabeth Wing (30th, 29:33.3) and Kaylen Kienitz (35th, 30:49.6). The boys ran equally well, led by their star senior, Danny Goss, who placed first in a time of 17:05.4. Rounding out the top seven boys were Trevor Nolan (3rd, 17:31.5), Blake Lakosky (12th, 19:21.1), Zach Lindquist (28th, 20:42.7), Nolan Dolaskie (31st, 21:24.8), Dylan Adkinson (37th, 21:36.5) and Nate Petersen (41st, 22:52.0). Sault St. Marie won both the girls and boys races with 47 and 25 points respectively. The Mustang girls had 59 points and the boys totaled 58 points. Orin Shalom was the lone JV runner, placing 7th in a time of 24:19.0.
The middle school girls kept up the strong Mustang team performances by also placing second with 50 points, just 10 points behind team winner Escanaba. As she has done all season, Emma Concklin was the first Mustang to cross the line in fourth place in a time of 12:19.7. Completing the team was Karter Goings (5th, 12:32.8), Maddie Kulppi (8th, 13:29.8), Lennon Livermore (18th, 13:52.2), Kahlan Ramsey (20th, 14:01.6), Payton Brey (26th, 14:25.7), Ava Prunick (42nd, 15:21.3), Peyton Dyer (45th, 15:38.9) and Amber Defrancesco (63rd, 17:44.9). For the boys, Evan Kelto finished 4th in 11:27.4 and Trey Defrancesco placed 53rd with a time of 16:18.0.
At the 56th Holly-Duane Raffin Festival of Races, the Mustangs again came through with some stellar performances. The boys were short-handed, so they didn’t have a team score. However, the four boys that did run ran well. Danny Goss improved on his fourth place finish last year by capturing second place with a time of 16:42.8. Behind Danny was Blake Lakosky (28th, 19:33.1), Nolan Dolaskie (46th, 21:20.9) and Nate Petersen (53rd, 22:28.8). The girls did field a scoring team and placed eighth out of ten teams. Kate Mattson continued her great performances at this meet by placing 33rd in a time of 23:22.9. She was followed closely by Addie Bowerman (35th, 23:29.9) and Olivia Cotey (37th, 23:38.8). Rounding out the top five was Kaylen Kieitz (61st, 28:20.3), and Elizabeth Wing (70th, 30:40.2).
The middle school girls performed well grabbing eighth place out of 22 teams. Emma Concklin continued to lead the Mustangs with a 25th place finish in 15:49.6. Following Emma was Karter Goings (38th, 16:15.0), Maddie Kulppi (72nd, 17:22.4), Lennon Livermore (82nd, 17:40.5), Kahlan Ramsey (95th, 18:05.1) and Ava Prunick (135th, 19:42.3). Evan Kelto was the only middle school boy, finishing 42nd in 13:01.3.
For the varsity performances, head coach Kinnunen had the following comments. “We’re starting to see some of our middle pack runners turn a corner, and their times are starting to drop. We’ve seen season personal records from multiple runners in the past two meets. We’re beginning to settle into a strong rhythm on the team. We had some hot days in Manistique and Holly with some strong competition, and our kids keep showing up to perform well. Special shout out to all of the families and friends who’ve been making it to our away meets, especially those who drove the six hours down to Holly. It’s truly helping the team stay excited and motivated in their races. One town, one team!”
Middle school coach, Bob Wing, had this to say about the middle school runners. “We brought ten middle school runners down to the Holly meet. Three of them walked away with medals, and our girls team took 8th place out of 22 teams against some seriously strong competition. More importantly, they all got an amazing experience that they will remember for a long time. Munising can be very proud of how hard these kids competed, and how they represented our school. I know I am. And yes, a huge thank you to our cheering section. Simply amazing how many people made the trip downstate to cheer on our kids”.
The Mustangs next event is this Saturday at Rapid River. The complete meet schedule can be found at munisingathletics.com
