2011 Finals: Dream Finishes
December 16, 2011
BROOKLYN – West Bloomfield junior Erin Finn said she dreamed of winning an MHSAA cross country championship since she first learned to walk.
But it took a few more seconds Saturday to realize she’d actually done it.
Finn edged Rockford senior Taylor Manett and Grosse Pointe South junior Hannah Meier by just more than a second to claim the Division 1 championship at the MHSAA Cross Country Finals at Michigan International Speedway.
Finn finished fourth as a sophomore, and didn’t run much as a freshman because of an injury.
“I finished the race and I was talking, and it was ‘OK, cool, it was a good race. I finished.’ And a couple of minutes after I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I just won the state championship race.’ I’ve been dreaming about this since I could walk,” Finn said.
“I guess it’s just, how many times do you get to say that? You finish races and don’t think much of it. You think of your time, start thinking of cool down and everything. But this is it. This is it where all comes together. And it took a second to register that this is what I’ve been working on forever.”
Twins Hannah and Haley Meier were Grosse Pointe South’s top finishers at both the 2009 and 2010 Finals, as their team finished third and sixth overall, respectively.
But the sisters and their teammates claimed the program's first MHSAA championship on this day, placing Hannah third, sophomore Kelsie Schwartz 10th and Haley Meier 12th individually. Freshman Ersula Farrow came in 15th as Grosse Pointe South edged Saline by five points.
“Haley was faster than me in seventh grade and the beginning of eighth grade, and Kelsie was faster than me too,” Hannah Meier said. “We always run together. We’re like sisters, even thought one is my sister. (Schwartz) pushes us too. “
Click for full Division 1 girls results.
Division 1 boys: Friendly Final
Most elite runners at Saturday’s Finals were familiar with each other from racing over the years and especially this season.
Few knew their competition as well as White Lake Lakeland senior Garret Zuk.
He attended elementary school with Highland Milford sophomore Brian Kettle and junior Cody Snavely, who finished second and fifth, respectively, in the final Division 1 race of the year.
Not that that knowledge helped Zuk. But it definitely was a fun coincidence that those were two of the many he outlasted to claim the championship. The top six were separated by just 17 seconds, and Zuk purposely started out slower than the pack so he could surpass it at the end.
“I knew it was just all guts. There’s really nothing left,” Zuk said. “My legs were done. It was just keep moving forward. It was all I could do.”
Zuk finished in 15:21.2, with Kettle second at 15:24.3 and Saline’s Nick Renberg third at 15:28.6.
Senior Paul Asum finished 13th for Milford to give that team an unbeatable group up front. The Mavericks finished with a score of 128, 44 fewer than runner-up Hartland.
“The fact that we could have three guys up front was really good. We have been very consistent,” Kettle said. “It was a great thing we were able to keep getting better and improving.”
Click for full Division 1 boys results.
Division 2 girls: She’s the Bos
The Division 2 Finals field included two previous champions in Allendale senior Ali Wiersma and Zeeland West senior Rachele Schulist.
Grand Rapids Christian junior Julia Bos became the next.
From arguably the most competitive field of this season’s Finals, Bos emerged, running a 17:24.7 to edge Cedar Springs freshman Kenzie Weiler by 11 seconds. Wiersma and Schulist came in third and fourth, respectively.
“My coaches were telling me to kinda sit behind and let them block the wind, and make my move later on in the race. But I don’t really feel comfortable with that,” Bos said. “Because today especially, I could tell they were saving their energy because they know that’s what I do.
“So I thought I’d just take the lead right away and do something different. It was risky, but it turned out to be successful.”
East Grand Rapids had two runners following the front pack closely. Senior Kassidy Clark was the team’s top finisher in 10th, and senior Jessie Baloga was 19th – giving the Pioneers enough edge to claim the team championship.
“Our little motto is ‘Run as one,’ so we try to pack it up really strong,” Clark said. “Jessie Baloga and I are usually in the front leading, and we’re two seniors so that’s pretty cool. … We set the tone for the race.”
Click for full Division 2 girls results.
Division 2 Boys: From 2 to No. 1
Chelsea senior Bryce Bradley and Mason’s team had little room for improvement after runner-up finishes in 2010.
Saturday, they both took the final step.
Bradley won the individual championship in 15:20.6, one second faster than Dearborn Divine Child senior Nicholas Soter. And the Bulldogs, who finished second to Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern last season, finished with 92 points to clear the field by 37.
“We’ve been working for it for a really long time. To get it, it’s a real honor,” said Mason junior Tanner Hinkle, who finished fourth individually. “I think we just got a couple grades with some kids with talent and also the willingness to work. The combination of that, we got pretty lucky.”
Bradley had finished behind Hinkle at their regional after taking a wrong turn, but he was plenty familiar with the MIS course. He spent the entire summer preparing for this day, logging 950 miles – 290 more than he had before his junior season.
“Last year, I was actually hoping to be in the top 10. So finishing in second place was more than I hoped for,” Bradley said. “I was trying to not go down in places this year.”
Click for full Division 2 boys results.
Division 3 Boys: Expect the unexpected
Zach Zingsheim always has fashioned himself more of a track runner.
But that likely changed Saturday at MIS.
The Lansing Catholic senior relied on some of his middle distance track speed at the end – making his final kick at the 3-mile mark – and claimed the Division 3 boys individual championship in 15:48.2.
Zingsheim was nearly a minute faster than 2010, when he finished 23rd.
“I started running cross country in middle school. Cross country was the first thing I knew, but when I entered high school I found my niche in track,” Zingsheim said. “(But) I knew if we wanted to meet our goal of trying to win the state meet as a team, I needed to really improve.
“So this past summer, I worked even harder than ever. I became a distance runner.”
The Cougars fell just short of that team goal, finishing second to Grandville Calvin Christian for the second straight season.
Calvin Christian placed four runners among the individual top 10 – third place Josh Kersjes (15:56.9), fifth place Zac Nowicki (15:59.9), eighth place Simon Reidsma (16:03.8) and 10th place Justus Pinckney (16:08.5). All but Nowicki are seniors.
The finish also was the Squires’ third-straight among the top two in Division 3. They were runners-up in 2009.
“Especially in training, it’s just nice to run with guys who are at the same talent level, who want to achieve the same things,” Kersjes said. “We’ve definitely stepped up our training as we’ve gotten older.”
Click for full Division 3 boys results.
Division 3 Girls: Winning feeling
BROOKLYN – Benzie Central seniors Theresa Warsecke and Amber Peabody remembered what it was like to win an MHSAA championship, having been freshmen when the team won three years ago.
They also knew what it was like to come close, with Benzie Central finishing third in 2009 and then second last season.
“Seeing how excited Hanover(-Horton) was last year, we wanted that again,” Warsecke said. “That just made us want it that much more again after getting second last year.”
Benzie Central finished 20 points ahead of runner-up Kent City to claim the Division 3 championship at MIS. Warsecke finished seventh individually in 18:57.1, followed by sophomore Bryce Cutler (19:20.6) in 15th place and three more teammates between 30th and 38th.
The individual race was a little more open with Allendale and reigning Division 3 champion Ali Wiersma moving up to Division 2 this fall. Manistee senior Kelly Schubert ran with the opportunity, finishing in 17:58.6 to claim the individual championship by nearly 25 seconds.
She had finished seventh in 2010, and didn’t even know her time immediately after Saturday’s race – just that she kept pushing through the final mile.
“I was actually happy for once at the state meet,” Schubert said. “I’d been here sophomore year and junior year, and I was kinda disappointed both those years. I was hoping to do better. But this year I’m satisfied.
“I just decided not to worry about it, and just run because that what I like to do.”
Click for full Division 3 results.
Division 4 Boys: Going out strong
Spencer Nousain’s high school cross country career ended with perfection.
After three top-10 MHSAA Finals finishes – including Division 4 second places the last two seasons – the Concord senior cross the line first Saturday in 15:55.8.
But he was just the start for the Yellow Jackets. Four more teammates crossed among the top 25 individuals to 
give Concord its second MHSAA championship in three seasons – and finish a 2011 season that included first places in every meet it ran.
“We’ve been working so hard for this moment. To have it all come together my last race is just amazing,” Nousain said. “When I win, I’m probably the only person on the team that’s happy. When the team wins, everyone is happy. And it’s just nice to see them be happy.”
Nousain finished five seconds ahead of Saugatuck junior Sean Kelly (16:00.3). Yellowjackets freshmen Jacob Hall (16:40) and Jesse Hersha (16:40.6) finished 11th and 13th, respectively. Junior Parker Saenz (16:41.9) and sophomore Mason Nousain (17:10.9) – Spencer’s brother – rounded out Concord’s scoring coming in 14th and 25th.
Spencer Nousain’s individual success was the result of some trial and error. He said he overtrained as a freshman and sophomore, then undertrained as a junior. He prepared for this season just right – and let everything fly in his final race.
“I had nothing to lose. Might as well give it all I have, and that’s what I did,” Nousain said. “So it worked out perfectly.”
Click for full Division 4 boys results.
Division 4 Girls: Champions again
Breckenridge sophomore Kirsten Olling wants to win four MHSAA cross country championships.
She’s halfway there.
Olling won the first race of this season’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Finals today at Michigan International Speedway, clearing the field by nearly 38 seconds with a winning time of 18:02.7.
Olling was hoping to break 17 minutes. But despite a slow first mile and no one to push her after that, she still cut seven seconds from her 2010 finish.
“I thought I would be more nervous last year than this year, but I think I was more nervous this year. This year ... everyone was aiming for me,” Olling said. “It just means that there is more of a target on my back now.”
Hesperia won the team Division 4 championship, also for the second straight season. North Muskegon came in second. Black River senior Nicole Zeinstra, an individual qualifier, crossed second after Olling.
Senior Alexa Rumsey finished third overall and best for Hesperia, which saw all five of its scoring runners finish among the individual top 25. Four of those five scored at last season's final as well.
"Our top competition was North Muskegon, and we raced against them before and we beat them every time. I knew they were close to us though, so I knew we had to work really hard, but we did," Rumsey said. "It was tougher the first one (in 2010). There defintiely was a lot more pressure this time. We just did everything the same, worked hard and tried not to worry about it too much."
Click for full Division 4 girls results.
PHOTOS
Top: West Bloomfield junior Erin Finn crossed the finish line first to claim her first Division 1 championship.
D3 Girls: Manistee's Kelly Schubert improved from seventh as a junior in claiming Saturday's Division 3 individual championship.
D4 Boys: Concord's Spencer Nousain ended his high school cross country career with an individual championship that also helped the Yellow Jackets to the team Divisioin 4 title.
(Photos courtesy of RunMichigan.com)
'Little' Sacred Heart Sets Big Goals Again
August 17, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
MOUNT PLEASANT – Deep in the woods, so far west of municipal Mount Pleasant you’d think you’d gone too far, findable only by invite and the line of cars parked alongside the road, Michigan’s most intriguing cross country team is getting ready to show why.
Well, that might be a little dramatic. Sacred Heart has run early-morning August practices at Deerfield Nature Park for years, and there’s a sign for Camp Weidman and a swinging metal gate right off Vandecar Road to help point the way to the Irish’s preseason home.
But the whole “intriguing” part? That’s hard to dispute.
Three girls teams – Sacred Heart in Division 4, Traverse City St. Francis in Division 3 and Otsego in Division 2 – have won two straight MHSAA Lower Peninsula Finals titles. But comparing times from last season’s races at Michigan International Speedway, run separately but on the same course under similar conditions (the later races got a little muddier), Sacred Heart also would’ve won Division 3 last fall and placed second in Division 2 to the Bulldogs.
That’s pretty incredible for a school of 130 students – and invites anticipation for this fall, as the Irish begin the race season Saturday with six of their top seven runners from 2016, plus another standout who missed nearly all of last fall with an injury.
“Our top runner left us, but we have a really deep team for D4. We have a lot of runners who push each other – push each other to get on varsity, push each other to get to Brooklyn (home of MIS) again, so we are all competitors,” said senior Megan Nowak, that runner who, after just missing making all-state in 2015, was injured most of last fall.
“In D4 this year, we’re the team to beat. But compared to everybody else in all the other divisions, we’re just a little team. So we look at everybody else, look at other people’s times even not in our division, to have that motivation and drive to keep going and be better.”
After winning every race they entered last season, the Irish do have some ideas for another encore.
They start Saturday with the Ryan Shay Memorial Invitational, a 2-mile race at Central Lake. They hope to end Nov. 4 at MIS holding an MHSAA championship trophy for the third straight season, becoming the seventh Lower Peninsula girls team to win three straight titles and first since Clarkston and Goodrich both completed three-year runs in 2005.
Along the way they’ll again see how they match up with many of the state’s best small schools – but with a special opportunity Sept. 15. Sacred Heart will run the “Elite” race at the Spartan Invitational at Michigan State University, which annually includes many of the state’s fastest teams regardless of division and this season will be filled mostly with Division 1 programs plus a few from out of state.
Most years, most if not all Division 4 teams would be severely overmatched against the “Elite” competition. But this Sacred Heart team is not typical for one of the state’s smallest schools. In their most recent high school race – last year’s Final – all seven runners broke 21 minutes.
Now-senior Bailley McConnell came in second in 18:55, with now-junior sister Cammie fifth at 19:10, now-junior Lauren MacDonald 11th at 19:41, and another now-junior Scout Nelson 20th at 20:09. Now-sophomore Desiree McConnell was 25th at 20:14, and now senior Rowan Fitzpatrick just missed all-state (top 30) coming in 31st at 20:28. Alexis McConnell – the oldest of the four sisters – came in fourth last season at 19:09 in her final high school race, but rejoining the lineup is Nowak, who was 36th in 20:26 as a sophomore.
“It’s hard to imagine that after the past two seasons we still have something to look forward to,” longtime Sacred Heart coach Mark Zitzelsberger said. “But we have eight gals that I think we can get under 20 minutes, and if that’s the case and they’re healthy we should be pretty tough to beat again. They girls have continued to work and improve. Their goal is to try and break their record.”
Sacred Heart scored 34 points at last season’s Finals – cross country is scored by adding up a team’s placers, so lower is better – to beat by a point Rockford’s winning score of 35 in LP Division 1 in 2000. That was the first year cross country moved from classes to divisions for postseason competition, and no team has scored better since the switch. In fact, no team in LP Division 4 has scored lower than Sacred Heart the last two seasons.
But the Irish plan to go low again. And early returns make it look possible.
The McConnell sisters despite being one fewer are poised for another big season. Bailley’s fastest time last fall was 18:38, and she ran 18:30 during an offseason meet – and has her sights set on Alexis’ personal-record 18:10. Cammie has finished 17th and fifth, respectively, at her first two Finals, and Desiree is showing perhaps the biggest improvement from last year. Sacred Heart runs a “marathon mile” session where the girls run miles at race pace as far as they can while keeping it up – and she ripped through five miles last week, tying the program record.
McDonald improved from 26th to 11th over her first two Finals, Nelson was 10th as a freshman in 2015 and 20th last fall, and Fitzpatrick has posted Finals finishes of 26th, 47th and 31st her first three seasons. Nowak counted as the fourth-fastest runner on the 2014 team that finished third in LP Division 4 before her near all-state run a year later.
Zitzelsberger called it a “coach’s dream” to have so many runners who could be the lead most seasons. He’d never seen anything like it before he began watching them emerge during junior high. But it also made sense once they arrived.
The McConnells’ parents Rob and Tori are lifelong competitive runners who both ran the Boston Marathon earlier this decade, and Rob with Nelson’s mom Luanne Goffnett have coached in the Sacred Heart program and laid much of this foundation with the junior high program.
Aside from Nowak – whose family moved from the Lansing area before her ninth grade year to follow her dad’s job – the rest of the girls have grown up running together and playing other sports successfully too. Scout Nelson and Nowak also were standouts on last season’s girls basketball team that made the Class D Semifinals and MacDonald came up from the junior varsity, while Nelson, Nowak, Bailley and Cammie McConnell all earned all-state accolades in helping the track & field team finish fifth in LP Division 4 in the spring.
“We all came up from middle school, and it’s kinda become a little family,” Fitzpatrick said. “We became attached to each other.”
Twenty years ago might seem like yesterday when Zitzelsberger recalls just trying to find five runners total after taking over the program. His 1998 team had two girls, but he was able to pull in enough off the track team to build the school’s first MHSAA girls team champion in the sport, in Class D, in 1999.
A decade later, Bridget Bennett won back-to-back LP Division 4 championships in 2008 and 2009. There have been other stars. But he’s never enjoyed a collection of talent like this.
And while Sacred Heart likely won’t be expected to win at MSU next month, it will be a race worth watching as the Irish push to add another fine finish to a memorable and growing legacy.
“We’re such a small school, and most of the people running in the Elite are huge,” Bailley McConnell said. “They have thousands of high school students, and our school is so little. So to be able to do that would be amazing.”
Geoff Kimmerly joined the MHSAA as its Media & Content Coordinator in Sept. 2011 after 12 years as Prep Sports Editor of the Lansing State Journal. He has served as Editor of Second Half since its creation in Jan. 2012. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Barry, Eaton, Ingham, Livingston, Ionia, Clinton, Shiawassee, Gratiot, Isabella, Clare and Montcalm counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Bailley McConnell (1858) and sister Cammie McConnell (1859) help push the pace during last fall's MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final. (Middle) Sacred Heart, posing with its 2016 championship trophy, returns six of seven runners this fall. (Photos by Matt Yacoub & Janina Pollatz/RunMichigan.com.)