Charlevoix Boys Defy Odds to Repeat, Lutheran Northwest's Lorenzen Grinds to Title
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
November 7, 2026
BROOKLYN – Charlevoix wasn’t given much of a chance to repeat as champion at the Lower Peninsula Division 3 Boys Cross Country Final.
One pre-race projection, in fact, said the Rayders had almost no shot at all based on the season-best times of the teams involved.
But none of the previous races mattered Saturday, as Charlevoix ran to an 18-point victory and second-straight team title at Michigan International Speedway.
“I can’t believe how great I feel for these guys,” Charlevoix coach Doug Drenth said. “We always believed. They gave us about a 2-percent chance of winning. One thing we don’t do is we don’t chase fast courses. There’s a lot of schools that want to go race fast, and there’s some benefit to that, but we knew how good we were the whole year, and we felt like once we get everyone together and once we perform like we can, we knew we could do this. They just believed, and that’s who has to believe.”
Charlevoix finished with 123 points, edging ahead of top-ranked Hart at 141.
The difference came at the top, as Charlevoix’s top two runners, Hunter Eaton and Ryder Hopkins, both finished ahead of the top runner for Hart.
“Those low sticks – we talked about Hunter getting the low stick and Ryder being in there, too and doing that for us, that’s a huge advantage,” Drenth said. “We kind of have been carried by Hunter for a long time. We’re grateful to have that talent with that guy. But I’ll tell you what, Auri (Selph) and Jacob (Muladore) and Maxwell (Drenth) did a great job today. You have to have all five score, and for them to do that is phenomenal.”
Eaton, who was the 2025 Final individual champion, finished fifth overall this time and third in the team scoring with a time of 15 minutes, 35.1 seconds, while Hopkins was also all-state, coming in 22nd (17th for the team) at 16:08.1.
Selph was 39th (26) at 16:25.3, Muladore was 49th (32) at 16:30.2 and Drenth was 63rd (45) at 16:40.3.
Nole Lorenzen of Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest took home the individual title, running 15:20.1, five seconds ahead of Logan Youngman of Hillsdale who was second at 15:25.8.
Lorenzen, a junior, was in second after the first mile, but took control of the race from there.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “It’s just been the goal. I knew that I was fully capable of getting it, so that’s just what I envisioned the whole time. I knew my best race would come from staying calm through the first mile, mile and a half. My strength is grinding out the gap in the middle of the race, so I knew I had to be with them there and out-grind them.”
Lorenzen earned his third straight all-state finish, as he was fifth as a sophomore and 21st as a freshman.
“This has been the goal since the first few races in the season,” Lorenzen said. “It’s just really come to fruition with the last few races, I’ve had some big wins in some big meets, and that’s just brought me closer to thinking that I could have a shot at this.”
PHOTOS (Top) Charlevoix’s Ryder Hopkins races through the closing stretch of Saturday’s Division 3 Boys Finals. (Middle) Lutheran Northwest’s Nole Lorenzen covers the final paces of his championship run. (Click for more from Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)
D2 Champs Turn in Elite Performances
November 7, 2015
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
BROOKLYN — It finished as expected, with a duel between Algonac senior Morgan Beadlescomb and Corunna junior Noah Jacobs.
However, the two fastest runners in the state this season had company for longer than anticipated during the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 meet Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
A pack of four runners entered the stadium with about 1,200 meters remaining, with Pontiac Notre Dame teammates Brendan Fraser and Nathan Mylenek intent on crashing the party.
With the finish line in sight on the long straight away, the two favorites separated from Fraser and Mylenek and launched a battle for the championship. Beadlescomb prevailed to repeat as Division 2 champion with a time of 15:26.5. Jacobs was second in 15:30.5, with Fraser taking third in 15:39.4 and Mylenek fourth in15:40.5.
Even at the highly competitive Portage Invitational on Oct. 10, Beadlescomb and Jacobs cleared the field by the mile mark and raced to the two fastest times in Michigan this season. Beadlescomb edged Jacobs by one second that day with a time of 14:59.
The difference this time was the wind, into which nobody was willing to push the pace alone up front.
"This race was completely different," Beadlescomb said. "I knew it was going to be a kicking race before the first mile. Something inside me was just saying, 'Go,' but I had to stay because people behind me will just use me and that will waste energy."
"Neither of us likes to take the lead and eat the wind," Jacobs said. "I figured somebody would take it for us, which happened."
The race featured the winners of the two distance events at last spring's Lower Peninsula Division 2 Track and Field Finals. Beadlescomb won the 1,600-meter run in 4:13.58, while Jacobs took the 3,200 in 9:27.49. Jacobs didn't run the 1,600, while a fatigued Beadlescomb was fifth in the 3,200.
They met twice during the regular season, with Jacobs finishing nine seconds ahead of Beadlescomb in the Spartan Elite race at the Spartan Invitational on Sept. 18 before Beadlescomb won Portage.
"He's a great kid," Beadlescomb said of his rival. "We wish each other luck every time we see each other. It's good competition. We're hard and we push each other, but it's good. It really helps both of us. I can't wait to see what he does next year as a senior."
While disappointed over finishing second, Jacobs would prefer a race like Saturday's to any of the easy victories a runner of his caliber routinely racks up during a season.
"It's a lot more fun to go out there and have great competition and really do something special than if you win your conference by 30 seconds or something like that," said Jacobs, who was fifth in the Final last year. "It's special to go out and see your training pay off in a big-time situation like that. I wanted to win today. I'm handling this well right now, but deep down I'm pretty hurt. I wanted to come out and win today. Morgan's a great competitor. I knew it would be a tough race. He outraced me."
The battle for the team championship wasn't nearly as close, as Fremont rolled to a 69-162 victory over runner-up Otsego.
Fremont had four runners in the top 19, led by fifth-place junior Matthew Zerfas in 15:44.7. Zerfas was fourth last year.
Also scoring for Fremont were junior Sam Kaastra (14th, 16:05.7), junior Cole Hamilton (16th, 16:07.9), sophomore Ben Schmidt (19th, 16:11.8) and junior Sam Stitt (35th, 16:26.5).
Ranked No. 9 coming into the meet, Otsego's boys were the lowest-ranked team to take home a championship or runner-up trophy in any division Saturday. Only 12 points separated second-place Otsego from fifth-place Corunna.
Alex Comerford led Otsego, taking 13th in 16:04.5 to finish first among freshmen. It was Otsego's best finish at an MHSAA Finals meet, eclipsing third-place finishes in 1951, 1961, 1962 and 2008.
Third-place Clio (171 points) had the best finish in school history, improving on fourth-place showings in 1963 and last year. It was the first time since 1963 and 1964 that the Mustangs have made the top 10 in back-to-back years.
The MHSAA Cross Country Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Algonac’s Morgan Beadlescomb (446) and Corunna’s Noah Jacobs (294) stayed with the lead pack early before breaking away near the end of the Division 2 Final. (Middle) Fremont’s Cole Hamilton (322) works to stay ahead of the Clio’s Ethan Taljonick. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)