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.)
Cedarville/DeTour, Marquette Sweep Finals Wins, Rudyard Reigns with Tie-Breaker
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
October 25, 2026
HOUGHTON — The race for the Division 2 team title race was as close as could be at Saturday’s Upper Peninsula Boys Cross Country Finals.
Rudyard and Munising both scored 42 points, with the Bulldogs from the Eastern U.P. getting the nod on the sixth runner tie-breaker.
Painesdale Jeffers, which won Division 2 titles the past five years, placed third this time with 50 points.
“Our boys have been runner-up to Jeffers the past two years,” Rudyard coach Brad Hall said. “It feels great to win this one.”
Ishpeming senior Kemper Gearhart crossed the finish line first after covering the hilly 3.1-mile course in 17 minutes, 48.2 seconds on the Michigan Tech Ski Trails on a sunny and very warm day in the Copper Country.
“I’ve been working hard for this throughout my high school career,” he said. “I was listening behind me. When I heard people in back of me, I just picked up the pace. My time was about the same as many of the other races. This course was a little more challenging than most.”
Rudyard senior Eli Folkersma was runner-up (18:00.7) and Munising senior Blake Lakosky placed third (18:10.1)
“This wasn’t my best time, but it’s a tough course,” Folkersma said. “My goal was to go out easy. I have a strong finish, but today I was dead tired in the end – although, this is the best place I ever got at the Finals.”
Sophomore Jack Lalone finished eighth, senior Zaine Nichols ninth, senior Oliver Dankert 13th and sophomore Liam Hoolsema 15th for Rudyard. Junior Bryce Mitchell clinched the title with a 19th place as the tie-breaker, as Munising’s sixth runner finished 22nd.
Freshman Evan Kelto finished seventh, with seniors Orin Shalom (11th), Nolan Dolaskie (12th) and sophomore Dylan Krause (14th) also following Lakosky for Munising.
Lakosky was happy with the Mustangs taking second.
“It feels good to be runner-up,” he said. “We knew it was going to be close. I was staying with their number one runner (Folkersma). I fell significantly behind him, then I closed the gap. It was a tough course. I ran my personal-best time (18:01) at Rudyard last weekend. I was going for it, but this was not the course for it.”
Division 3
Nine points separated the top four contenders in Division 3 with Cedarville/DeTour taking its first title as a combined program with 78 points. Cedarville had won Finals in 2003 and 2004.
The Islanders also had the individual champion, senior Ethan Snyder, who retained his title at 16:51.4. Freshman Liam Bohn was third, junior Rush Hinnen 16th, freshman Colin Geyer 27th and sophomore Jayden Kemink 58th.
“This was my last high school race,” Snyder said. “I’m happy with defending my title, but it’s way better winning as a team. We have a lot of good runners on our team.”
St. Ignace and Rapid River scored 86 points each and Rock Mid Peninsula took fourth at 87.
“It was a tight race with St. Ignace and Mid Pen,” Rapid River coach Zach Truitt said. “It really came down to the last tenth of a mile. We had the most finishers in the top 15. We got three on the podium, but we really need four to win it. We’re losing four seniors who will be hard to replace.”
Engadine junior Nate Stielstra was the individual runner-up at 17:58.2 with Islanders freshman Liam Bohn taking third (18:02.4).
“The course was hard,” Stielstra said. “I was running sixth in the second mile. This wasn’t my best time, but everything came together. At 1½ miles I could see a couple kids ahead of me. I couldn’t ask for better.”
Division 1
Marquette, as expected, was crowned champion for the eighth consecutive year with 19 points.
The Sentinels, who grabbed four of the top five individual places, were followed by Sault Ste. Marie with 79 and Houghton at 84.
Marquette senior Lucas Ballard earned his first U.P. title in 16:28.9 followed by classmate Vasu Esplin (17:08.1) and junior teammate William Lindsay (17:23.8) in second and third, respectively. Junior Garrett Crimmins ran fifth and junior Lake Skytta eighth to round out the scoring, and senior Welly Fillmore (13th) and junior Jayden Seekie (14th) also filled out the lineup impressively.
“I felt real good through the whole run,” Ballard said a day after his 18th birthday. “It’s a beautiful day and a great way to end the season. I’m pretty happy with my time. I did a lot of training. It’s great to see my hard work pay off. This is a great birthday present.”
PHOTOS (Top) Brimley's Darren Johnson (134), Munising's Blake Lakosky (177), Ishpeming's Kemper Gearhart (166), and Rudyard's Eli Folkersma (210) lead the start of the Upper Peninsula Division 2 Final held on the campus of Michigan Tech in Houghton. (Middle) Cedarville's Ethan Snyder and Copper Island Academy's Jack Ruonavaara lead the beginning of the Division 3 Final. (Below) Menominee's Bradley Klann (85), Marquette's Lucas Ballard (69), Ishpeming Westwood's Calvin Carlson (41), Calumet's Alex Rodriguez (2) and Sault Ste. Marie's Chase Aldridge (115) set the pace at the start in Division 1. (Photos by Cara Kamps/RunMichigan.com.)