Concord's Hersha Matches Heroes
November 3, 2012
By Bill Khan
Special to Second Half
BROOKLYN — Jesse Hersha has already done something his running role models never accomplished, but that doesn’t lessen the sense of awe he has for past Concord state champions Kyle Stacks and Spencer Nousain.
Hersha became Concord’s third individual MHSAA champion in the last four years, but the first to do so as a sophomore, as he cruised alone up front to take the Lower Peninsula Division 4 championship Saturday at Michigan International Speedway with a personal-best time of 15:32.3. His performance led Concord to a second consecutive team title.
Stacks won the 2009 championship in 15:54.8, followed by Nousain two years later in 15:55.8. Both were seniors when they won.
“I’m always fighting to beat Spencer’s times and Kyle’s times,” said Hersha, who was a teammate of Nousain’s on last season’s championship team. “Today I was three seconds or so off Kyle’s best time.
“They are definitely a push for me. They inspire me. Even if I beat their times, I’ll never think of myself as more than them. They’ll always be a role model to me.”
Hersha ran alone up front, winning by 20.5 seconds over David Zinger of Evart. Sean Kelly of Saugatuck was third in 15:58.9.
Hersha placed 19th at last year's Final, ninth among non-seniors. It was during the summer road race season that he began to get the confidence that he could become an MHSAA champion.
“I ran a road race without much training in 17:04 or something,” Hersha said. “My coach came to me after that and told me when Spencer won his senior year, he ran like 16:50 something at that race. When Kyle won his senior year, he ran 16:50 something.”
Nousain was the only senior in Concord’s Finals lineup last year, so the Yellow Jackets were favored to repeat. They did so handily by a 61-100 margin over Evart.
Freshman Josiah Ottolini was 11th in 16:23.0, senior Parker Saenz 14th in 16:27.0, senior Tyler Neu 18th in 16:29.7 and senior Sam Comden 47th in 17:05.4 to complete Concord’s scoring.
PHOTO: Concord's Jesse Hersha became the third MHSAA individual champion from Concord. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)
'Dollar Bay Family' Claims 1st Boys XC Title
By
John Vrancic
Special for MHSAA.com
October 25, 2020
MUNISING — It was a day of firsts for a pair of Copper Country schools in the Upper Peninsula Division 3 Boys Cross Country Finals here Saturday.
Dollar Bay was crowned champion for the first time, and junior Jonah Nordine became the first Ewen-Trout Creek athlete to earn an individual title.
Nordine covered the 3.1-mile course in 17 minutes, 34.9 seconds, followed by Chassell senior Kolson Kytta (17:59.7) and Brimley senior Cameron Hoonstra (18:05.5) at Pictured Rocks Golf Course.
“I just tried to stay in first and push it out the whole race,” said Nordine. “It felt good to win this one, that’s for sure. I just put in a lot of work this summer and used this for conditioning for basketball.”
Kytta said he was happy to be runner-up.
"I had a better time in the season opener at (Painesdale) Jeffers, but that was kind of a downhill course,” he added. “It looks like I peaked at the right time. Our school was shut down for two weeks (due to COVID-19), but I think that enabled me to work on some things. We usually have 8-10 races every year. We had five this year, which is kind of disappointing for my senior year, but at least we got to have a season.”
The Blue Bolts scored 42 points, and reigning champ Rudyard edged Newberry 83-85 for the runner-up honor.
“Staying healthy was huge for us,” said Dollar Bay coach Matt Zimmer. “We’re all in this together. We decided we’re going to do this as a group. When the guys saw a teammate struggling, they offered him encouragement. They never left anyone alone out there. They all finished as a group. We refer to ourselves as the Dollar Bay family.”
Zimmer was also happy with the team’s senior leaders.
“They’ve been running together for four years,” he said. “They’ve been on this course before and knew where all the turns and hills were. Munising did a great job marking the course. Everything went like clockwork. They were very well organized.”
Newberry senior Ephram Evans took fourth (18:15.6), with Dollar Bay senior Davin Hill taking fifth (18:20.3).
“It wasn’t too bad out there,” said Evans. “I had a pair of water-resistant socks which kept my feet very dry. I went out a little harder than I wanted to. I would have liked to have placed third, but this was still a great way to end my high school career. Cam (Hoornstra) and I are great friends, and he beat me for the first time this year. We worked together and tried to catch the guy in second.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Stephenson's Griffin Brown and Engadine's Conrad Spieles (27) run with Dollar Bay's Davin Hill (14), Cooper Stout (18), and John Paul Norland (17). (Middle) Ewen-Trout Creek's Jonah Nordine has a comfortable lead in the Upper Peninsula Division 3 Final at Pictured Rocks Golf Course in Munising. (Photos by Cara Kamps.)