East Grand Rapids, Chelsea's Alford Take Next Steps as 1st-Time Finals Winners
November 5, 2022
BROOKLYN – The seeds that bore fruit Saturday for Chelsea junior Connell Alford were planted five years ago.
After making his first trip to watch the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals at Michigan International Speedway as a sixth grader, Alford began setting lofty goals for himself.
“In 2017, Chelsea won the team title,” Alford said. “That was my first state meet. Then I saw one of our runners get fifth. I thought, ‘You know what, I want to be a state champion one day.’ Since then, it’s always been a goal.”
Alford isn’t the only runner to dream of becoming a state champion, but he was able to make that dream a reality.
He dominated the field in the Lower Peninsula Division 2 meet, posting a time of 15:12.61 to outpace runner-up Carter McCalister of Monroe Jefferson by 24.93 seconds.
Running solo up front meant having to bear the full brunt of a strong wind. But Alford didn’t want to leave anything to chance after getting outkicked for fourth place last year by Dearborn Divine Child’s Michael Hegarty. Hegarty was fourth this year.
“I feel like there’s always a wind like that in the last 100 meters, like last year when I got fourth and got outkicked,” Alford said. “My game plan this year was don’t be in the final straight with anyone so I can’t be outkicked.”
Alford was the prohibitive favorite in Division 2 all season after winning eight of nine meets on his way to MIS and breaking 15 minutes twice. He didn’t see it that way.
“I still can’t totally believe it happened,” he said. “I knew with my performances there would be a shot, but after Regionals it was all open. It could have been anyone. We had super-fast Regionals. I knew there were crazy-fast people in the Regionals. It was still up for grabs in my mind.”
For the second-straight year, a runner from the Southeastern Conference White won the Division 2 title. Alford was preceded atop the podium by Pinckney’s Caleb Jarema, who now runs for the University of Michigan.
“I think last year I had Caleb Jarema in almost every race I ran,” Alford said. “That really helped. I learned stuff he did. I knew I could go off of what he did. He was such a strong runner. I used him as a model of, ‘Hey, I’m going to train so I can do that, too.’”
The SEC White flexed its collective muscles again in Division 2, with three of the top four teams hailing from that six-school division.
East Grand Rapids won the meet with 132 points, but the next three teams were from the SEC White. Chelsea was only five points out of first, Pinckney was 11 back and Adrian was 32 back.
While Chelsea, Pinckney and Adrian had runners in the top 10, East Grand Rapids won with the strength of its pack.
The Pioneers didn’t have a finisher until junior Ryan Brinker crossed in 28th place in 16:19.01, but he soon had company. Junior Alex Thole was 33rd (16:28.79), senior Elijah Robinson was 36th (16:30.52), freshman Jonah Workman was 45th (16:38.09) and junior Davis Christy was 46th (16:40.83).
The team title was the first in boys cross country for the Pioneers.
PHOTOS (Top) Chelsea’s Connell Alford travels the final paces of his LPD2 championship run Saturday. (Middle) East Grand Rapids’ Davis Christy (458) is among leaders of a pack heading toward the finish. (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.)