When Aubrey Zarnke started running cross country nine years ago in the Elkton Pigeon Bay Port Laker elementary program, she wasn’t thinking about being part of a varsity turnaround. 

In fact, it wasn’t something she thought was possible until the end of her sophomore season, two years ago.

“It was a lot different (when I started), the team was a lot smaller, but I just kind of joined and I stayed with it,” Zarnke said. “It kept growing and got so much more fun. I would say when our boys varsity team won the league championship (in 2023), that was a really big thing. Then it kept getting bigger, and records kept getting broken.”

Now a senior, Zarnke is part of a cross country renaissance at Laker, with both boys and girls teams coming off Big Thumb Conference titles and having their eyes on a trip to the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 Finals on Nov. 1 at Michigan International Speedway. The boys advanced as a team a year ago for the first time since 1994, while the girls are looking for their first trip.

“I feel like it’s a lot better than if only one was doing it,” Zarnke said. “It’s almost like we’re lighting a fire in each other and pushing even more to be better.”

Mike Klosowski, a 1999 Laker graduate and former runner at the school, took over the program in 2009. At that point, he said, getting enough kids to score as a team was hard.

He got to work building elementary and middle school programs, and it’s paying dividends – not only in quality, but quantity. 

Now, the boys are carrying nine runners, and the girls have 11.

“This has been a lot of fun,” Klosowski said. “I’ve taken some of the stuff I did and that my coaches taught me when I was in cross country, and now we’re doing that same thing in the same locations, same spots. That’s kind of fun.”

As this current group was coming up through his program, Klosowski could see the potential. 

“When a lot of this core group was in middle school, they had some great success, so I thought they could be very good if they could stay together and keep working hard,” Klosowski said. “A lot of it is their offseason willingness to put time in and work. But also the fact they’re just a real tight group. They get along real well, work well together, push each other and keep each other on track. They’re like a big family, and it’s great to see that.”

This year’s Laker teams look a lot like last year’s teams, as both bring back the majority of their runners.

For the boys, six of the seven runners who competed at the MHSAA Finals are returning, including junior Evan Olson, who holds the school record at 16 minutes, 16.2 seconds. Olson finished two places from earning all-state a year ago.

Sophomore Kale Miklovic, juniors Henry Haag and Noah Mantey, and seniors Achilles Jackson and Jeffrey Ignash also return from the Finals-qualifying team.

Miklovic and Olson both won their first race of the year, as the Lakers ran at the Hemlock Huskie Classic, which runs a freshmen/sophomore race and a junior/senior race.

Two other freshmen – Walter Haag and Jonah Mantey – also placed among the top seven, adding more strength to an already established team.

Also in that boat is junior Noah Young, who had not run since middle school.

On the girls size, Zarnke is one of two runners who qualified for the Finals last year as an individual, as she was joined in Brooklyn by junior Pyper Braun.

The Lakers were two points away from tying for third place in last year’s Regional, and all six runners who competed that day have returned, also including sophomores Lydia Popp and Julia Shupe, junior Olivia Hooper and senior Payton Scott.

Hooper is also a returning Finals qualifier, having raced at MIS as a freshman. She’s healthy now after being slowed by injuries a year ago.

That core, plus the motivation of getting so close a year ago, has the Laker girls fired up to make that first run to the Finals.

“It would be crazy,” Zarnke said. “We’ve already got so much support from the community just with us growing. But that would be amazing. I don’t even know how to describe it.”

Laker was scheduled to run today at the Birch Run Early Invitational, a meet that features some of the top schools in the state in all divisions. 

Among them are teams Laker would be competing with at the Regional this year, like Ithaca and St. Louis. 

“We had a good talk on Monday, reflecting back on the (Hemlock) meet on Friday and how it was our first meet,” Klosowski said. “This week at Birch Run, there are a lot of schools we’ll see at Regionals, and we talked about how we want to set the tone early, and put our mark and our stamp on things. Show everyone that we’re the real deal.”

Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port Laker’s Aubrey Zarnke (2027) races toward the finish during last season’s MHSAA Finals at MIS. (Middle) Evan Olson (840) works to outpace a pair of runners during the closing stretch of his Finals race. (Photos by RunMichigan.com.)