Preview: Rankings Call for 1st-Time Championship Celebrations
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
November 5, 2021
If rankings hold true, Saturday could see at least a few first-time boys cross country celebrations at Michigan International Speedway.
Otsego in Division 2 and Johannesburg-Lewiston in Division 4 are the top-ranked teams heading into the day, and both are seeking their first Lower Peninsula Finals championships. Caledonia is the top-ranked team in Division 1 and seeking its first title in 1996. St. Louis is No. 1 and won last year – but surely the Sharks will be up for celebrating a repeat as well.
Individually, Hartland’s Riley Hough will finish a high school career that has seen him rank among the state’s best all-time, and Pinckney’s Caleb Jarema and Benzie Central’s Hunter Jones are mere steps away from joining him.
The day’s first races at Michigan International Speedway begin at 9:30 a.m., and all eight will be broadcast live on MHSAA.tv – click for full details.
DIVISION 1
Reigning champion: Romeo
2020 runner-up: Caledonia
2021 top-ranked: 1. Caledonia, 2. Brighton, 3. Grand Haven.
After finishing 32 points behind Romeo at last season’s Final, Caledonia is favored to win its first championship since claiming the Class B title in 1996. The Fighting Scots graduated their top runner from last season’s team but return their next four finishers led by senior Josh Oom, who placed 24th a year ago. Brighton also graduated its top runner from last season but brings back the next four from the Finals lineup. Sophomore Seth Norder and Grand Haven as a team didn’t reach the Finals a year ago, but he was a Regional champion last week and is backed by 2020 individual qualifier Nolan Clark, a junior. Romeo is ranked No. 4 and returns four of its top six from a year ago, led by senior Jack Kelke, who placed 10th individually.
Individuals: Hartland senior Riley Hough has been one of the headliners statewide this season, and his best time of the fall (14:37) is well ahead of the field after he also ran the second-fastest time in MHSAA 5K Finals history (14:49.62) in 2020. He’s one of three top-10 and five top-20 finishers returning to this race. Farmington senior Peter Baracco was fourth at the Finals last season, 19th as a sophomore and 17th as a freshman, and Traverse City Central senior Luke Venhuizen has the division’s second-fastest time this fall after finishing 18th in LPD1 last season. Third on this year’s list is Lapeer senior Jeremy Williams, who was second to Venhuizen at their Regional at Saginaw Heritage.
DIVISION 2
Reigning champion: Fremont
2020 runner-up: St. Johns
2021 top-ranked: 1. Otsego, 2. Grand Rapids Christian, 3. Pinckney.
After Fremont won the last two team titles and Chelsea won back-to-back the two seasons before those, it may be Otsego’s time to climb the podium after finishing runner-up in both 2015 and 2019 and third last season. The Bulldogs return three runners from the 2020 Finals lineup, with senior Nick Cockerel having finished 20th individually and now leading the way. Grand Rapids Christian is seeking its first championship since 2014 and brings back six runners from last season’s ninth-place team. Pinckney was fifth last season and brings back four of its top six finishers including senior Caleb Jarema, the individual runner-up a year ago. Senior Conor Somers was fifth individually last season, but Fremont graduated its other four scorers from that repeat champion.
Individuals: Jarema and Somers top a group of nine returning from last season’s individual top 20. Jarema has the division’s fastest time this fall at 14:57, and Spring Lake senior Ian Hill is second on that list and finished eighth a year ago. Dearborn Divine Child junior Michael Hegarty has the third-fastest time in Division 2 this fall and finished 10th at the 2020 Finals. Chelsea has a chance to make a push in the team competition, with sophomore Connell Alford leading the way after finishing 11th individually a year ago. Parchment junior William Winter is running in Division 2 and finished 10th in Division 3 in 2020.
Division 3
Reigning champion: St. Louis
2020 runner-up: Hart
2021 top-ranked: 1. St. Louis, 2. Traverse City St. Francis, 3. Hart.
After winning its first championship last season since 2005, St. Louis is favored to come out on top again. The Sharks return four of last season’s top six including three runners who placed among the individual top 23, led by senior Aaron Bowerman in ninth and senior Nate March in 17th. Hart was a close second last season, just 13 points back, and despite graduating its top two from that lineup returns the next four runners. Traverse City St. Francis was third a year ago and has three of its top six runners back. Ithaca is intriguing; the Yellowjackets graduated their top runner after finishing seventh, but return the other sixth including two from the individual top 20 in junior Parks Allen (12th) and senior Espen Lehnst (15th).
Individuals: Seven of the top eight from last season graduated, but champion Hunter Jones is back. The Benzie Central junior is seeking his third individual Finals championship in three tries, and his best time this fall (14:44) is 42 seconds faster than the field. Manton senior Noah Morrow has the second-fastest time this season and was the next-closest placer returning from last fall after coming in eighth. Kalkaska senior Tyler Guggemos is a two-time Regional champion, and he has posted the division’s third-fastest time.
DIVISION 4
Reigning champion: Carson City-Crystal
2020 runner-up: Breckenridge
2021 top-ranked: 1. Johannesburg-Lewiston, 2. Concord, 3. Hillsdale Academy
Johannesburg-Lewiston is seeking its first Finals championship in this sport, with five of its top six back from last year’s team that finished 23rd. Concord is looking to return to the top after winning three of four Division 4 titles from 2009-12, and three of the team’s top five from last year’s third-place team are back led by senior Jonathan Mikovits (ninth individually). Breckenridge is ranked No. 4 and is an interesting possibility after also winning the 2019 championship. The Huskies have four runners back from last year’s runner-up team led by senior Mason Sumner, who placed third individually. Reigning champion Carson City-Crystal also has four runners back despite graduating individual champ Coleman Clark.
Individuals: Sumner is the highest-placing of 10 runners back from last season’s top 20, and he has the second-fastest time in the division this season. Petoskey St. Michael senior Samuel Paga is back after coming in fifth, and Webberville senior Nathan Lott is running after placing sixth in 2020. Wyoming Potter’s House junior Lezawe Osterink has cut nearly a minute from his best time from a year ago and is undefeated this season, with his 15:42 topping the list of Division 4’s fastest this fall.
PHOTO Davison’s Iain Forrest (28) and Dexter’s Brandon Anderson (45) are among runners returning in Division 1 this weekend at Michigan International Speedway. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)
Spartan Success Suggests Plenty of Possibilities as Karg Seeks Finals Redemption
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
September 18, 2025
Brody Karg doesn’t know how fast he can run anymore, and he’s OK with that.
In fact, it excites him.
After the pull of competition helped him to a personal best time of 15 minutes, 47.2 seconds on a tough Forest Akers East cross country course at the Spartan Invitational this past Friday, the Harbor Beach senior is adjusting his goals.
“After MSU, it seems like the sky is the limit,” Karg said. “I figured, before the season, that I’d be able to run like 15:35 by the end, but honestly, I feel like that State time, that might have been worth 15:30 if it was on a fast course in good conditions. I beat some guys that have already run 15:30 this year. I don’t know what I’m capable of. I’m trying to keep that open mind, like you really don’t know how good you are until you go out and test yourself. I think that mid 15:20s could be possible. But we’ll see.”
Karg placed sixth at MSU in the Spartan Elite division. The five runners who finished ahead of him – Brandon Cloud of Northville, Luke Hammond of Grand Haven, Jack MacGregor of Howell, Ian Morgan of Okemos and Aiden Pengelly of Canton – all earned all-state honors at the 2024 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final, with four of them finishing among the top 10. And of those five, only Cloud (15:34.3) and Hammond (15:38.7) were more than three seconds ahead of Karg.
It was an improvement of 26 places and nearly 50 seconds from his Spartan Invitational performance a year ago. And that was during a year when Karg won eight of his 10 regular-season races, his Division 4 Regional and placed 16th at the MHSAA Finals at Michigan International Speedway.
“I mean, I don’t get a lot of chances like that to really show what I’ve got,” he said. “So those ones always feel a little bigger. Those bigger races always feel a little bigger for me than maybe they would for someone who (regularly sees tougher competition).
“The competition helped push me there, but I’ve also made a big jump from last year to this fitness-wise. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff in training that I haven’t been able to do in previous builds, so I knew that I was ready to make a big jump. It was just a matter of when.”
The Spartan Invitational was one of the few chances Karg has had to prove himself on one of the state’s biggest stages since that 16th-place finish a year ago, joining, most notably, the Division 4 Track & Field Finals, where he placed third in the 3,200 meters.
Third is about where he thought he could have finished at last year’s cross country Finals, too, but a near total-body shutdown as he approached the finish line thwarted that.
With about 400 meters remaining in the race, Karg said he went to make his finishing kick, but his legs wouldn’t let him.
“I was right next to another kid, ready to make my move, and I felt strong enough to make that move, so I was like, ‘OK, we’re moving,’” he said. “I went to make the move, and all of the sudden, my legs had nothing. He starts pulling away from me. I get passed by one guy, by two guys, and I’m wobbling. I can’t stay up. I went down, and then I just got back up and scrambled to the line. It took me like a half hour to get back to the tent. I did puke a couple times. It was horrible.”
To this day, Karg doesn’t know what happened. It could have been a bit of sickness or dehydration, but he said he thought he had hydrated well, and that he felt good running right up until he didn’t.
He’s taken extra precautions in how he prepares now, making sure his eating and sleeping habits are in line, along with his electrolyte intake.
“I was obviously disappointed,” he said. “I felt like I really could have gotten third. But things happen. It gave me some motivation, I guess. I came back and had a successful track season. I’m doing well this cross country season. I’m just hoping to go back to MIS and prove what I can really do.”
Meets like the one at MSU are part of Karg’s schedule to help prepare him for this year’s Finals. He’ll also run at the Portage Invitational and the DXC and Vintage 03 meet at Shepherd, which are sure to feature some of the top competitors in Division 4. Those will also give him a chance to run down the school record of 15:41, which was set in 2015 by Luke Anderson.
Karg will be heading to Portage and Shepherd on his own, but he went to MSU with his teammates. Having them compete on that stage, and getting a chance to watch Karg excel, was important for Harbor Beach coach Debbie Anderson.
“People said, ‘It’s a big venue for you, Deb. Are you sure you want to take the kids?’” Anderson said. “Absolutely I do. Where else are they going to see this during high school? Let’s take them to these big places where they can see kids do amazing things, and on Friday, it was one of our very own kids that did an amazing thing. I want them to see that. One of us shined on Friday, and it was really cool to see one of us in the elite race. We’re so proud of him.”
Anderson is on the same page as Karg in thinking the sky is the limit for him moving forward. He’s dialed in, she said, and even with high-level runners like reigning champion Mark Butkiewicz of Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Prep in the field, she’s not putting anything past Karg.
“Can he (win the Division 4 Final)? Yes,” Anderson said. “I always say yes. My mantra is, there are no places taken. Don’t act like this guy has first place. No, it depends on how you run. You can change all the places if you want.”
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) Harbor Beach’s Brody Karg (1219) paces with Three Oaks River Valley’s Landon Rogers during last season’s Division 4 Final at MIS. (Middle) Karg charges toward the finish line. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)