Saugatuck Follows Gorgas to 1st in D4
November 3, 2018
Second Half reports
BROOKLYN — Saugatuck senior Corey Gorgas raised his arms as he hit the finish line, but the day wasn’t all about him.
Moments after he completed a solo victory lap to the finish to win the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 individual cross country championship, he turned around and began looking for teammates.
He didn’t have to search for long.
One Saugatuck runner after another came streaming across the line, matching Gorgas’ individual dominance by placing five scoring runners within the top 30. The Indians scored 62 points to win their fourth MHSAA championship in six years by 40 over 2017 champion Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
“Our (Nos.) 4 and 5 pulled through and had the race of their lives,” Gorgas said. “This is crazy. We won our sophomore year in D3, stayed in D3 last year and got killed. That was one of the hardest things I ever had to go through was the 12th-place finish. Coming back this year with young guys like Adam (Martinson) and new kids Tristan (Ashley) and Winston (Marcy), for them to pull through and get us a state championship like that means so much. I’m just so happy right now we pulled this off.”
Gorgas became Saugatuck’s first individual champion with a time of 15:33.8. Sophomore Nik Pettinga was third in 16:18.0, freshman Max Sharnas 15th in 17:04.9, senior Ray Bartlett 28th in 17:11.4 and junior Winston Marcy 30th in 17:16.5. All five scoring runners made all-state.
Sacred Heart had solid depth, but couldn’t match Saugatuck’s strength up front. The Irish’s first runner was 17th-place T.J. Moore (17:06.7). Sacred Heart put five runners in the top 35, with Brook Lynch taking 20th (17:07.2), Chase Nelson 21st (17:07.3), Matthew Nowak 33rd (17:30.2) and Josh Lynch 35th (17:33.7).
“We were going against the defending champ,” Gorgas said. “They have a great team, great coach, great program. We knew they were going to be tough to beat. We put in a lot of work this summer. I’m glad the guys were able to pull it off with me.”
Gorgas ran the fifth-fastest winning time in Division 4 in the 20 years of the divisional format for cross country.
He won seven of eight meets this year, finishing second by 4.1 seconds to 2017 Division 1 champion Nick Foster of Ann Arbor Pioneer in the Spartan Elite race at the Spartan Invitational on Sept. 14. That race featured many of the top teams in Divisions 1 and 2.
It was the fourth all-state performance for Gorgas, who was 11th in Division 4 as a freshman, then fourth in the last two Division 3 races. He’s the first Saugatuck boy to win an MHSAA individual title.
“It was definitely different, especially last year, being in Division 3, I had so many guys (around me),” Gorgas said. “I was fourth last year. That was a rough race. Coming back down this year, being able to focus and train through a lot of this stuff so I could focus on postseason meets was huge for me.”
Gorgas hit the mile mark in 5:00.12, holding a five-second lead over Luke Pohl of Plymouth Christian. Gorgas stayed strong with a 5:02.05 second mile to expand his lead to 21 seconds.
“Luke Pohl got out pretty hard, so I kind of caught him around the 800-meter mark,” Gorgas said. “I went around him there to throw in a big surge so I could pull away from him. From the mile in, I was all alone.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Saugatuck’s Corey Gorgas pushes through the closing stretch in winning the Division 4 individual championship Saturday. (Middle) Gorgas and Nik Pettinga, right, embrace after Pettinga crossed in third place. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)
Charlevoix Championship Tradition Reborn with Team, Individual Finals Sweep
November 1, 2025
BROOKLYN, Mich. — The Charlevoix boys cross country dynasty took place decades before Hunter Eaton was born, but that history is never far from him and his teammates.
“You think of those guys and all the history and we’ve got to start it back up a little bit,” Eaton said. “We’ve got to keep up with it.”
Consider Charlevoix’s tradition revived.
The Red Rayders clinched their first MHSAA Finals championship since winning seven Class C titles during a 10-year span from 1982-91 by emerging victorious in a three-way battle Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
Charlevoix scored 131 points to win by seven over Lansing Catholic. Jackson Lumen Christi was third with 143.
In the process, Eaton became the first Charlevoix boy to win an MHSAA Finals individual championship since two-time winner Scott Miller won the Class C team race in 1989. Eaton finished in 15:30.8 to win by three seconds over Gage Hoffman of Central Montcalm.
The Red Rayders did their alumni proud.
The team even has a Drenth, junior Maxwell Drenth, who continues a family lineage. Walt Drenth coached at Charlevoix in the 1980s and is the former coach at Michigan State University.
“We have Walt Drenth come talk to us every year,” Eaton said. “He’s our coach’s brother. They had a brother, Jeff Drenth, who passed away. We have another guy who came to us last summer, Bill Taylor (from the 1982 and 1983 championship teams). He’s a really good guy. We also have some other alumni who come. It’s very motivating, because they want to see us do well.”
Eaton was in a three-way battle with Hoffman and Christian Craanen of Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central through two miles, as the runners were separated by one second. Eaton opened up a four-second lead during the third mile and had enough left to win a kick to the finish.
“It was just like, ‘I’ve got to go,’” Eaton said. “I don’t care how I feel. I’ve just got to run right through the line. I was getting tired though. If there was another 100 (meters), I don’t know.”
Eaton was ninth last year and 42nd as a freshman. Had he continued on his original path, he might have been playing football for Charlevoix this fall instead of running cross country.
“I started running in fifth grade,” Eaton said. “I played Pop Warner football in fourth grade. The coach told my dad I’d be a good cross country runner. My dad made me think about cross country, and I did. It obviously worked out. I’m glad I chose this sport.”
Ryder Hopkins was 10th in 15:58.4, Matthew Solomon 19th in 16:10.2, Drenth 57th in 16:36.5 and Aurie Selph 119th in 17:12.2 for Charlevoix.
PHOTOS (Top) Charlevoix’s Hunter Eaton approaches the finish line first in the Division 3 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Middle) The Rayders’ Ryder Hopkins (995) leads a group down the stretch including Jackson Lumen Christi’s Gibson Shore (1045) and Centreville’s Will Hulin (2015). (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)