BROOKLYN – Samantha Schroeder spent most of the regular season being chased. 

But Saturday, the reigning Lower Peninsula Division 3 champion was doing the chasing.

The Jackson Lumen Christi senior defended her title by taking the lead over the final 200 meters at Michigan International Speedway, winning a second-straight Finals championship with a time of 17 minutes, 50.2 seconds.

“I wasn’t really sure, I felt so sick before, but I think it was just nerves,” Schroeder said. “I had an idea I could catch her. It is mentally difficult (to chase). You need to be mentally strong in order to do it, because everything in your body is telling you to stop. It hurts. It’s too cold. But you have to mentally tell yourself to stop talking and just go for it.”

Schroeder, who became the first Lumen Christi runner to win a Finals title a year ago, trailed by 12 seconds at the 2-mile mark of the race.

“I think I got to the 2 mile and I could see her stride was faltering a little bit,” Schroeder said. “I thought I could maybe catch her.”

As she crossed the finish line, Schroeder fell to the ground, exhausted but alert after running her personal-best time.

“It’s exhilarating,” Schroeder said. “There’s so much adrenaline going through my body. At times it’s very difficult to believe I just did that.”

The team race also featured a nail-biting repeat as Lansing Catholic won its third-straight title with 107 points, just 15 ahead of Lake City which was second at 122.

The two teams alternated runners in the final standings, but the Cougars were slightly ahead with each of their first five.

“Honestly, our team, we’ve won three in a row, so our girls know what they’re doing,” Lansing Catholic coach Tim Simpson said. “They put themselves out where they’re supposed to be. We just tell them, ‘Just run your race and we’ll be good.’ Josie Bishop had a great race. (Isabella) Currie, she’s a soccer player so she doesn’t run all our races, she came through with a big, big race. Then when our fourth or fifth girl almost dropped out, our sixth girl was right there. Everybody was in line, ready to do their job.”

Bishop was third overall in the race at 18:20.9, one spot ahead of Isadora Shaw of Lake City who was fourth in 18:34.6.

The gaps between the teams after that were two, two, three and seven places.

“It was a little tougher than we would like, but it was alright,” Simpson said. “We were pretty far ahead at (2 miles) … But we had enough. That’s our team.”

Grace Wonch was 17th (15th in team score) at 19:09.4, Anna Drauer was 24th (19) at 19:14.5, Currie was 40th (30) at 19:38.7 and Annie Lloyd rounded out the Lansing Catholic scorers in 53rd (40) in 19:51.3.

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PHOTOS (Top) Jackson Lumen Christian’s Samantha Schroeder (1053) races toward the finish of the Division 3 girls race Saturday. (Middle) Lansing Catholic’s Josie Bishop runs to a third-place finish to lead the team champion. (Click for more from Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)