Speedy 2nd Helps Seaholm Retake 1st
November 1, 2014
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
BROOKLYN — Rachel DaDamio of Birmingham Seaholm may be the only runner to ever finish second in an MHSAA championship cross country meet without ever having won a race in her career.
Not one race. Not even a dual meet or low-key invitational.
First place is pretty much spoken for when Audrey Belf toes the start line.
Since DaDamio has been Belf's teammate for four years, winning hasn't been a viable option.
But while Belf beat every opponent in the state this year, DaDamio didn't lose to anybody else. Her eighth second-place finish in as many meets helped Seaholm win the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1 championship with 88 points. Traverse City Central was second with 115, followed by defending-champion Northville with 135.
Belf repeated as the individual champion with a time of 17:19.0. DaDamio held off freshman Karenna Duffey of Macomb L'Anse Creuse North to grab second in 17:29.4. Duffey was third in 17:33.1. Those were the three fastest times of the day in any division.
DaDamio doesn't mind her lack of individual first-place medals, because she has two team championship medals from the MHSAA Finals.
"It's an honor," she said. "It doesn't make a difference to me. I just want to constantly improve for myself, then whatever place I get I know I worked hard."
After crossing the finish line, Belf's attention immediately turned to the race behind her. She had to be moved away from the finish line while she watched DaDamio duel with Duffey.
"It was awesome," Belf said. "In every single meet this year we've been 1-2. It's been so cool to have my teammate behind me like that. It's like a little dynamic duo. I love it."
Belf had already opened up a gap when the runners hit the end of the long straightaway in the first 700 yards of the race.
"I wanted to stay behind a little bit at the start, but people were not going out as fast as I'd hoped, so I kind of just took it there," Belf said. "In the second mile, I got caught up in the wind. I felt I should have pushed through more and finished strong, but I can't complain."
Seaholm regained the title it lost last year when it finished fourth. DaDamio didn't run in that meet because of an injury, but the Maples did lose No. 2 runner Marissa Dobry, who moved to Oregon.
Belf, DaDamio and No. 3 runner Julia Demko were on the 2012 championship team. Demko took 20th on Saturday with a time of 18:21.5.
Completing Seaholm's scoring were Audrey Ladd (40th, 18:52.0) and Mary Sanders (54th, 19:00.5).
"To win two state championships in a day is like a magical dream come true," Belf said.
PHOTOS: Birmingham Seaholm’s Rachel DaDamio keeps pace ahead of Karenna Duffey of Macomb L'Anse Creuse North to finish individual runner-up and help the Maples regain the MHSAA LP Division 1 team title. (Below) Seaholm’s Audrey Belf claimed her second straight individual championship. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)
Forsyth Closes Career as Legendary, Romeo Caps Memorable 1st Title Run
November 4, 2023
BROOKLYN — Dathan Ritzenhein’s time of 14:10.4 at the 2000 MHSAA Cross Country Finals has become the stuff of legend.
During the 23 years that have followed, no other runners has come remotely close to breaking the record set by the three-time Olympian from Rockford.
Years from now, perhaps Rachel Forsyth’s performance Saturday at Michigan International Speedway will be just as revered.
She not only set the girls course record, she obliterated it.
Running solo from the gun, Forsyth ran a scorching 16:28.5 to shatter the course mark of Lansing Catholic’s Olivia Theis in the 2017 Division 2 race.
It’s worth noting that some of the greatest high school cross country runners in the country have graced MIS since the MHSAA moved its Finals there in 1996.
Megan Goethals of Rochester (2009) and Zofia Dudek of Ann Arbor Pioneer (2019) won Foot Locker national championships. Others have gone on to become college All-Americans.
It wasn’t even Forsyth’s fastest time this season. She ran 16:07.5 to win her Regional meet. Forsyth was more fixated on beating that time than taking down the course record.
“I just handled it like a normal race,” Forsyth said. “Me and my friends goofed off. We got ready as we normally did. No one put too much pressure on it.”
It was the second MHSAA championship for Forsyth, the other coming two years ago when she ran 17:09.32.
After that, she began to struggle with an eating disorder which put her life in jeopardy. She was hospitalized at the University of Michigan’s Mott Children’s Hospital and was then admitted to the Eating Recovery Center in Illinois.
She was finally healthy enough to rejoin her team on the race course in late September last year, but had lost much of her spectacular fitness. She finished 62nd in last year’s state meet.
“It’s very surreal, because I missed so much,” Forsyth said. “So, to be able to be at my best …”
At this point, Forsyth began choking up before she finished the sentence … “is very special.”
Forsyth said the process of making healthy decisions is still difficult, “but the benefits of doing what I have to pays off 100 percent.”
Forsyth reached the finish line before anyone else hit the three-mile mark in the 3.1-mile race. Finishing a distant second was Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills senior Selma Anderson, whose time of 17:13.6 would have ranked 11th in MIS history coming into a record-setting day across the board.
“It was pretty cool to watch, but I know I couldn’t run with her,” Anderson said. “So, I was just going to focus on my race.”
Forsyth hoped to cap her record-breaking day with a team championship celebration, but Romeo had something to say about that, putting up a winning total of 65 points to claim its first Finals championship and after finishing runner-up a year ago. Pioneer was second this time with 126 points.
Freshman Annie Hrabovsky of Romeo established herself as a future championship contender, placing fourth in 17:28.7. Sophomore Natalia Guaresimo was seventh, sophomore Emmerson Clor 13th, junior Lillian Deskins 22nd and junior Olivia Purdy 41st for Romeo.
The Bulldogs had four runners cross before Pioneer had two.
PHOTOS (Top) Ann Arbor Pioneer's Rachel Forsyth takes the final paces of her record-setting run Saturday at MIS. (Middle) Midland Dow's Victoria Garces (200) and Romeo's Annie Hrabovsky run side-by-side down the closing stretch. (Photos by Dave McCauley/RunMichigan.com.)