St. Francis Follows Bullough to D3 Title
November 7, 2015
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
BROOKLYN — Holly Bullough knows something about playing with pain.
She is, after all, from one of Michigan's most well-known football families.
So, she wasn't going to let a stress fracture in her left foot keep her from defending her MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 championship on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway.
Bullough wasn't able to run in practice the last two weeks, keeping in shape by hitting the spinning bike hard at a yoga center in Traverse City. It worked, as she was fit enough to dominate the Division 3 field, winning by 36.4 seconds with a time of 17:41.8.
Bullough shattered her own LP Division 3 record of 17:51.3, set last year when she surged ahead at the finish to edge Amber Way of Charlevoix by 0.2 seconds.
"I was pretty tired," Bullough said. "I just needed to finish and try to finish as strong as I can."
She said she felt some of the effects of running only once in the previous two weeks, that being in the regional meet a week earlier when she won in 17:15.40. It was a week before regionals that she noticed something didn't feel right.
"After this one meet, I was limping after it," she said. "I was like, "I need to get an X-ray.'"
The X-ray revealed a stress fracture in the second metatarsal bone in her left foot.
She has numerous examples in her own family of athletes who know a thing or two about toughing it out. Her grandfather, father and three brothers played football at Michigan State, with Riley and Byron on the current roster. Hank Bullough, her grandfather, was a starting guard on MSU's 1954 Rose Bowl championship team. Her father, Shane, was a linebacker at MSU. Brother Max is on the Houston Texans' roster.
An injury was going to be the only thing to keep Bullough from repeating as Division 3 champion. Nobody went out with her, as she built a 28-second lead by the two-mile mark.
"I was more worried coming into regionals, because that's when I had the longest break, but I was still nervous," Bullough said.
Winning the individual title was more special for Bullough this time around, because she was able to lead her team to a championship, as well.
St. Francis scored 69 points to easily beat Benzie Central by 72. Shepherd was third with 181 points.
The Gladiators didn't even qualify for the Final last year, finishing sixth in their Regional to miss out on a trip to MIS for only the second time in 14 years. Bullough is the only runner from that regional lineup that ran in the Final on Saturday.
"It's awesome. I love it. It's so much better than being alone," Bullough said.
Also scoring for the Gladiators were freshman Katelyn Duffing (fourth, 18:35.2), junior Emmalyne Tarsa (fifth, 18:42.3), sophomore Joyana Tarsa (12th, 19:05.1) and sophomore Lauren Bramer (66th, 20:23.5).
The title was the second for St. Francis, which was the LP Division 4 champion in 2003.
The MHSAA Cross Country Finals are sponsored by the Michigan National Guard.
PHOTOS: (Top) Alone on the final stretch, Traverse City St. Francis’ Holly Bullough surges toward the finish line. (Middle) Bullough and teammate Katelyn Duffing (1650) lead the St. Francis pack, including Emmalyne Tarsa (1653), off the start. (Click for more from RunMichigan.com.)
Together Since Middle School, Gobles' Record-Setting 4 Building On Historic Run
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
September 24, 2025
GOBLES — When coach Marc Kline first met Libby Smith, he thought the sixth grader did not have much potential as a runner.
Was he wrong.
Over the next few years, Kline noticed “there was a seriousness about her from seventh, eighth and beyond. You could just see even then, she’s going to be good, and she is good.”
“Good” is an understatement.
Last year as a sophomore, Smith finished third at the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Cross Country Final. Her time of 18:26.4 helped lead Gobles to a sixth-place finish, the Tigers’ best in school history.
Since then, she has been chipping away, trying to get below the 18-minute mark.
She is getting closer, recording a personal record 18:07.0 to win Saturday’s Pewamo-Westphalia Invitational. Smith has now won six of the team’s last eight meets and finished second in the other two.
“I like the running part and the training,” said Smith, who lifts weights five days a week and runs on her own after school practices.
On those solo runs, “My mom (Casey) follows me on an electric scooter,” she said. “My dad (Mitchell) does, too. They take turns riding with me, and I like that.”
In practice, Smith trains with three buddies, and the four have been running friends since middle school.
“We’re the only ones in our grades who run, so we are like a tight little group of runners since sixth grade,” Smith said.
Her “little group” also consists of senior Madison Cooley and juniors Lauren Shaffer and Ava DeYoung.
“All four of them are our top four in Gobles history,” Kline said. “They all set the school record in (girls) cross. That’s like the perfect storm from my perspective. That’s amazing.”
Every time Smith runs another personal best, she breaks her own school record. Currently, Shaffer is second-best at 19:33.4, also a personal record recorded Saturday. DeYoung (19:48.2) is third in the record book and Cooley (20:33.7) fourth.
All four runners passed the former top mark of 20:41.5 set by Cheyenne Allyn-White in 2014.
“We all started so young, and that really helped and we all improved together,” DeYoung said. “When one person improved, you wanted to stick with them, you wanted to just keep pushing. We all worked together, and we all improved together.”
Sophomores Addison Tomsic and Alyssa Sparks plus freshman Taylor Cooley round out the team.
The only senior, Madison Cooley is also team captain.
“It definitely makes a lot more responsibility,” she said. “I had to make shirts for the team, have to make sure they’re doing all the warmups and cool downs.
“Sometimes I have to keep myself in check and be positive all the time. Sometimes it’s pretty hard.”
Facing her last season on the team, Cooley said it’s important to stay in the moment.
“You have to cherish the moments,” she said. “Our captain last year (Zoie Wood) was a senior and was on my team since eighth grade.”
Kline said Cooley has been fun to watch in the leadership role this season.
“Her leadership skills have improved so much,” he said. “She’s very critical to the team.
“She’s planning to run track (in college). It’s really amazing to watch a sprinter take on a 5k role.”
While Smith led the team to the Finals last fall, Shaffer, who finished 33rd (20:45.5), was second on the team.
The junior started running at a very early age when her dad, Eric Shaffer, coached cross country at Gobles.
“I used to come to the practices after school,” she said. “I followed them around and have been running since then.
“A lot (of success) is being consistent, (training) over the winter and summer so you’re always running.”
Kline said Shaffer is gritty and shy.
“She loves her family a ton,” he said. “I can see a special relationship between her and her dad, which is really fun to see. She has a lot of talent as well.”
DeYoung, who started running in middle school, said the fab four instantly clicked.
“It was really fun and I just stuck with it,” she said. “We have such a unique bond together. We do easy runs together when we can just talk about our day.
“There are other times when it’s a good pace and (Smith) goes off ahead. It’s so fun to see her do so good. It makes us all so proud of her. I would say it inspires us to do better because we all want to strive to be more like what she’s doing.”
DeYoung suffered four stress fractures of the tibia as a freshman and is still working her way back to peak form.
“I had a lot of support from my teammates,” she said. “Even when I was struggling and having hard times, they were always there for me.
“I really enjoy running and enjoy running with my teammates, and I wanted to get better. Even with the setbacks, I was working and striving to get better all the time.”
Kline said DeYoung is one of the hardest workers on the team.
“Her integrity level is so high,” he said. “I appreciate her. (Because of the injuries), she’s not been able to hit where she was early and is coming around really well this year.”
All four also run track during the spring, and while both sports involve running, Kline said track and cross country are like night and day.
“Cross country, everyone’s focused on one event, training, goals,” the coach said. “It’s all unified, and there’s a great sense of family that can develop from that team.
“In track, there’s 17 different events, people get so scattered. It’s really difficult in one sense to get that team feel in track, so that’s a big difference.”
Looking at this cross country season, “I am so excited about the opportunity we have this year,” Kline said. “Their buy-in, their interest and their love for each other.”
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Gobles runners including Madison Cooley, front left, and Libby Smith warm up at the Portage Early Bird Invitational this season. (2) Gobles girls cross country coach Marc Kline. (3) Smith and Cooley are joined by, from far left, Ava DeYoung and Lauren Shaffer. (4) Smith runs at Portage. (Portage photos by Miles Postema. Coach and group photos by Pam Shebest.)