Prepapalooza: Final Countdown Begins

Mesick just finished the best boys cross country season in school history.

And the Bulldogs have even higher expectations for next year.

Mesick won a conference championship for the first time, and qualified for the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 Final for the first time in 38 years.

And the Bulldogs did it all without a senior in the lineup – meaning the entire lineup could be back for more in 2026.

“We’re coming back ready to stay fresh and just honestly do a lot more than we did this year,” said Kyle Redman, who ran a 15:40 to break his own school record and capture first place at his team’s Regional meet. “We want to keep building off that and dig deeper to go further.”

Redman was often the number one runner for Mesick, as was his twin brother Tyler, who finished just seven seconds behind him at the Regional.

Unfortunately, Tyler Redmond aggravated an ongoing hamstring injury and was unable to run in the Final. 

“Every goal on our checklist, we hit,” said fourth-year Mesick coach Josh Kaskinen. “We won the conference.  We qualified for states, and then right after that Regional race Ty found that he wasn't going to be able to go for states.”

Mesick had entered just six runners in the Final, and called on Harper Musta to step up just as he did during the conference championship race.

Musta, who was battling injuries too as he entered the Final, was the team’s number six runner all season. He ran as the fifth at Michigan International Speedway, ensuring Mesick could place as a team.

“I want to pat Harper on the back as I was a little nervous that we weren't going to score points at state even though we were ranked 11^th coming in,” Kaskinen said. “Harper stepped up so that we could actually score and gave us all the experience that we need for next year.”

Despite missing a definite all-state candidate, Mesick still finished 21^st at MIS, with Kyle Redman 11^th.

The Bulldogs were not surprised Musta came through. He had done it earlier in the season, garnering a lot of credit for the school’s West Michigan D League title.

The Bulldogs narrowly came out on top of the conference championship race with 45 points. Mason County Eastern finished runner-up with 46, and Grand Traverse Academy wound up in third place with 47 points.

“Winning the conference was a big accomplishment,” Tyler Redman said. “For three or four years we were trying to just get people to run cross country, and everybody fought to actually get good at it.”

Kyle Redman led the way in the conference with a first-place finish. Tyler Redman was second. But it was first-year runner and sophomore Musta who found a way to figure in the scoring for the Bulldogs. He didn’t finish in the school’s top five but he did finish ahead of other schools’ top five runners.

“Harper is our assistant coach's older son, and he never ran before,” Kaskinen noted. “I told him leading into that championship meet that his job was to focus on Mason County Eastern's number five guy. I knew it was going to be a close race. And he was able to do it.”

Musta vividly recalls the race, passing Eastern’s fifth runner midway. He admits he wasn’t sure he was up to the challenge. The race gave him his first appreciation of the mental aspects of running.

“It was a pretty interesting experience,” Musta said. “I actually had a goal in mind, and I had to keep on speeding up and pushing myself. And it was a lot more thinking than I'm usually used to.”

Musta expects to use that experience to help Mesick to even more success in the years ahead, as does freshman and number three runner Kyle Doty and the Bulldogs’ other regular scorers Gunnar Hallett and Alex Kastl.

With everyone returning, Kaskinen is already looking forward to next season.

“I do think it's going to be a little more competitive for that final scoring spot next year,” he said. “It's kind of cliche, but they were like a brotherhood. They really just came together, and they were closer than I've ever seen a group of kids before.”

Having identical twins lead the team and winning races has been pretty special for Mesick runners. 

“It's definitely cool and interesting because we’ve been good friends for a while,” Hallett said. “They're kind of pushing me to do more. Sometimes we just get together and run. And then instantly it's a bit bigger group, and it's easier to do longer runs.”

The twins first started running in an elementary school club led by Rhonda Workman. They played football in middle school.

And while their teammates can tell the difference between the twins, opponents rarely can. All they often know is the guy finishing first was named Redman.

“We get to work off each other, and we have training partners throughout the whole season,” Kyle Redman said. “And it is fun when we’re warming up for the race and they'll be like, ‘Are you Kyle or Ty?’ And then you can just mess with them and they'll never actually know the truth.”

Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Mesick runners line up for the start of the West Michigan D League championship race Oct. 15 at Marion. (Middle) Twins Kyle and Ty Redman lead the league finale. (Below) Mesick’s Finals qualifiers take a photo at the finish line at Michigan International Speedway. (Photos courtesy of the Mesick boys cross country program.)