Brandon’s Kayla Doan and Kelsey Carmean represented their school well at the Oakland County Meet Oct. 4 at Kensington Metropark in Milford.
Both runners placed among the top 75 competitors at the meet. As a team, the Blackhawks placed 22nd out of 35 teams at the meet with 569 points. Clarkston won the meet with 42 points, followed by Milford with 58 and Lake Orion with 149.
Doan finished 73rd and Carmean 74th at the meet, each finishing in 22:04. Other Brandon competitors were: Jackie Back (105th, 22:53), Sarah Eldon (155th, 24:27), Amanda Allison (162nd, 24:33), Danielle Westphall (189th, 25:15) and Kelly Quisenberry (220th, 26:08).
On Oct. 1, the Blackhawks excelled in a Flint Metro League meet, defeating Holly 20-37 and Fenton 24-31.
Fenton’s Kaitlyn Carbary ran strong all alone in the lead until Brandon’s Carmean and Doan overtook her with about half a mile to go.
‘Kaitlyn is super-duper tough, and I just wanted to say close, but I guess I had something left,? Carmean said. ‘This team just pumps me up. I love this team.?
Doan eventually won the race in 20:29 with Carmean placing second. They are now 5th and 6th on the all-time fastest list for Brandon.
‘We had a big day with a lot of the team running personal bests,? Brandon coach Rod Yeacker said. ‘This was a true team effort. We knew it would take everyone pitching in, and all of our top seven ran their best of the year so far.?
Back finished with a time of 21:42, followed by Eldon, Allison, Westphall and Quisenberry, who all had personal bests by 45 seconds to 1:47.