By David Fleet
dfleet@mihomepaper.com
Birch Run —The Brandon Cross Country teams began their season with a trip to the Birch Run Early Bird Invitational on Aug. 22.
“Both teams competed valiantly against not only the course and the warm August sun,” said Head Coach Wesley Diener.
The Blackhawk boys finished 13th overall, out of the 24 team field. They were led by medal winning performances by Nathan Brinker and Jacob Hylton who took 31st and 44th respectively.
Also in the top five for the Blackhawks were Senior Braxton Spurr, and two freshmen Ryan Savoie and Troy Wychuyse. The sixth man on the day was Alex Burch who had an almost 5 minute improvement from his camp time one week ago.
The Lady Blackhawks followed the boys by taking 12th place as a team. They were led by a medalist performance from Ava Clark who took 21st. She was followed by the senior pair of Danielle St James, and Clara Mackey. The top five for the Blackhawks were rounded out by sophomore Aquetzalli Hernandez, and Senior Emma Mulcahey. The other three Lady Blackhawks were all seniors who worked together to finish under 30 minutes in the first meet of the season, and they were Addison Hollenbeck, Lilly Mastin, and Sadie Buell.