The Lady Wolves have gotten off to a great start to the 2014 season.
The Clarkston Girls Varsity Cross Country team has competed in two invitational meets prior to the first full week of school.
First, they ran in the End of Summer Classic in Dexter on Aug. 27. Eleven of the 31 runners in the 5K race were awarded medals including Lynsie Gram, Nicole Hanson, Helen Jeffers, Audrey Huhtasaari, Kelsey Hunt, Emily Gustafson, Michelle Bolini, Kaitlyn Cavallo, Alex Gladding, Kailan Mehta and Rebecca Snyder.
Kelsey Catania and Darrian Guerrieri were awarded medals for their finish in the two mile race.
To top it off the team finished in second place scoring 85 points at the Lee and Alice Averill Memorial Invitational held at Possum Hollow in Kensington Metro Park.
Hanson led the team and placed third overall, finishing at 19:25.12.
Gram and Huhtasaari finished close behind with fourth and ninth place finishes, respectively. Gram finished at 19:47.92 and Huhtasaan at 20:57.51.
Jeffers finished in 25th place, 22:03.15; Hunt, 44th place, 23:04.99; Bollini, 45th place, 23:06.24; and Cavallo, 53rd, 23:27.87.
Sterling Heights took the first place spot with 56 points.
‘I saw a lot of great things and plenty of potential with all of the runners especially at Kensington,? recalled Coach Kevin Breen after the varsity and JV races.
The boys cross country team finished in tenth place at the Averill Memorial Invitational with 266 points.
Daniel Billette led the team finishing in ninth place overall. He finished at 17:11.68.
Also finishing for the Wolves were Mika Juuhl, 51st place, 18:35.74; Richard Johnson, 64th place, 19:12.28; Ryan Donnelly, 67th place, 19:17.85; Simeon Britting, 75th place, 19:44.59; and Derrick Egli, 79th place, 19:56.32.
Both teams opened their league season in the OAA Red on Tuesday at Bloomer Park.
The boys team heads to the Chesaning Invitational for JV teams.
Then, the varsity teams head to the Spartan Invite at Forest Akers East at Michigan State University on Friday, beginning at 3:50 p.m. with the girls race. Mike Taylor, coach for the boys team, added they have participated in the meet off and on over the years.
“We are going to enter the elite division,” he said going into this year’s invite. “They have divisions based on size and you can throw your hat into the top team division.”
The girls team will also compete in the elite divison. ~Ben Woodcock