Runners Christian Bonzheim and Adam Bruderick received medals after their finish in the Fr. Gabriel Richard Invitational, Saturday.
Bonzheim led the Boys Cross Country team and finished in 16th place at 17:09. It was his first run since he had to let his injury heal. Bruderick finished 17th, two seconds after his teammate.
Clarkston took fifth place out of 11 teams at the meet. Pinckney won the invitational.
‘It wasn’t a terrible outing,? said Coach Mike Taylor. ‘But it’s not where we want to be either. We had some things we were shootong for on the course and we didn’t hit them.?
He noted the grouping was good, but the boys were grouped too far back.
‘It has been the story of the team during the middle part of the season.?
The boys have a OAA league meet on Thursday at Bloomer Park, where they are in a battle for second place with Lake Orion and Rochester Adams.
‘We are going to have to run well,? said Taylor. ‘Orion has ran pretty well and beat us the last few time we raced them.?
The boys have a week in between to get ready for regionals on Oct. 31.
‘We are in a very tough regional,? said Taylor. ‘If we don’t run better we aren’t going to get out of there. I think we could. It’s just as likely we could be eliminated. We need to improve.?
The boys started the year fast and Taylor doesn’t know what happened along the way for them to slow down.
‘Now we are kind of stuck,? he said. ‘We are running close to times we were a month ago while everyone had improved. We have to get going. I think we have enough talent to get us to the state level, but that doesn’t mean we are going to get there. That is a real concern for me.?