By David Fleet
dfleet@mihomepaper.com
Brooklyn — On a sunny early November day the Lady Martian Cross Country team brought home a MHSAA State Championship an accomplishment that had not been achieved since back-to-back-to-back crowns in 2003-2005.
“Each year when the cross-country season begins 3,000 high school girls prepare for the opportunity to compete in the state meet,” said Al Warden, Martin XC head coach. “On state meet day, there were just 27 teams, 261 girls on the line in hopes of victory. With these numbers the odds of a team winning were 188 to 1.”
On Nov. 2, the Goodrich Girls Cross Country team competed at the 100th Anniversary of the MHSAA State Championship at Michigan International Speedway.
“The Goodrich girls did not have the fastest girl or even one in the top 10 girls in the race,” he said. “What they did have was a team of seven girls, five of which finished between 19th and 47th place with an unbelievable gap of just 33 seconds between the first and fifth runners. Our six and seven runners were very close behind.”
“Like most sports it is not about an individual, it is about the team,” he said. “It is about the love, trust,
and the respect they have for each other.”
Senior Kamryn Lauinger 18:36.7 finished 19th overall and first for GHS, Sophomore Alivia Ottinger 18:37.8 finished 22nd overall and second for GHS.
“Both Kamryn and Alivia reached the coveted honor of being a part of the top 30 runners in the state,” said Warden.
Third for GHS and 32nd overall was Senior Avery Byrne 19:06.6 a new Personal Best; fourth for GHS and 34th overall was Senior Layla Jordan 19:08.4; fifth for GHS and 36th overall was freshmen Kayla Schellenbarger 19:10.6. Our sixth and seventh runners were Sophomore Baylor Lauinger and Sophomore Claire Brown.
For the Goodrich Boys Cross Country team, Vincent Pattison and Cole Winter were the only two that qualified from the Regional boys’ race on Oct. 26 at Shepherd High School.
“They did not disappoint,” said Warden.
“Vincent 15:47.8, finished 28th with a time of equaling his personal best and Cole Winter 16:03 finished 38th with a new personal best of a 17 second improvement over his previous best.
“For The Citizen readers who jog or run Cole Winter’s first mile was 5:10, second mile in 5:10 and his third mile in 5:12 and the last tenth of a mile 31 seconds,” he said.