CUSTER :
The Bear Lake High School cross country teams won West Michigan D League
titles on Wednesday, October 8th, at Mason County Eastern. ~From
Manistee News Advocate Report
However, it came as no surprise to coach Eric Ross, who expected his
teams to finish on top. “Obviously, after we saw the decline in cross
country in the league ... we pretty much knew what was going to happen,”
Ross said.Both Bear Lake teams claimed the top three spots in each race.
For the Bear Lake boys, which
finished with 17 points, Chuck Schoedel took first in 17:06, while
teammates Jaron Llewellyn (2nd, 17:30) and Cody Graf (3rd, 17:35)
finished right behind.
On the girls’ side, the Lakers finished with 16 points and freshman
Jaylee Brown continued her strong season with a first-place finish in
19:38. Bear Lake’s Tobi Schoedel (2nd, 21:00) and Shelby Sidor (3rd,
21:50) rounded out the top three spots.
Bear Lake, which co-ops with Onekama, stands out as the power in a
league that’s going through a decline. Ross said Mason County Eastern,
Walkerville and Big Rapids Crossroads Charter Academy were the only
other schools to send runners to the meet on Wednesday, and the times
indicate the Lakers had little trouble taking the league title.
The Bear Lake boys are ranked No.
10 in the state in Division 4, while the girls are an honorable mention.
However, Ross said he doesn’t put any stock in those rankings.
“That doesn’t change the way we train or the way we walk into the
meets,” Ross said. “We put ourselves on a higher pedestal than what the
rankings say. Their goals are set a heck of a lot higher for both
teams.” |
While the Lakers are setting their
sights higher than a league title, that doesn’t mean Wednesday’s race
was meaningless. That was evident hours after the race when Ross said
senior Anna Veverica called him, elated that she was able to turn over
one of her goal pages after finally breaking the 22-minute mark.
“That’s really what today came down to,” Ross said. “It was a goal day
and most of them came close to their goals.” Ross didn’t have the
final individual league results.
The Bear Lake middle school team also ran on Wednesday and finished in
second place.
Bear Lake boys
1. Schoedel, 17:06; 2. Llewellyn, 17:30; 3. Graf, 17:35;
5. Ryan Pienta, 17:45; 6. Tyler Groenwald, 17:47; 8. John
Evans, 18:00; 9. Josh Goins, 18:08; 10. Alex Ringel, 18:20;
12. Ian Smith, 18:42; 13. Lewis Bartlett, 18:53; 14. Weston
Brooks, 18:54; 17. Laust Merryld, 19:19; 18. Patrick
Spalding, 19:33; 19. Steven Verrett, 20:06; 22. Kyle Nettler,
20:54;
25. Braden Bowling, 21:37; 27. Justin Brown, 21:48;
28. Roger Mullet, 23:12.
Bear Lake girls
1. Brown, 19:38; 2. Schoedel 21:00; 3. Sidor, 21:50;
4. Veverica, 21:56; 6. Elizabeth Schoedel, 22:09; 8. Katie Alkire,
22:47; 10. Danielle Ward, 23:01; 1 1. Yumi Babinec, 23:21;
12. Emily Pomeroy, 24:20; 13. Brenna Miller, 24:51.
Much thanks to The Manistee
News Advocate for use of their reports |
