Lakers
sweep WMD League meet
BY MATT WENZEL. Manistee News Advocate
Sports Editor
Published: September 24, 2009 12:17 AM
BEAR LAKE — Compared to training,
Wednesday’s West Michigan D League jamboree was almost like a day off
for the Bear Lake cross country team.
Not that running 3.1 miles through the woods on a warm, sunny day is
easy, but it might be better than the alternative.
Bear Lake, which co-ops with Onekama, has been strength training by
running hills and doing 30-minute intervals of running in waist-high
lake water.
“It is a break for them,” Bear Lake coach Eric Ross said after
Wednesday’s race at Bear Lake, which his team swept. “With the type of
workouts we’ve been doing, it’s difficult to ask them to run better
because they’ve been training really, really, hard. So, the fact that
they’ve actually been running better is a great feeling.”
The Bear Lake girls took first place with 19
points, MCE finished second with 53, followed by Pentwater and
Walkerville. The Laker boys took first with 24 points, MCE was second
with 48, followed by Pentwater, Big Rapids Crossroads Charter Academy
and Walkerville.
“We had a team meeting this week,” Ross said. “We kind of pointed out
what we need to be expecting from this point forward. They’re all ahead
of where they were last year at this point. You can’t ask for much more
than that.”
Laker sophomore Jaylee Brown took first place in 20:48 and teammate Tobi
Schoedel was second in 21:25, with both of them setting personal
records.
Also running for the Lakers were Elizabeth Schoedel (3rd, 22:35,
Danielle Ward (6th, 24:05), Samantha Mullet (7th, 24:06), Taylor
Anderson (8th, 24:23), Yumi Babinec (10th, 25:01) and Taylor Hagen
(12th, 25:27).
Chuck Schoedel, a junior at Bear Lake in his senior year of cross
country, took first place in 17:30. “I actually ran fast on the first
mile,” he said. “Usually, I take my first mile slow. I was experimenting
and trying to find the best strategy.”
Bear Lake’s Tyler Groenwald finished third in 18:28, Josh Goins was
fifth in 18:40, Alex Ringle was seventh in 18:51 and Danny Brown took
eighth in 19:10. Also running for the Lakers were Weston Brooks (9th,
19:11), Ryan Pienta (10th, 19:14), Lewis Bartlett (11th, 19:21), Bobby
Myers (13th, 20:00), Kyle Nettler (16th, 20:15), Steven Verrett (18th,
20:26), Patrick Spalding (26th, 22:39), Parker Sternberger (28th,
22:47), Justin Brown (29th, 23:04), Braden Bowling (30th, 23:50) and
Roger Mullet (33rd, 24:55).
Wednesday’s jamboree is the only home meet on the Bear Lake schedule,
although Ross said there’s still a chance of hosting another one this
season.
 |
Bear Lake runners Jaylee
Brown (left) and Tobi Schoedel (next) lead the pack of girls into
the woods during a West Michigan D League race on Wednesday at Bear
Lake. (Matt Wenzel/News Advocate)
Bear Lake’s Chuck Schoedel,
followed by Bobby Myers and Josh Goins lead the pack of runners
early in the boys race. (Matt Wenzel/News Advocate)
With the win, the defending league
champion Lakers improved to 2-0 in league jamborees, with one left.
However, Ross said he’d prefer to slim down the league schedule. “Let’s
agree that whoever wins the first meet of the year is most likely going
to win all the meets,” he said. “Let’s hash it out when we’re all in our
best shape at the end of the year. But, that doesn’t take anything away
from how the team has been performing in strength-based training, as
well as the meets. “Obviously, I’m proud of the kids,” Ross said.
“Today, they did better than the meet before. That’s all we ask — to get
better. “They’re working hard and their hard work is paying off.”
The Lakers actually had a complete sweep
of the meet, with the middle school team taking first as well, improving
to 5-0 on the season.
“They’re doing good,” Bear Lake middle school coach Anthony Torres said
of his 20-member team. “I’m very happy with them.”
The boys and girls all ran the shorter course together, with Bear Lake’s
John Girven taking first in 13:08. Also running for Bear Lake (with
overall place) were Reilly Merrill (3rd, 14:36), John Schoedel (4th,
14:40), Makaya Groenwald (5th, 14:45), Keena Gilbert (7th, 15:37), Shane
Peterson (8th, 15:41), Kelly Babcock (9th, 15:42), Meredith Hengy (10th,
16:08), Allison Fink (11th, 16:26), Triston Gleason (12th, 16:28),
Caitlin Zielinski (14th, 16:50), Cady Lowe (15th, 16:52), Alex Dutton
(16th, 17:00), Hailey Kott (19th, 18:28), Tawny Kott (20th, 18:54),
Alycia Peterson (21st, 19:28), Josh Ide (22nd, 20:19), Sierra Link
(23rd, 20:40) and Madelen Smeltzer (24th, 21:03). |
