BENZONIA
— As Tobi Schoedel rounded the final turn and headed down
the straightaway, she never bothered to look over her
shoulder.
The Bear Lake senior didn’t know if there was anyone nipping
at her heels, but had a clear view of what was in front of
her — nothing but the finish line.
While turning in the biggest performance of her career,
Schoedel not only won a Division 4 regional title on
Saturday at Benzie Central, but also helped lead the Bear
Lake girls back to the state finals.
“I just really wanted our whole team to go,” she said. “I
knew if I worked hard, everyone else would give their all.:
The Bear Lake boys came through as well by capturing a
regional title for a second straight year and will be
heading to Michigan International Speedway this weekend.
“I don’t
set those expectations,” Bear Lake coach Eric Ross said of
qualifying for the state finals, “but I’m so proud to see
they got what they worked for. It’s 16 weeks of hard work
and if you don’t place here, it seems like it’s all for
nothing. Obviously they didn’t want to put in 16 weeks of
work for nothing.”
The Bear Lake boys defended their regional title, but it
wasn’t easy. The Lakers finished in first with 52 points,
just three ahead of runner-up Grand Traverse Academy, while
Mason County Eastern (67) took third to round out the state
qualifiers.
“We came here today looking for at least third to get to
state,” said Bear Lake senior Lewis Bartlett. “We weren’t
too sure if we were going to make it this year, then busting
out with first place, it’s crazy.” The Lakers got it done
with four of their seven runners posting personal-record
times. Tyler Groenwald paced the team by taking fourth
overall in 17:54, John Girven was sixth (18:00), Bartlett
11th (18:17), Ryan Pienta 15th (18:21) and John Michael
Schoedel 20th (18:37) to round out the scorers.
