Bear Lake girls take 4th, boys 5th
Matt Wenzel, Manistee News Advocate Sports Editor
FILER TOWNSHIP — In the inaugural Manistee National Invitational, a lot of the hardware stayed close to home as the Bear Lake boys took first and the girls second.
A year later, and with a deeper and more talented field, nothing came easy for the host Lakers on Saturday. But, that’s how they wanted it.
“I hate easy trophies and easy medals,” said Bear Lake coach Eric Ross, a member of the race committee. “This year, they didn’t have either one of them. They didn’t have an easy trophy and they didn’t have an easy medal, they had to work to get where they were at.”
The Bear Lake girls took fourth and the boys fifth in the small-school division.
“This year they had to run against D3 schools and I like that,” Ross said. “I like that they have to work.”
Division 3 No. 6 Harbor Springs won the 10-team small-school division with 37 points, Charlevoix was second (38), Grand Traverse Academy third (65) and Bear Lake fourth (115).
Keena Gilbert paced the Lakers by taking 15th in 21:16, Jaylee Brown was a second behind (16th, 21:17), while McKaya Groenwald (28th, 22:25), Kelly Babcock (30th, 22:32) and Alycia Peterson (37th, 23:31) rounded out the score. Also running for Bear Lake was Meredith Hengy (41st, 23:49), Alyson Fink (54th, 24:59), Taylor Anderson (65th, 25:33) and Danielle Ward (69th, 26:00) in the race that allows for nine varsity runners.