Benzie Central's Pete Moss Invitational ~ Page 2

Strong start for Bear Lake: Laker boys, girls take Second at Pete Moss Invite Posted by Matt Wenzel, Manistee News Advocate BENZONIA — The Bear Lake boys ran first, followed by the girls. The results were eerily similar, which bode well for the Lakers. The top five runners for each squad medaled and both finished in second place in the White Division at the Pete Moss Invite on Saturday at Benzie Central. “The two programs mirror each other, which is a good thing when it’s going well,” said first-year Bear Lake coach Tony Shrum. “I’m very, very proud of what they did today.” North Muskegon won the girls White Division (Division 3 and 4 schools) with 64 points, Bear Lake, which co-ops with Onekama, finished with 82 and Traverse City St. Francis rounded out the 25-team field with 132 points. Running in warm conditions that reached 89 degrees before the final race of the day, sophomore Keena Gilbert paced the Bear Lake girls by finishing third overall with a time of 20:33. “I was pretty happy with how I ran,” she said, acknowledging that running well against good competition in a big meet early can be a spark. “I think it helps a lot because from the beginning of the season, you can only get better.”

“Keena, what else can you say — third place, great start,” Shrum said. “They all stepped up and ran great.” Evart won the boys race with 64 points, Bear Lake totaled 100 and Hesperia came in third with 105 among 26 teams. Junior John Girven led the Lakers with a 10th-place finish in 17:40 to set a personal record. “It was a great start,” he said. “I’m really happy with it.” Said Shrum: “John has really taken a lot of initiative this year and has pretty high goals for himself. It was a good start for him.” “Exactly where I wanted them to be at this time, that’s where they are right now,” Shrum said of the boys, which was true of the girls as well. “I was hoping for all of them to be in the vicinity of their regional times from last year at this early stage and most of them were at it or exceeded it, so that’s a really positive sign for them starting the season.” Saturday’s meet was a chance for the Lakers to establish a new pecking order since the top runner from each team last year — Jaylee Brown and Tyler Groenwald — both graduated. Girven and Gilbert appear to have taken over those roles. “It’s always tough losing that top runner,” Shrum said, “but it’s nice when the next group comes in and steps right up and takes over where they left off.” Ten medals and a pair of runner-up finishes equaled a good start to the season and one for Shrum as a coach. “Top five medal and a second-place finish at this meet is pretty impressive, pretty impressive,” he said.