Bear Lake girls post perfect score in lone home meet
Lakers complete sweep of Jamborees: Brethren Girls tie for 4th, boys take 5th

Posted by Matt Wenzel, Manistee News Advocate
September 19, 2012

BEAR LAKE — For 364 days each year, Bear Lake’s cross country course is quiet.  The Lakers host just one meet a season, so they don’t mind putting on a show at home.

The Bear Lake girls did that Wednesday by posting a perfect team score during a West Michigan D League jamboree.

“We wanted a perfect score, so we tried to do what we could,” said senior Taylor Anderson, who capped the 1-2-3-4-5 finish for the Lakers. “It’s exciting.”

Both the girls and the boys finished first to complete a 3-for-3 sweep of the league jamborees ahead of the finals.

“We talked last week that we were going to do the first two miles hard, shooting for that goal pace, and then I gave them the option to run the last mile easy if they so chose,” said Bear Lake coach Tony Shrum. “Boys, girls — both of them I knew they wouldn’t do it. They’re all too competitive. I knew when they hit that last mile they were going to go, ‘you know what, I actually feel pretty good.’ It showed in the times and the results.”

The Bear Lake girls’ score of 15 is as good as it gets and was well ahead of runner-up Mason County Eastern, which finished with 70. Keena Gilbert led the way with a first-place finish in 20:58 to complete an individual sweep of the jamborees. She was followed by teammates Faith Moerdyk (second, 21:30), McKaya Groenwald (third, 21:37), Kelly Babcock (fourth, 21:54), Anderson (fifth, 22:13), Alycia Peterson (seventh, 22:20) and Meredith Hengy (eighth, 23:44).

“It’s been a big goal of ours to be close together,” Gilbert said of running in a pack. “I think we’re doing really good and everybody will be really good by regionals and state.”

The Bear Lake boys finished with 24 points, while Pentwater took second with 73.

John Girven led the Lakers by taking second in 18:01, followed by Shane Peterson (fourth, 18:49), Jordan Anderson (fifth, 18:50), John Schoedel (sixth, 18:58), Jared Bair (seventh, 19:01), Alex Barto (eighth, 19:12) and Cole Verrett (10th, 19:33).

 

Brethren tied Crossroads for fourth in the girls’ race and was fifth among the boys.

Haley Tighe led the Bobcats by finishing 11th in 25:50, followed by Chloee Janssen (12th, 26:48), Jessica Cordes (24th, 30:30) and Aspen Robak (28th, 31:29). For the boys, Josh Riggs was 17th in 21:04 and Oscar Cortes was 31st in 28:43.

“It’s a fast track,” said Brethren coach Andy Roback. “I told them all this would be the race they can PR in, and they did.”

It was just the third meet of the season for the Bobcats since they re-established their program.

“They’re getting in shape,” Robak said. “We started two weeks before the season started and a lot of the programs had been running all summer. I told them the third or fourth race is what we have to look for, and they’re doing great. I’m proud of them.”

 

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