Bear Lake / Onekama Cross Country Regionals 2013

Lakers repeat as regional champs

Girven claims back-to-back individual D4 titles

ACME — Splattered in mud from head to toe, Bear Lake’s John Girven and Jordan Anderson slogged side-by-side up a saturated fairway and across the finish line.

The Lakers’ competition, however, wasn’t nearly as close.

Girven and Anderson finished 1-2 and highlighted a dominant day by the Lakers, who claimed a pair of Division 4 regional titles on Saturday at Grand Traverse Resort.

“No complaints at all,” said Bear Lake coach Tony Shrum. “Both sides ran a great team race.”

Even with the regional moving from Benzie Central to Spruce Run Golf Course in Acme, the results were the same as the Lakers — both ranked No. 6 in the state — successfully defended their titles.

The Bear Lake boys rolled to the win with 28 points while Manton was second (82) and Grand Traverse Academy third (114) to round out the team qualifiers for next Saturday’s state finals. The Lakers put six in the top 14 (top 15 individuals qualify for the state finals) and all seven in the top 25.

Girven won his second straight individual regional title in 18:02.22 while Anderson was second in 18:02.65.

“We kind of worked together throughout the entire race,” said Girven, a senior. “It was cat and mouse.”

John Schoedel (fifth, 18:39), Shane Peterson (seventh, 18:50) and Jared Bair (13th, 19:07) completed the team score while Cole Verrett (14th, 19:20) and Michael Belinsky (25th, 19:50) also ran for the Lakers.

“I wanted the boys to stay within a minute (Nos.) 1 through 5 and they were 1:05,” Shrum said.

Josh Riggs placed 37th in 20:29 and Bailey Lewis was 84th in 30:05 for Brethren, which didn’t have enough runners to post a team score.

The Bear Lake girls had a tighter race than the boys, finishing first with 52 points while Traverse City St. Francis was second (82) and Grand Traverse Academy third (138).

“It was definitely a goal,” Bear Lake junior Keena Gilbert said of repeating as regional champions. “I think we did really well. We were all really close and that’s what we wanted.”

Beating TCSF by just nine points in last week’s Manistee National Invitational served as a wakeup call for the Lakers.

“We were a little on edge today because of how close we were last week,” Gilbert said. “We just had to stick together and we knew we could do it.”

Gilbert (sixth, 21:20), McKaya Groenwald (seventh, 21:23), Kelly Babcock (12th, 21:47), Faith Moerdyk (13th, 21:52) and Alycia Peterson (14th, 21:53) completed the team score while Alyson Fink (29th, 23:15) and Meredith Hengy (57th, 25:17) also ran for the Lakers.

“The girls, we talked about they need to be around 30 seconds,” Shrum said. “They were 34 seconds from 1 to 5 today.”

Aspen Robak (85th, 30:14) was the lone Brethren runner.

“When you race a wet course like this, times don’t matter, places matter, competition matters,” Shrum said. “They were focused and they competed really well today. Their minds are in the right spot going forward into next week.”

Because the course was saturated and muddy there were, understandably, complaints from a number of coaches and runners. Girven, however, wasn’t among them.

“It was fun,” he said. “That’s what cross country is all about.”

Winning always helps and the Lakers carry plenty of momentum into the state finals. The girls placed second last year and the boys were ninth, and both plan on being in the hunt at Michigan International Speedway next Saturday.

“Move on to state and hopefully get all seven All-State,” Girven said, “and hopefully go for the title.”

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