Lakers sweep first jamboree

Posted by Matt Wenzel, News Advocate

CUSTER — As they approached the finish line side by side, Bear Lake’s John Girven and Jordan Anderson were in the midst of discussing who would go first.

Girven gave a quick stutter-step, but still crossed the line ahead of Anderson.

The team results weren’t nearly as close, as the Bear Lake boys and girls cruised to a sweep of the first West Michigan D League jamboree of the season on Wednesday at Mason County Eastern. The Lakers have dominated the league for years, but still benefit from the jamborees.

“We’re not goofing off,” Girven said. “We take these as kind of a training workout.”

The first six boys to cross the finish line wore Bear Lake jerseys as they posted a perfect score of 15, followed by Pentwater (82), Walkerville (84), MCE (93), Crossroads Charter Academy (101) and Brethren (167). The Lakers used the jamboree to set a varsity lineup for Friday’s Spartan Invitational at Michigan State.

“The goal for them was to kind of work on running a complete race,” said Bear Lake coach Tony Shrum. “We’ve had a little fluctuation with six, seven, eight, nine, 10 guys. The top five had been pretty solid the first two races so they were set for their varsity spots for Friday, the other two were up for grabs. The goal was for those top-five guys to push the next group to get back up where they need to be.”

Girven (18:37) and Anderson (18:38) paced the group while Cole Verrett (third, 18:42), John Schoedel (fourth, 18:56) and Shane Peterson (fifth, 19:00) completed the team score and Michael Belinsky (sixth, 19:02) and Jared Bair (ninth, 19:26) rounded out the top seven.

“We’re helping some of the other guys get to their times,” Girven said. “I think they did pretty good today.”

The Bear Lake girls competed without Keena Gilbert, one of their top runners who is nursing a hamstring injury, but still easily distanced themselves from the rest. The Lakers finished with 22 points, followed by MCE (57), Walkerville (74), Brethren (90), Pentwater (91) and Crossroads (93)

“The girls ran it like a workout,” Shrum said. “They were trying to run negative splits, so the goal was to go out easy and speed up each mile.”

Faith Moerdyk took second in 21:59 to lead the Lakers, McKaya Groenwald (third, 22:04), Alycia Peterson (fourth, 22:44), Kelly Babcock (sixth, 23:22) and Alyson Fink (seventh, 24:21) completed the score while Marie Deitmaring placed 18th in 29:06 and Meredith Hengy didn’t finish after suffering an ankle injury.

“How we do at this meet is preparing us for the bigger meets,” Babcock said. “You have to take it serious.”

Friday’s meet at Forest Akers East golf course in East Lansing will feature schools from across the state, ranging from Division 1 to 4.

“I think we focus on the next meet almost,” Groenwald said of Wednesday’s strategy. “We try to use a different strategy.”

The jamboree was the first meet of the season for Brethren, which is in its second year of restarting a program and has just two boys and two girls.

“We haven’t even been practicing for maybe three weeks,” said Brethren coach Andy Robak, “so I was really happy with the way they ran.”

Chloee Janssen took 12th in 27:47 while Aspen Robak won a sprint to the finish to place 15th in 28:29. Josh Riggs finished 20th in 20:31 and Bailey Lewis took 36th in 29:00.

“It’s our start,” Andy Robak said. “Everyone got a time in so they know what they have to beat the next week. We’ve got some goals set for the end of the year and if they keep working hard, I know they’ll make it.”