Addison sets school record at Portage
Mon, Oct 6, 2008 
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In a meet that resembles the state finals in terms of both size and level of competition, Grand Haven's girls cross country team placed fourth at the Portage Invitational Saturday.
A second Grand Haven team took 25th out of 38 teams.
Traverse City Central won the event with 90 points, followed by Rockford with 98, Saline with 113 and the Bucs with 133.
"I call Portage the October state meet because it is the one invite we participate in which most closely resembles what our girls will experience in the state finals," said Buccaneers' coach Greg Russick. "Only three of our runners have experienced a race like this before, so it was a fantastic learning experience. We came out unscathed and wiser because of this opportunity."
Buccaneer senior Becca Addison also came out of the event with her perfect record still intact as she ran a lifetime-best and school-record time of 17 minutes, 50.7 seconds to win the Division 1 race by 23 seconds over Jennifer Snelgrove of Grand Ledge. She also won the overall race by three seconds over Jordan Tomecek of Milan.
"She ran with the leaders for 2.6 miles, then developed a 23-second lead in the last 800 meters," Russick said. "She was so excited and relieved. She now knows and is ready to accomplish her personal goals for this season."
Emily Thomas placed 19th for Grand Haven at 19:04, followed by Catherine Haring in 25th place at 19:15.
Catherine Keegin took 40th at 19:38, and Laura Addison was 50th at 19:48.
Priscilla VanHeest, Hannah Coval and Julia Stock also ran well for the Buccaneers.
"Catherine Haring really stepped up today. It was also great to see Laura Addison run a consistent race. We need Laura running well to be a competitive team," Russick said.
The Bucs' 'B' team was led by Julia Stock, who was 97th overall with a time of 20:36. Rachel Stanley, Haley Vallier, Brooke Spruit and Natalie Myers also contributed for the Bucs.
BOYS 13TH
The Buccaneer boys placed 13th out of 40 teams at Portage, which featured at least eight state-ranked teams.
"It was almost a rehearsal for the state finals, given the level of the competition," said coach Tom Laughlin.
Sophomore Joe Duff continued his impressive season, placing 21st at 16:13. Fellow sophomore Kyle Kelley ran his best time of the year, finishing in 16:53, while Mike Swain also had his career-best time, coming across in 17:08.
Cory Pfeffer and Ryan Duff clocked times of 17:26 and 17:29, respectively, fur the Bucs.
Taylor Piotrzkowski medaled in the junior varsity race, finishing 22nd.
"At first glance, 13th place doesn't sound that impressive, but when you look at the extremely high level of competition at this race, then 13th place isn't bad at all," Laughlin said. "Last year at the same race, we didn't have any finish under 17 minutes. This year, we not only had Duff and Kelley in the 16s, but the rest of the team was in the 17's and all in a tight pack."
Laughlin noted that Rockford was the lone O-K Red Conference team to beat the Bucs.
LAKERS
Spring Lake's girls placed 31st in the Division 2 portion of Saturday's Portage Invitational with 701 total points.
Halle Billinghurst was the top Laker finisher as she took 65th place with a time of 20:28. Hannah Nyboer was next at 21:24, good for 122nd place, while India Peek-Jensen finished 145th at 21:42. Emma Gilbertson ran a 22:05 to finish in 167th place, and Samee Chittenden was 202nd with a time of 22:39.
Spring Lake's boys finished in 30th place with 711 points, led by Steve Kramer. The senior took 41st place with a nice time of 16:50. Blake Rottschafer was 62nd with a time of 17:03, followed by Daniel Josey in 175th place at 18:17.
Steven Hintz was next in 215th place, finishing the race in 18:42, while Andrew Wood was 218th at 18:44.
