Bucs excel at Portage Invite

Mon, Oct 12, 2009    to del.icio.us

Grand Haven's girls cross country team placed seventh against a stacked field at the Portage Invitational.

The Division 1 race included eight of the 10 state-ranked teams from Michigan, including all of the top five, along with one of the best teams from Indiana and another state-rated team from Ohio. That earns the Portage Invitational the nickname, the October State Meet.

"This is the only race we go to which simulates the state finals," said coach Greg Russick, whose team finished with 212 points. O-K Red rival Rockford won the event with 108 points.

"All seven of our varsity runners ran (personal-best times) on the season or were within four seconds of their lifetime best. It was amazing watching our girls compete," Russick said.

Laura Addison set the tone for the Bucs, starting out fast and finishing in 16th place out of 275 runners with a time of 19 minutes, 0.2 seconds. Catherine Keegin was 34th with a lifetime-best run of 19:32, followed by Priscilla VanHeest and Karen Lomeo with personal-best times of 19:38.2 and 19:38.3, respectively.

"For Karen, this race accomplished a major goal of running a 19-minute race," Russick said.

Julia Stock finished in 65th place, and Natalie Myers was 67th. Kristi King trimmed 20 seconds off her previous-best time and ran a 20:12.

In the reserves race, Grand Haven took fifth out of 39 teams. Haley Vallier was seventh at 20:38, followed by Alex Schurkamp in 21st place, Emily Walwood in 34th, Maddie Cleghorn in 45rd, and Brooke Spruit in 44th.

The Buccaneer boys placed 16th out of 41 teams in their competition.

Joe Duff ran a time of 16:20, good for 21st place, while Ryan Duff ran a personal-best 16:39.5 to finish 47th. Ryan Duff as the second-fastest sophomore in the race.

"I was pleased with our finish, especially when I looked to see where we were in relationship to the other teams in our conference and our regional," coach Tom Laughlin said. "Only Rockford and East Kentwood from the O-K Red beat us, and against teams in our region, only East Kentwood was in front of us.

"This gives us a good indication of where we stand for those two races coming up in a couple of weeks."

The Bucs' Schalk VanNiekerk, Will Swain and Kyle Kelley all put together strong races. Swain was the third-fastest freshman in the field.

In the reserve race, 16 Buccaneers had personal-best times. Taylor Piotrzkowski, a team captain, battled his way back from a broken leg suffered this summer and ran his personal-best time of 17:23 to finish 11th overall.

"He has worked very hard to return to form, so it was good to see him able to perform at that level," Laughlin said.

Tyler Mulliken also had a strong showing, taking 37th at 17:48.