Brighton beats Pinckney in cross country opener between state powers
HAMBURG TOWNSHIP — Evan Loughridge is already well ahead of last year’s pace, making his lofty goals for his senior cross country season at Pinckney seem even more realistic.
Loughridge won a season-opening dual meet against Brighton Friday morning with a time of 16 minutes, 21.14 seconds at Manly Bennett Park.
In last year’s opening meet against the Bulldogs, Loughridge ran 16:59 on a home course that doesn’t yield personal records. He went on to earn a high all-state finish by placing 10th in the Division 2 finals and ran 15:20.9 at the Portage Invitational to crack Livingston County’s all-time top five.
Already in exclusive company, Loughridge has set himself up to put himself in even more rarified air.
Only three Livingston County runners — Brighton’s Jack Spamer, Hartland’s Riley Hough and Pinckney’s Caleb Jarema — have broken 15 minutes for 5-kilometer cross country.
“I’ve had my eyes set on 15 minutes since last cross country season,” Loughridge said. “I want to go to East Bay Nationals. I want to be top three in the state meet.”
Loughridge’s time was the second-fastest at Bennett Park since the Pirates returned to that site for their home course in 2020. Jarema ran 16:06.6 to set the course record in an SEC White jamboree on Sept. 28, 2021.
“He’s put in a lot of miles this summer,” Pinckney coach Jim Wicker said. “He’s had a great summer of training. He’s looking really strong.”
The best part is Loughridge is coming into cross country season healthy after he battled injuries during track and field season. He missed about three weeks of racing in the spring, but returned in time to qualify for the state meet and earn all-state in the 1,600-meter run in a personal-best 4:18.51.
“My track season went about as well as it possibly could have gone, given my circumstances,” Loughridge said. “I’m pretty proud of myself how I handled my situation.”
He also overcame an early fall to win the race going away, beating runner-up Tyler Langley of Brighton by 14.13 seconds.
“There’s this steep hill where you go down really fast and come right back up,” Loughridge said. “As I was going down, I noticed everyone around me was going really fast down, so I wanted to keep up with them. I just lost control and fell and spun around on my back, but I got right back up and just kept going.”
Despite Loughridge’s dominant performance, Pinckney wasn’t able to overcome Brighton’s depth in a showdown between two neighboring programs that finished third in their respective divisions at last year’s state meets.
The Bulldogs had eight of the top 10 runners to win by a score of 22-39.
Langley was second in 16:35.27, Luke Campbell third in 16:45.07, Brady Millington fourth in 16:51.07, Tyler Brock sixth in 17:18.53 and Nathan Moskal seventh in 17:22.43 to account for Brighton’s score.
“These kids know each other outside the course, outside of track,” Brighton coach Chris Elsey said. “They see each other quite a bit. It’s a nice little friendly rivalry we’ve got going. We’re really fortunate to have such a competitive team right down the road from us.”
The programs have combined for five state championships in the past 18 seasons. Pinckney hopes to add a fourth title to the three in a row it won from 2005-07, but health will play a significant role. The Pirates will run for at least the early part of the season without senior all-stater Paul Moore, who has been dealing with stress fractures since right after track.
Ethan Sandula was fifth for Pinckney in 17:11.53.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton beats Pinckney in season-opening boys' cross country showdown
