Cross Country: Flat Rock's boys win first regional title since 1991
Adam Brodie found a little left in the tank.
The Flat Rock junior passed 10 runners in the final half-mile of the Division 3 Regional on Saturday at Willow Metropark.
Those points were crucial as Flat Rock’s boys won their first Regional championship since 2013.
“With a half-mile to go, he was in 38th place,” Flat Rock coach Dave Merkel said. “I told him, ‘That’s not going to get it done.’ He really responded.”
Brodie wound up finishing 28th.
Flat Rock needed that kind of complimentary performance.
The Rams dominated the top of the leaderboard as sophomore Jacob Stanislawski broke his own school record to take first with a time of 16:00.4 and teammates Nathan Vargo and Lucas Taraszkiewicz placed third and fourth, respectively.
Rounding out the top five for the Rams was Nicholas Dropiewski in 42nd.
Flat Rock, which had 78 points to finish 8 ahead of runner-up Clinton, had not qualified for state as a team since 2013.
“It’s been a long time,” Merkel said. “I am feeling really blessed, that’s for sure. … We tied for third in the Huron League, which is predominantly a D2 league. All the kids learned how to race.”
Also qualifying for Saturday’s state championships at Michigan International Speedway were the girls teams from Jefferson and St. Mary Catholic Central, along with 22 individual runners.
DIVISION 1
GIBRALTAR – Bedford’s boys finished just 4 points shy from qualifying for state.
The Mules wound up with 109 points. The state-qualifying spots went to Ann Arbor Pioneer (29), Saline (58) and Allen Park (105).
Dane Hieronimus led Bedford with a seventh-place finish. He will run in the state finals along with teammate Cameron Varner, who was the final individual state qualifier in 20th place.
Monroe pushed two runners through to the state finals: Andrew Foshag (12th) and Myles Bray (18th).
Ann Arbor Pioneer, Saline and Woodhaven took the top three spots in the girls team standings. Viktoria Bloniarz of Monroe (12th), Iva Ravindra of Bedford (15th) and Reagan Reaume of Gibraltar Carlson (22nd) qualified individually for state.
DIVISION 2
GIBRALTAR – Jefferson’s girls finished 2 points shy of winning a Regional title.
The Bears were in close pursuit of champion Chelsea (81) and runner-up Adrian (82) with 83 points.
“It was really close,” Jefferson coach Phil Speare said. “Even the guys running the meet said, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve never seen anything that close.’ I haven’t, either.
“It was another heartbreaker, but we’re still going to state. This is a wonderful group of girls. I am glad they get to go and better themselves one more time.”
Jenna Pilachowski placed third in 18:42.8 to lead Jefferson. She got support from teammates Kim Miller (11th), Riley Peer (15th), Alyssa Masserant (29th) and Mia Schroeder (33rd).
Cross Country: Jefferson girls, Huron boys capture league title
Courtney Bovair (seventh) and the New Boston Huron duo of Falyn Doss (ninth) and Avery Turk (10th) made state as individuals.
Huron’s boys finished in fourth with 110, 9 points from making it to state. The qualifying teams were Adrian (32), Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard (89) and Chelsea (101).
Huron did have Luke Dulecki (sixth) and Abdul Ghennewa (10th) make the cut individually. Lucas Kuhn (18th) just missed.
Also punching his ticket to MIS was Dundee’s Isaak Rubley (seventh).
DIVISION 3
NEW BOSTON – Whiteford’s Keegan Masters ran second to Stanislawski and broke his own school record with a time of 16:11.2.
“He led most of the race, but was overtaken by the runner from Flat Rock in the last 200 meters,” Whiteford coach Jay Yockey said.
“That was a great race,” Merkel said. “Keegan went out and set the tone, but Jake really finished strong. You would have thought they were running a 100-meter dash in that last little bit.”
Erie Mason was 3 points shy of third place and a spot in the state finals.
Also headed to state individually are Austin Sulier (10th) and Parker Campbell (11th) of Erie Mason, and Simon VanderVlucht (12th) and Max Foldvary (13th) of SMCC.
VanderVlucht will run at state for the fourth straight season.
Ida’s Dylan Tengler was one spot away from qualifying.
SMCC’s girls scored 66 points to finish second to Clinton (53). The Kestrels will run at state for the third straight season.
“Clinton placed first,” SMCC coach Liz Schafer said. “We knew it would be a tough race with them. I just told the girls to throw out the rankings and predictions out the window. It comes down to places. What impressed me was that we just kept catching jerseys all day.”
Bella LaFountain took fourth to lead the Kestrels, who also placed Samantha LaFountain 11th, Claire Lisker 12th, Juleigh Husby 20th and Leona Knudsen 29th.
Individual qualifiers from region scores were Megan Woelkers of Flat Rock (sixth), Julia Hughes of Ida (14th) and Bailey Meiring of Erie Mason (15th).
Katelyn Bydlowski of Ida just missed in 17th.
DIVISION 4
JACKSON – Summerfield’s Grace Raymond earned a spot in the state finals with a 17th-place finish in the Regional at Ella Sharp Park.
Liam Shaner, Ben Gault, Teddy Gault, Shaun Cowen, Faith Secor and MaKenna Shipe also ran well for Summerfield.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Cross Country: Flat Rock's boys, SMCC, Jefferson girls headed to state
