Leaders from JoBurg's state championship cross country team lead area runners to watch
GAYLORD ― The summer is still in full swing, but it's hard to look toward a season with some of the best sports Northern Michigan has to offer and not get excited about the fall.
Teams around Gaylord and Johannesburg are gearing up for what should be a very competitive fall for area football, volleyball, soccer and cross-country teams, with talented athletes on the rosters for all three area high schools.
It is time to start breaking down the individuals that could make this fall special, starting with some of the best cross-country runners not just in Northern Michigan, but in the entire state as the returning Division 4 state champions, the Johannesburg-Lewiston girls team, headline what could be a special season for Otsego-area runners.
Here are the runners to look out for this fall:
Girls
Allie Nowak, Junior, Johannesburg-Lewiston
JoBurg has fielded some successful sports teams, especially in the fall, but none have been as successful as the 2022 version of the girls' cross country team as they traveled downstate and brought home the school's first MHSAA State Championship to wrap their historic season.
That state title-winning effort was led by sophomore Allie Nowak as she placed third overall at the Division 4 state finals with a time of 19 minutes, 20.80 seconds.
She was one of six Cardinals' runners to place in the top 100 in the final race of the season, helping the team finish with 118 overall points and capture the team's first-ever state title.
Yolanda Gascho, Sophomore, Johannesburg-Lewiston
The Cardinal girls' other top-ten finisher at last year's state finals, Yolanda Gascho, will have a chance to be one of the state's best underclassmen as she enters her sophomore season.
Her time of 20 minutes, 4.18 seconds at the D4 state finals was good for seventh place overall while her continued overall success in the track and field season shows her potential as a distance runner.
MORE: Joburg's Jocelyn Tobias hits an inside-the-park homerun at D4 all-star game
Miriam Murrell, Senior, Gaylord St. Mary
After making her fourth appearance at the Division 4 cross country state meet last season and breaking multiple school records on the track in the spring, GSM's Miriam Murrell has a chance to cement her legacy as one of the school's best distance runners ever.
She placed 28th with a time of 20:35.7 at the D4 state finals last year, just shy of her season-best time of 20:12.4 set at the Shepherd Blue Jay Invite on October 1. Her career-best time came as an eighth grader in 2019 when she clocked a 19:43.9 at the Michigan Class D State Championship meet.
MORE: Eight area athletes earn all-state honors at respective track and field state finals
Katie Berkshire, Sophomore, Gaylord
Berkshire made a name for herself as one of the top distance runners during the track and field season but was equally impressive in her first full season on the Blue Devils' cross-country team last fall.
She turned in an impressive three-race stretch in October that included a second-place finish at the Big North Conference Championships (19:35.5), a fourth-place finish at the Northern Michigan XC Championships (19:21.7) and a third-place finish at the MHSAA Region 10-2 Finals at Chippewa Hills (19:16.0), with that final performance qualifying her for the MHSAA Division 2 State Finals.
Others to watch: Madalyn Agren, JoBurg; Rosalinda Gascho, JoBurg; Cora Mullins, JoBurg; Lily Sargent, Gaylord
Boys
Blake Fox, Senior, Johannesburg-Lewiston
The JoBurg boys nearly made it a clean sweep at the state finals last season, finishing second overall behind one of the top teams in state history, Wyoming Potter's House, when all was said and done.
With last year's top runner, Jacob Wartenberg, now graduated and on the Northwood University cross country and track and field teams, senior Blake Fox has a chance to step into the lead role after his stellar spring on the track.
Fox was named the Gaylord Herald Times Athlete of the Year after becoming one of the state's best 800-meter runners, breaking a long-standing meet record at the Harbor Springs Ram Scram on April 14, breaking the JL school 800-meter record with a time of 1:56.97 on May 15 and capping the year with a state-runner up performance at the D4 state finals in Hudsonville.
Malaki Gascho, Senior, Johannesburg-Lewiston
Malaki Gascho is another candidate to step into the lead role for the Cardinals this fall after yet another consistent season on the track.
Stepping into his senior year this fall, Gascho was one of six JL athletes to earn all-state honors at the Division 4 Track and Field state meet in the spring, taking fourth in the 3,200-meter with a time of 9:59.29.
During the fall, he rebounded from a partially torn Achilles early in the season to be one of four Cardinals to finish in the top 30 at the D4 state finals (29th, 17:17.32), meaning he finished with all-state honors in both cross country and track in 2022.
Others to watch: Jeremiah Witt, JoBurg; Dusty Layman, Joburg; Elijah Major, GSM;
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Leaders from JoBurg's state championship cross country team lead area runners to watch
