Prep roundup: Brighton's pack beats girls cross country rival Northville
NORTHVILLE — The time will come, perhaps as early as Friday, for Brighton’s top girls cross country runners to battle with Northville all-staters Cassie Garcia and Ella Christensen.
But in a meet between two of the top teams in Michigan Tuesday at Cass Benton Park, the Bulldogs’ strategy was to let Garcia and Christensen go and win the meet by forming a strong pack.
Brighton executed the game plan flawlessly, putting nine of the next 10 runners across the line after Garcia took first in 18:51.2 and Christensen placed second in 18:58.3.
Brighton, which was fifth in last year’s state Division 1 meet, won by a 26-33 score over Northville, which was ninth. The teams will meet on a larger stage Friday in the Spartan Invitational in East Lansing.
“They’re definitely our biggest rival in the division,” Brighton coach Kristi Matuszewski said. “We’ve had a long-standing rivalry with them. We kind of knew where they were at; we let their top two go. We just wanted to see how we race together, getting really strong, feeding off each other.
“We certainly wanted to win, but we weren’t going for those top two spots. We’re deep enough where we can work together for a race like today and get focused for Friday at Spartan.”
Brighton’s top three runners crossed within 1.1 seconds of each other, with Carrigan Eberly taking third in 19:37.4, Lydia LaMarra fourth in 19:37.7 and Elle Bissett fifth in 19:38.5. Nikki Carothers took sixth in 20:02.0 and Juliet Lewis eighth in 20:17.9 to complete Brighton’s scoring.
Brighton also beat Canton, 15-50.
Plymouth 25, Howell 34
Howell senior Maura Lichiello earned her first career victory with a time of 21:18.9 at Cass Benton Park. Howell sophomore Nora Rioux was fourth in 21:58.0.
Hartland 25, Salem 28
Hartland 23, Novi 32
Freshman Ava Goodman was second in 20:04.0 and junior Zoe Howard was fourth in 21:02.8 to lead Hartland.
Leslie Blackhawk Invitational
Ella Heffner took 17th place in 22:59.97 to lead Charyl Stockwell.
Eaton Rapids Class Invitational
Delaney Richardson was fifth in the freshman-sophomore race in 22:31.7 and Maria Beach was ninth in 22:59.3 for Fowlerville.
Boys cross country
Leslie Blackhawk Invitational
Senior Anthony Urbaniak broke Charyl Stockwell’s school record with a fifth-place time of 16:57.9.
The previous mark of 17:03.0 was set by Jeremy Bond at the Portage Invitational on Oct. 10, 2015.
Plymouth 15, Howell 50
Emmet Thompson was eighth in 18:55.4 to lead Howell, which didn’t race its top five runners.
Hartland 18, Salem 37
Novi 16, Hartland 43
Carson Cook was fifth in 17:31.91 and Robert Wisniewski seventh in 17:58.86 to lead Hartland.
Eaton Rapids Class Invitational
Fowlerville junior Lucas Moore was fifth in the junior-senior race in 17:43.5.
RELATED: Howell freshman Jack MacGregor has historic cross country debut
RELATED: Northville nips Brighton in clash between last two Division 1 boys cross country champs
Soccer
Brighton 1, Plymouth 1
Plymouth earned the tie by scoring with six minutes remaining. Devlin McGinnis scored off an assist from Ethan Cassar in the first half for Brighton’s goal.
Howell 1, Novi 1
Alex Romo gave Howell a 1-0 lead before the Highlanders scored into their own net for the tying goal.
Fowlerville 1, St. Johns 1
Jace Forgette gave Fowlerville a 1-0 lead five minutes into the second half before St. Johns tied the game with 10 minutes remaining.
Charyl Stockwell 5, Novi Christian 3
Luke Bargen scored twice, while Nic Nicaj, David Wilson and Sam Siebert scored the other goals for Charyl Stockwell.
Golf
Pinckney 176, Ann Arbor Skyline 194, Chelsea 197
Pinckney’s Katelyn Sanchez, Alivia Ligrow and Maisie Angerman shared first place with 42s.
RELATED: State girls golf favorite Brighton wins tournament with trio of top players
Volleyball
Brighton 3, Novi 2
Brighton beat Novi 25-11, 22-25, 25-15, 23-25, 15-6. It was the Bulldogs’ first victory over Novi in 14 matches since the teams began playing in the same division in 2017.
Charyl Stockwell 3, Oakland Christian 1
Julianne Stucky had 14 kills and Mia Trevino had six aces for the Sentinels, who won by scores of 25-11, 18-25, 25-19, 25-7.
RELATED: Abby Mainka sings anthem, helps Brighton volleyball beat Hartland
Tennis
Fowlerville 7, St. Johns 1
Mason Munsell, Cole Sova and Ryder Lukasik won at singles for Fowlerville.
The Gladiators swept doubles, getting victories from the teams of Oliver Farmer and Ben Durbin, Grant Wilkinson and Lon Pringle, Drake Cook and Matt Jeffrey, and Christian Orr and Preston Browne.
Novi 8, Brighton 1
Singles: Devyn Gans (N) d. Dorian Pettengill 6-1, 6-1; Tyler Adams (B) d. Eric Ma 6-4, 1-6, 6-3; Samuel Seki (N) d. Pierce Pettengill 7-5, 6-1; Liam Luedeman (N) d. Logan Fossum 6-3, 5-7, 6-1.
Doubles: Hari Raparta-James Warner (N) d. Keegan Parrish-Ayush Shenoy 6-2, 6-2; Tejas Maroju-Ani Jillellamudi (N) d. Nate Reynolds-Jonathan Solgat 6-0, 6-1; Sai Saripalli-Sungwon Kum (N) d. Lucas Lamberjack-Matthew Wendrick 6-3, 6-2; Mike Mohtadi-Surya Takale (N) d. Logan Gardner-Joe Mertes 6-1, 6-0; Victor Fu-Shivaji Raj (N) d. Dylan McKee-Noah McKee 6-0, 6-1.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton's pack beats girls cross country rival Northville
