These Sturgis-area cross country teams are headed to the MHSAA state meet
PORTAGE — The Sturgis High School girls are headed back to the MHSAA cross country finals.
The Lady Trojans qualified on Saturday at the regional held at Portage West Middle School. Sturgis scored 112 points to finish third behind Otsego (43) and St. Joseph (59).
Berkley Holtz led Sturgis with an eighth-place finish. She ran a time of 19 minutes, 40 seconds.
Tessa Hatt came in 10th place at 19:47 and Sydney Bir finished 19th (20:39). Kenzie Eicher's time of 22:03 was good for 37th overall, Eleanor Park ran 22:08 to finish 38th, Kylie Brooks placed 47th at 22:39 and Paityn Modert was 60th in 23:31.
Three Rivers did not qualify as a team, but Jennifer Hernandez ran to 12th place overall and qualified. She finished with a time of 19:50.
In the boys race, Three Rivers came in third with 122 points behind Plainwell (49) and Otsego (53).
"Our boys team came in today with a coin flip opportunity to make it to state as a team and it wasn't really that close," Three Rivers coach Jason Muckel said.
Sulley Zietlow led the Wildcats with a fifth-place run of 16:27. Jacob Howes finished 25th at 17:34 and Reece Howes came in 29th at 17:45. Jonah Zietlow's time of 17:48 was 31st and Isaac Perez came in 32nd at 17:49. Trey Hall ran a time of 18:17 for 44th, Robert Yoder came in 66th at 19:17.
"Our boys knew coming into the meet they were going to be in a dog flight to make it to the state meet and they exceeded with flying colors," Muckel said. "Hard work paid off and I am so proud of everything that these boys have been able to accomplish this season."
Sturgis' Nolan Park came in 21st overall at 17:17. Benjamin Morales was 38th at 18:06 and Zachary Green finished 50th at 18:31. Caleb Hohn ran a time of 18:59 for 59th, Niko Morales finished 62nd at 19:08, Ben Moses ran a time of 19:13 for 65th and Henry Ebert came in 76th at 19:44.
Park, Ben Morales and Ebert logged lifetime-best runs.
Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at bwatson@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @BwatsonSJ.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Sturgis girls, Three Rivers boys qualify for MHSAA cross country finals
