Girls Cross Country: Eagles fly by night, land fifth at Lamplighter Invite (WLAA photo gallery)
The Skyline girls’ cross country team opened the season in the dark but certainly shined a spotlight on a promising 2022 season.
The Eagles ran under the lights on Friday at the annual Lamplighter Invitational in Livonia and crossed the finish line in fifth place out of 20 teams. The girls’ varsity race took off at 11 p.m. at night with well-placed portable lights set up around the course.
Brighton finished first with 86 points, followed by Romeo (105), Canton (138) and Dexter (146) – just three points ahead of SEC rival Skyline (149). Utica was sixth (152) and Rochester Hills Stoney Creek was seventh (170). There were two varsity girls’ races with Fraser winning the other race with 79 followed by Livonia Stevenson (104).
A pair of seniors led the Eagles across the finish line with Caroline Vance finishing seventh overall in 19 minutes, 40.0 seconds and Natalie Kessler crossing 14th in 20:07.4. Junior Allison Mayer finished 23rd in 20:37.3 to give Skyline three runners in the top 25.
Senior Lydia Cocciolone was 54th (21:31.5) and senior Leah White was 57th (21:36.3).
Also running strong for the Eagles was sophomore Ayla Balazer (105th, 23:05.2), junior Celia Begosso (113th, 23:14.8), junior Aileen Bachrans(138th, 24:22.9), junior Alexandria Mason (155th, 25:54.9) and junior Cecelia Brush (157th, 26:25.1).
