Boys Cross Country: Pioneers run past Saline to win Regionals; Kessler wins race at Willow Regional

Terry Jacoby
November 2, 2020, 4 years ago

The two best SEC boys’ cross country teams headed to Lake Erie Metropark on Saturday and finished atop the MHSAA Region 5 race hosted by Gibraltar Carlson. Pioneer took first by just a few steps over Saline as both teams qualified for Friday’s State Finals at MIS in Brooklyn.

Pioneer crossed the finish line with 45 points, just four better than second-place Saline. Dearborn ran third with 97 points to also qualify for the state meet. Monroe was fourth (129), Bedford fifth (136) and Woodhaven sixth (136).

Dearborn’s Charlie Frank took first overall with a time of 16:06.8.

The Pioneers landed the next two spots with juniors Owen Johnson second (16:11.0) and Henry MonteSano third (16:20.9).

Senior Ben Jakabcsin was 11^th (17:00.8), junior Fred Wallace was 15^th (17:09), sophomore Roman Cortina was 16^th (17:10.7), senor Max Klarman ran 18^th (17:12.6) and junior Levi Straszewski was 20^th (17:20.7).

Skyline just misses cut; Kessler runs first

Skyline’s Hobbs Kessler finished first overall on Saturday at the Region 6 cross country race at Willow Metropark in New Boston. The senior won easily with a time of 14:53.3 – Salem’s Talha Syed was a distant second in 15:26.1.

The Eagles finished just four points from qualifying for the state finals at MIS. Salem took first overall with 45 points with Dexter second (71), Plymouth third (91) and Skyline fourth (95). Livonia Franklin was fifth with 115 points.

Huron senior Michael Hill-Carruthers finished ninth in 16:19.3 to also qualify for the State Finals.

Skyline had some outstanding run on the day. Sophomore Nicolas Fry ran 18^th in 16:37.3, junior Sanjay Rao was 23^rd in 16:51.8, freshman Luke Suliman was 36^th in 17:21.4, junior Alex Ball ran 42^nd in 17:31.3, sophomore Christopher Van Lent was 46^th in 17:38.4 and senior Ian Steele was 47^th in 17:38.8.

Other Huron runners included Peter Stenger (21^st in 16:40.4), Donovan Smith (30^th in 17:13.2) and Adam Bigelow (34^th in 17:19.7).

[Boys Cross Country]