Girls Cross Country: Pioneer runs away with Regional title; other local runners heading to states
The Pioneer girls’ cross country team landed four runners in the top 10 and “ran” away with the MHSAA Region 5 at Lake Erie Metropark on Saturday. The Pioneers will run next as one of the favorites at Friday’s Division 1 State Finals at MIS in Brooklyn.
Pioneer finished with 35 points, 10 better than runner-up Saline. Bedford was third with 77 points to also qualify for the State Finals as the SEC dominated the top of the race. Woodhaven was a distant fourth with 107 points.
Pioneer’s top six runners are all underclassmen as the program continues to run on a full tank of youth, talent, hard work and experience.
Rachel Forsyth continues her amazing freshman year. She finished first with a time of 18:05.5 to lead the Pioneers. Speaking of amazing, junior Cookie Baugh was third in 18:40.9, junior Charlotte Batra was eighth (19:44.4), and junior Sarah Forsyth ran ninth (19:48.3) as the Pioneers dominated the top 10.
Sophomore Emily Cooper was 14th in 20:09.8, freshman Sylvia Sanok Dufallo was 28th in 21:18.8 and senior Lauren Jamsen was 35th in 21:55.0.
Skyline, Huron sending runners to states
The Eagles landed fourth at the Region 6 race on Saturday at Willow Metropark.
Plymouth ran first with 38 points followed by Canton (64), Salem (70), Skyline (89) and Livonia Churchill (130).
Skyline qualified two runners while Huron qualified one for the state meet.
Huron senior Sam Hastie finished in 18:30.3 and took third overall in the race. She will run on Friday at the State Finals at MIS. Joining her will be Skyline sophomore Lydia Cocciolone (13th place in 20:07.8) and Skyline senior Catrin Koselka (19th in 20:23.7). Skyline’s Laura O’Brien (20th in 20:23.8) and Allison Mayer (21st in 20:24.3) just missed the cut.
Skyline’s Natalie Kessler was 28th in 20:44.5, Audrey Wells was 38th in 21:21.0 and Sierra Lubetkin was 44th in 22:16.5.
Huron’s Rachel Overgaard was 24th in 20:38.0 and Mia Solomon ran 40th in 21:29.9.
