Girls Cross Country Roundup: Pioneer, Skyline run to invitational wins
Emily Cooper finished first to help lead the Pioneer girls’ cross country team to a first-place finish at the Freeland Falcon Invitational on Saturday. Two other Pioneer runners finished in the top five and another in the top 10 as the defending Division 1 champions finished with 33 points, 11 points ahead of runner-up HH Dow. Midland was third (109) and Shepherd fourth (111) in the 14-team field.
Cooper, the speedy junior, ran a time of 18 minutes, 02.19 seconds to finish first out of 93 runners. HH Dow’s Victoria Garces was a distant second in 18:40.64.
Cooper had plenty of company at the finish line. Juniors Natalie Mello (fourth, 18:58.23) and Sylvia Sanok Duffalo (fifth, 19:26.25) helped Pioneer land three runners among the top-five finishers.
Junior Lydia Bowman ran 10th in 20:00.70 for Pioneer.
Hana Boggess, only a freshman, finished 13th in 20:10.58.
Skyline
Natalie Kessler keeps on moving up as the cross country season runs along. The Skyline senior moved all the way up to the top spot at Saturday’s 38th annual Gabriel Richard Invitational at Hudson Mills Metropark.
Kessler finished first overall out of 107 runners with a time of 18:37.91. She helped lead the Eagles to a first-place finish with 47 points, nine points better than runner-up Rochester Hills Stoney Creek. Novi was third (73) and Brighton was fourth (80).
Skyline landed four runners in the top 10: senior Leah White was fourth in 19:03.03, junior Allison Mayer was fifth in 19:11.32, and senior Caroline Vance was ninth in 19:22.43.
Senior Lydia Cocciolone was 30th (20:22.57), sophomore Ayla Balazer was 34th (20:36.20), senior Annalisa DeGuzman was 37th (20:46.97), junior Celia Begosso was 45th ( 21:10.75), freshman Grace Hopkins was 65th (22:12.07), junior Serena O’Brien was 75th (22:24.85), junior Aileen Bachrans was 86thh (22:49.97) and senior Elizabeth Beck was 90th (23:04.05).
Huron
The River Rats placed third at the 17th annual YpsiRunCo River Rat Rat Open at Willow Metropark. Huron had two runners place in the top 10 and finished with 110 points. Saline ran away with the title as the Hornets finished with 29 points. Northville was second with 67 points.
Sophomore Lucinda Paliani ran eighth (19:42.00) and junior Sonya Shelgikar was 10th (19:51.30) for Huron.
Sophomore Aiko Motohara was 33rd (21:22.80), senior Emily Ma was 34th (21:25.00), senior Royce Smith was 37th (21:26.90), senior Mia Solomon was 41st (21:32.40), junior Sarah Conley was 46th (21:37.10), sophomore Sala Motohara was 67th (22:40.60), freshman Tanishka Tewari was 95th (24:20.80), junior Mah Camara was 126th (28:44.80) and freshman Nishka Kalantry was 130th (29:54.80).
