Regional championships

Benzie Central HS

Cool and Breezy

The boys qualify for the State finals.

It was a great day for the Packers. This year the regionals were held at Benzie Central high school.  The course here is always extremely fast. On the boys side we knew going in that It was going to be a very tight race with 5 to 6 teams that could potentially qualify in the top three positions on any given day. The top 15 finishers individually would also qualify if their team did not. The boys put themselves in good positions early. Carter Sherman (Sr) was in the second pack, which had about eight runners in it. Four athletes had gone out in the lead pack and had a sizable gap at the one and a quarter mile mark. Blake Taylor(Sr) and Cole Lowery (Sr) were in about 25th Pl. at the mile mark. Chase Lowery (Jr) was probably in about 35th with Mossen Green (So) and Issac Romero (Jr) about 10 to 15 places back from him. Andy Krapp was probably in about 70th Pl. at the mile. The boys did a good job in the windy sections, using it to move up when it was at their back and tucking in behind others when it was in their face. Going into the 3rd mile it was clear that some of the athletes from the lead group were going to be caught by the second pack and Carter was poised in a great position in the middle of that 2nd group. Blake moved up aggressively in the 2nd mile while Cole also moved up a little. Coming into the homestretch Carter made a big move to get the jump on the pack that he was in and finished strong in fourth place. Blake Taylor continued to move up and placed a 11th overall. Cole held on as our third man in 19th place, Mossen Green had a great last half a mile moving up to place 35th. Chase Lowery finished strong over the last 200 m to overtake a few places that he had lost in the 3rd mile. Issac Romero and Andy Krapp had good finishes to round out the squad. The boys place third with 106 points 15 out of first, and 6 off of 2nd.  Carter and Blake made the all region team.

The girls also raced extremely well recording great times. Linnea Paige (Jr) got out really fast with the lead group. She faded a few places just after the mile, but then held on strong in ninth on a little bit of her own island for the rest of the race. Joelle Patten (Jr) had by far the best race I have ever seen her run. She laid it all on the line early in the race to put herself in a position to fight for a top 15 position. Throughout the second and 3rd mile she fluctuated between 16th and 17th Pl. Despite going out faster than she ever had before she held strong at the finish to end up placing 19th. We were disappointed that she was not able to make the top 15, but so impressed with the aggression that she raced with and the massive time improvement that she made. Kira Manchip (So) and Rachel Maddox (Sr) worked together for the first 2 miles of the race. They got out a little slow, maybe, and had a lot of work to do to try and move up. They both had a strong last mile with Kira separating herself and really attacking the last 400 m. Rocquel Richards (Jr) also turned in her best time of the season. She also did a great job moving up over the last mile and had a fantastic finish stretch run. Jessie Kendziorski (So) and Riley Chase (Sr) rounded out our top seven both recording their fastest times of the season.  Linnea made the All-Region Team.  The girls placed 8th with 182 points.

Full results can be found here - https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/238252/info

Coach