Blue Water Area cross country runners ready for next step at regionals
Cross country athletes have run hundreds of miles to get to this point. Now they'll have to run a little more ‒ at their best – to reach the state finals.
The 2022 MHSAA boys and girls cross country regionals begin Friday as teams, and individual runners, look to qualify for the state championships Nov. 5 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. Here's a look at the regional assignments for teams in the Blue Water Area.
Division 1
Region 9 at Croswell-Lexington/Yale (Goodells County Park)
Area teams: Port Huron and Port Huron Northern
Port Huron Northern's boys team was co-champions of the MAC White with Fraser. At the MAC Championships on Oct. 22, senior Glen Davis placed seventh out of 191 runners with a time of 16:16.1. Fellow senior Michael Paoletti finished 20th with a time of 16:47.5.
On the girls side for the Huskies, Therese Georgia placed 18th out of 174 runners with a finish of 20:07.1. Her teammate, Dylan Pasia, came in 31st and set a personal record with a time of 20:46.5.
Division 2
Region 17 at Croswell-Lexington/Yale (Goodells County Park)
Area teams: Armada, Croswell-Lexington, Imlay City, Marine City, Marysville, Richmond, St. Clair and Yale
Where do you even start with this region?
Three teams won their respective conference championships in this group: the Cros-Lex girls (BWAC), Marysville girls (MAC White) and Yale boys (BWAC). Armada had both the boys and girls MVP in the BWAC with siblings Camden Khon and Brooklyn Khon, respectively. The St. Clair boys are hoping to advance to their 23rd straight state finals.
Sticking with the boys side, Yale has maintained its stranglehold on the conference, thanks to runners like Blake Ferguson. He placed second in the final BWAC jamboree on Oct. 18 and set a personal record with a time of 16:11.4.
Cros-Lex has been just as dominant on the girls side. Both Morgan Newton and Eva Thompson have competed in 12 races this season. Newton has five first-place finishes and hasn't placed lower than fourth. Thompson has three first-place finishes and hasn't been lower than third.
Division 4
Region 35 at Harbor Beach (Wagener County Park)
Area teams: Brown City, Capac, Carsonville-Port Sanilac Deckerville, Kimball Landmark Academy, Kimball New Life Christian, Marlette and Peck
Brown City won the GTC East league meet on Oct. 18 as four Green Devils finished in the top 10 — Easton Jager (fourth, 17:58.80), Carson Burgess (fifth, 18:11:01), Devin Dudley (seventh, 18:19.38) and Wynn Blake (18:38.13). Burgess set a personal record with his time.
Region 36 at Royal Oak Shrine Catholic (Memorial Park)
Area teams: Cardinal Mooney
For the first time in program history, the Cardinal Mooney boys won the Catholic High School League championship.
Five Cardinals finished in the top 25 at the CHSL C/D championships on Oct. 21 — Tyler Lenn (second, 17:21.4), Matthew Zammit Jr. (ninth, 18:31.0), Isaac Zammit (18:47.4), Max Procissi (19th, 19:40.2) and Jack Luzynski (22nd, 20:00.5).
Evan Jacobs (20:15.0) and Donald Blakeley (20:20.6) were right behind them and placed 27th and 30th, respectively. Blakeley also set a season record with his time.
Contact Brenden Welper at bwelper@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendenWelper.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Blue Water Area cross country runners ready for next step at regionals
