Brighton girls win opening cross country meet as new rivalry begins
One rivalry against Brighton is over for Howell senior Mackenzie Wright, but another is just getting started.
Brighton junior Carrigan Eberly edged Wright for second place out of 172 runners by 1.1 seconds in the season-opening Lamplighter Invitational Friday night at Ford Field in Livonia.
Over the last two years, Wright and Brighton’s Katie Carothers were the top two distance runners in Livingston County, separated by only one place in last year’s state Division 1 meet. They were the county’s co-Runners of the Year, as selected by the Livingston Daily.
With Carothers moving on to run for Michigan State University, Eberly has seized the No. 1 spot on a Brighton team that won the team championship in the top flight by a decisive 86-105 margin over Romeo. Romeo was sixth and Brighton seventh in last year’s state meet.
Eberly crossed the line in 19 minutes, 10.7 seconds, nearly 70 seconds faster than her season-opening time in the same meet last season. Wright was close behind in third in 19:11.8.
Romeo senior Madison Clor, who was 21st in the state meet last year, ran alone up front to win in 18:58.5.
“It was certainly a good battle at the end,” Brighton coach Kristi Matuszewski said. “They literally in the last 150 meters were sprinting it out against each other. Mackenzie’s such a fantastic kid, such a good sport. It’s going to be fun. It’s good competition.”
Completing the team scoring for Brighton were Nikki Carothers (sixth, 19:38.8), freshman Lydia LaMarra (21st, 20:33.5), Gabrielle Bolitho (26th, 20:46.5) and Stella Farmer (31st, 20:54.0).
“We are very deep this year,” Matuszewski said. “Losing Katie is certainly a big miss, but having these other girls slide right in and take the reins is so exciting. It gives Carrigan and Nikki and opportunity to physically be leading this team. I’m so excited to see them understand they can run in the front of the race; that is where they belong.”
Mia Cholewa was 30th in 20:52.2 for Howell, which was eighth out of 20 teams.
In the boys first flight, which had the least-competitive teams, Howell was second out of 16 teams by a 48-56 margin to Livonia Stevenson. Noah DeLand was fourth (18:03.2) and Lucas Wood 10th (18:24.1) for the Highlanders. Northville beat Romeo, 66-123, to win the top flight.
Pinckney was 13th out of 18 teams in the girls first flight with 304 points. Madalynn Karsies was 27th in 22:58.2 for the Pirates.
St. Johns Under the Lights Invitational
Hartland’s girls were third out of 11 teams with 99 points behind DeWitt (63) and St. Johns (95) in the large school division.
Senior Lexie Brown was sixth in 20:22.7 to lead Hartland. Freshman Sophia Nunnery was 16th (21:14.5) and freshman Elliana Neuer was 18th (21:26.1) for the Eagles.
Fowlerville was 10th with 243 points.
In the boys meet, Hartland was seventh with 166 points and Fowlerville was 11th with 318.
Hartland junior Carson Cook was 14th (17:17.8) and Fowlerville senior Brett Marschall was 18th (17:35.7).
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton girls win opening cross country meet as new rivalry begins
