Rolling Jones gathers another Moss

Aug. 28—BENZONIA — Hunter Jones won his second Pete Moss Invitational title Saturday.

But only saying "won" puts it mildly.

Jones ran a 14:36.5 that's expected to be corrected to 14:31.5, which would be the third-fastest high school cross country time in Michigan history. It's also his personal best and breaks his own Benzie Central school record.

After coaches noticed times were consistently five seconds off, timers discovered an error that added five ticks onto each runner's time, aside from the last of the day, by which time the error was corrected.

Not like five seconds would have made a difference in the 53-team event that featured almost 1,000 high school runners. Jones won the Medium School race by a minute and 42.9 seconds over Hart's Clayton Ackley.

"It's just all mental," Jones said. "You keep trying to go fast. Just telling yourself to keep speeding up because your body naturally wants to slow down."

Jones would have won the Big School division by over a minute and a half.

Traverse City St. Francis won the girls Medium School class, beating state powerhouse Hart for the first time since 2016. That's also the year TCSF finished off back-to-back Division 3 state championships, and Hart claimed the title every year since.

"I'm pretty excited about that," St. Francis senior Sophia Rhein said. "We have a really strong team this year. All the girls are phenomenal. We haven't beaten Hart in a long time. They're a very, very strong team. They bring great competition, but it was a good day for our girls."

Rhein missed much of the last two cross seasons with various injuries, including compartment syndrome.

"We're hoping she's healthy and hoping to keep the pressure off her," Gladiators coach Julie Duffing said of Rhein. "She needs to go out there and have fun."

Hart's Jessica Jazwinski and Alyson Enns took the top two spots, but St. Francis had seven runners in between Enns and Hart's fourth runner.

Rhein took second, sophomore Betsy Skendzel fourth and sophomore Grace Slocum 10th, with Rylee Duffing, Maddie Gallagher, Margot Haggerty and Paige Ritchie all in the top 23.

Benzie junior Mylie Kelly placed fifth, Elk Rapids freshman Brynne Schulte seventh and Manistee junior Cecilia Postma ninth.

St. Francis won with a team-low 41 points, followed by Hart (64), Elk Rapids (92), Benzie (122) and Manistee (209) out of 18 teams.

"Our hard work all summer showed," Duffing said. "We still have some work to do."

St. Francis' boys placed second to Hart out of 15 teams. Benzie took fourth, Elk Rapids sixth and Kalkaska seventh.

Grayling junior Drew Moore placed fourth, TCSF senior Josh Kerr fifth and Benzie senior Pol Mollins 10th.

Grand Rapids Christian won both the boys and girls Big School divisions, with both individual champs as well in Natalie VanOtteren and Simon Triezenberg. Traverse City West's boys placed seventh, with Cadillac sixth and Kingsley 10th.

West's girls took fourth, with Cadillac ninth and Kingsley 11th.

Junior Ava King led the Titans with a ninth-place finish, as none of West's eight entrants were seniors. Freshmen Abby Veit and Bailey Wenzlick took 13th and 15h.

Cadillac junior Nolan Nixon placed third, with West junior Willem DeGood fourth.

Ongoing construction at Benzie Central forced the event to be split up over two days, because unused building materials are being stores in the parking lot closest to the Moss Cross Course and there wouldn't have been enough room. So the Small School divisions ran Friday, and cars still spilled over into grassy areas next to the parking lot as Benzie cross country coach Asa Kelly estimated between 2-3,000 spectators took in the races.

The Moss Cross Course also had a bit of a facelift this summer, as Kelly said part of the former route went over DTE Energy gas lines. The course was adjusted to include more of the woods behind Benzie Central High School, and also added some elevation changes and more corners.

"I like it; it's a lot better," Skendzel said. "It's a lot more in the woods. ... There are a couple little hills."

"It has more turns and some more elevation change," Jones said. "It makes it a little bit more difficult, but it's fun."

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