The Wayland girls’ varsity cross-country team opened its 2018 season Friday by finishing second in the Hudson Unity Christian Early Bird Invitational.
The boys, meanwhile, did not fare so well, taking fifth place among the five teams in the competition.
Holland West Ottawa ran away with the girls’ meet with 19 points, the Lady Wildcats had 57, amiltonHamilton 80 and the host team 81.
The really good news, however, was the return to form by junior ace Rylee Cronkright, who finished second for the day with a time of 21:59.78, about 24 seconds behind individual medalist Katie Frauenheim of West Ottawa. The top two harriers were the only ones to break 22 minutes on the difficult course.
Cronkright finished eighth in the Division 2 state meet last November, but suffered an injury and sat out most of the track season last spring.
West Ottawa captured third through seventh places to make the contest a runaway.
Sophomore Naomi Oosterhouse was Wayland’s runner-up, taking 10th place, followed by junior Gracie Hasse in 12th, senior Zoe Antel in 15th and freshman Haylee Jasinski, in her varsity debut, finished 22nd.
In the boys’ meet, Jenison took first with 43 points, host Hudsonville Unity had 57, West Ottawa 62, Hamilton 64 and Wayland 134.
Sophomore Connor Vachon of Jenison was individual medalist with a time of 18:19.34.
Sophomore Elijah Gamelin led the Wildcats in 21st at 21:39.18, followed by Steven Mosher in 38th, Jarod Geerligs 44th, Christian Courser 47th and Andrew VanBaal 51st.
