COVER PHOTO: The dozen fastest boys’ runners in Allegan County.
It was a mixed bag Friday for the Hopkins and Wayland cross-country teams in a very wet Allegan County Invitational at the Martin Motor Sports Park.
Hopkins, fresh from copping the O-K Silver Conference girls’ championship, checked in fourth while Wayland was glad to place sixth with a team score. In the boys’ race, Wayland was fourth and Hopkins fifth.
Wildcats Dylan Pallett and Isaac Dyer both earned all-conference honors with top 10 finishes. Pallet took third in 16:52.5 and Dyer 10th in 17:23.11. They were followed by freshman Xander Stepek 16th in 17:54.34, sophomore Ethan Manning 21st in 18:31 and Jude VanderWeide 33rd in 20:16.67.
Hopkins sophomore Jack Estelle again led the Vikings with a 13th-place finish in 17:31.68. Kenyon Katje was 23rd in 19:15.14, freshman Isaiah Robinson was 27th in 19:41.19, freshman Derek Zapolnik 32nd in 20:13.64 and sophomore Johnathon Buskirk 37th in 20:48.13.
Martin was led again by Alex Morin, 26th in 19:38.3, but the Clippers lacked enough runners to post a team score.
Plainwell ran away as the Allegan County champion and Otsego was second.
Otsego swept the first three individual places and scored only 18 team points, well in front of runner-up Saugatuck.
Martin’s record-breaking freshman Veyda Conley was able to check in fifth individually with a time of 20:13.23, but just as with the Clipper guys, they didn’t have enough runners to post a team score.
Jaeden Harshberger, only a couple of days after copping the O-K Silver medalist honors, was seventh with a time of 20:20.91. Kambria Moored was ninth in 21:00.45, Allison Breining 17th in 21:59.13, freshman Lillian Dewey 23rd in 22:33.31 and freshman Kaylee Katje 34th in 24:40.1.
As usual, senior Elliott Antel led the Wildcats with a 29th place finish, Megan Stack was 33rd, Sarah Osborn turned in a career-best time in 44th, Keyli Perez 56th and Alyssa Lawrence 61st.
