There were a couple of surprises at the O-K Gold Conference cross-country meet Tuesday at Middleville.

One was that Wayland came up with perhaps its best performance of the season in capturing second place in the boys’ race. The other was a freshman from Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills, Rihana Pellow, finished her 5,000-meter race in just 18:59 to take individual medalist honors among the girls.

Unfortunately for Pellow, she does not have enough teammates for Ottawa Hills to field a team.

Two Wayland freshman runners did a pretty good job on the course as well. Zoe Antel took 10^th place in 20:40.6 and Payton Sidebotham was about a half second behind her. But the Lady Wildcats had to settle for fifth place in the competition.

Senior ace Perry Carter led the Wayland boys, as he has done consistently all season, checking in with a time of 17:13.78, good for third place. Junior Jonathan Zuiderveen stepped his pace up a bit, taking eighth in 17:39.36.

Senior Owen Glass appeared to be getting back to his old form after somewhat of a slump, taking 14^th in 18:03.62 and freshman Caleb Pletcher improved leaps and bounds to take 16^th in 18:18.68.

Junior Derek Huffman rounded out the scoring by placing 26^th in 18:50.28.

The Wildcat boys accumulated 67 points, finishing second to Middleville Thornapple Kellogg’s 51, giving the Trojans a surprising run for their money. Grand Rapids Catholic Central had 73, South Christian 82, Hastings 94 and Ottawa Hills 136.

Senior Mackenzy Kasper ran her final O-K Gold race in 21:41.78 for 24^th place. Kaitlyn Paul was 32^nd in 22:41.82 and freshman Sydney Hielkema had her best race at 23:04.20, good for 34^th.

The Wayland boys and girls will be competing in the Allegan County meet Friday and then in Division 2 regional race Oct. 31 at Portage.

PHOTO: The Wayland High School boys’ cross-country team and coach Steve Harcourt.

Perry Carter with his medal from the Portage Invitational.