Emerson Green
The Sturgis and Mendon boys and girls cross country teams trekked to Dowagiac Friday for the Rotary Invitational, with the Trojans boys bringing a title back home. The meet was divided into four races (underclassmen and upperclassmen for both genders) and the top-two times from each boys and girls race were combined for overall totals. Click here for full results.
Sturgis’ Grant Brown and Terry Stahl went 1-3 in the boys 10th-11th-grade race, respectively, finishing with times of 17:11.80 and 17:56.81. In the underclassmen race, Shawn Bell won in a time of 17:14.42, followed by Daniel Steele in second (18:28.97). The Trojans girls ended the day third overall after Andrea Hernandez Garcia (23:58.29) and Sarah Miller (24:51.34) posted fifth- and sixth-place finishes for the underclassmen and Peyton Boughton (20:21.31) crossed the line second in the 11th-12th-grade competition, followed by Elle Bowman, who was 10th with a time of 24:41.78.
Grant Brown
“We had a great bounce back meet on Friday,” Sturgis coach Emerson Green said. “Sturgis was coed champion with the lowest point total of both genders. Our distance trainining is on schedule to have us ready when SMAC competition opens up in two weeks. Our top athletes, Peyton Boughton, Grant Brown, Shawn Bell, Daniel Steele, and Terry Stahl, all performed at the level that we needed to be successful.
“We got great support from our fifth and sixth runners on the men’s side in Trevor Sprowls and German Exchange student Luca Kroemer. Trevor is starting to assert himself as our fifth runner and we will need him to continue to improve if we are going to have any chance to continue our run of top-three finishes in the SMAC. On the girls’ side, Andrea Hernandez Garcia (freshman) and Emma Robertson (lifetime best performance) along with Elle Bowman stepped up to score for the Trojans. The girls’ team is starting to show that they are serious about being better than the 2012 team”
Hornets turn in solid performances
Mendon recorded a second-place finish in the 9th-10th-grade girls race, boosted by Mary Leighton’s second-place time of 23:17.26 and Jeena Gales’ fourth-place performance (23:44.78). Jenna Griffith ran a time of 22:41.97 to lead the Hornets (fourth) in the upperclassmen race. The Hornets were fifth in the 9th-10th-grade run, with Jacob Hagenbuch (21:32.84) and Austin Yunker (21:38.17) finishing 10th and 11th, respectively. Zach Darmofal had a time of 18:54.99 for sixth place in the upperclassman race, trailed by Joe Gales’ 12th-place finish (21:22.79). Click here for full Mendon results.