Both Hart cross-country teams earned a spot at the Division 3 state meet Saturday by qualifying from the regionals at Benzie Central, and Shelby's Parker Weirich set a new school record on the course to ensure he too will compete at state.
The Pirate boys took home the regional championship, defeating runner-up Glen Lake 51-66 for the No. 1 position. The team, ranked No. 1 in the state by MichiganCrossCountry.com will make its 10th straight trip to the state meet, set for Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. The race for the title is slated to be very tight, with any of several teams a threat to win it.
Hart again used its remarkable depth to excel on the always-fast Benzie Central course, with all seven runners placing in the top 16. Five of those runners set career-best times.
Silas Ackley was Hart's top finisher, taking seventh place with a time of 16:06.6 - missing a personal best time by under two seconds. Timothy Wolff was right behind Ackley, placing eighth and setting a PR time of 16:07.6. Mason Opalewski (16:15.0), Alex Schiller (16:17.0) and Trevor Vander Kodde closed the Hart scoring and all set personal best times to finish from 11th through 13th places. Owen VanderVlucht also earned all-region honors by placing 14th with his own PR time (16:29.0), and Carson Ackley ended up just outside the top 15 by placing 16th (16:33.1).
Also in the boys' race, Weirich finished 19th and, according to the Oceana Golf Club Facebook page, set a new Tigers' 5K record by recording a time of 16:37.8. The time was enough to qualify Weirich to the state meet.
Weirich was one of four Tiger boys scorers to set personal best times in the regional meet as the team finished in 11th place. Brycen Brown was one of them, finishing in 28th place with a time of 17:10.6. Jaciel Moreno finished 71st (20:06.2). Jackson Sines (78th, 20:59.2) and Emilio Bustos (80th, 21:05.8) also earned PR times at the meet.
Hesperia's boys team took 12th place at the regional meet, and four of the five Panther scorers set personal best times. The only Hesperia scorer not to set a PR time was Andy Lopez-Garcia, whose season best time of 18:58.1 was good for 55th place.
Onyx Davila led the Panthers with a time of 17:40.7, placing 36th. Zed Bierman (60th, 19:38.3), Tony Lopez-Garcia (67th, 19:52.2) and Drea Slosman (79th, 21:03.8) all also set PR times and scored for Hesperia.
Girls race
Hart's girls team was narrowly edged out for the regional title by McBain, 69-72, but the Pirates still scored a state finals bid for the 13th consecutive season.
Of Hart's seven girls runners, six set career-best times in the race (the lone exception, Emma Miller, set a season best) and four finished in the top 20 overall.
Natalie Rosema led the Pirates, coming in sixth place in the 79-runner field with a time of 18:58.8, and Alaina Schaner also finished in the top 10, coming in 10th with a time of 19:38.8.
Bryn Riley finished 16th for the Pirates (19:58.1), with Miller in 19th place (20:06.7). Luisa VanderZwaag closed the team scoring, coming in 24th (20:17.7).
"These girls stepped up big," Hart coach Calvin Ackley said.
Shelby finished seventh as a team in the regionals, and Tigers' senior Lydia Soelberg
earned an individual qualifying spot at the state meet by placing 12th, setting a new personal best time of 19:45.6. Fellow senior Noel Parker also set a PR time, of 19:58.3, and finished 17th, narrowly missing the individual cutoff for a state spot.
Also for the Tigers, Kathryn Beyer finished 35th with a season best time of 21:30.9 and Ava Lamberg was 58th with a season best time of 24:29.5. Michelle Peterson set a PR time of 25:03.7 to finish 64th.
Hesperia had two girls finishers in the regional meet. Rokhaya Ruhstorfer set a season best time of 24:24.8 to finish 57th, and Taylor Leeball placed 79th in a time of 37:09.0.
