For the better part of a decade Hart cross country has dominated the sport, not only locally but at the state level. It seems that dominance is only set to continue, despite the loss of key pieces following last season, as both the boys and girls teams clinched conference titles Thursday, Oct. 17.
Conference champs for cross country are determined by totaling results from three conference jamboree meets held throughout the year. The final jamboree for the WMC Rivers was held at Muskegon Community College last Thursday and everything came up Pirates.
The boys raced first, notching a perfect score of 15 points for a first place team finish. Leading that effort was a string of five straight top finishers for Hart.
Pirate junior Jack Slotman (17:56.29) took first, followed by a pair of freshmen with Grant Ackley (18:04.54) and Trevor VanderKodde (18:04.86) taking second and third. Sophomores Carson Ackley (18:05.25) and Mason Opalewski (18:12.01) finished in fourth and fifth respectively.
That wasn’t it for Hart however. A slew of Pirates – though most didn’t tally toward the final score – continually crossed the finish line. Pascal Miller grabbed eighth place at 18:43.51, ending the Pirates’ top 10 finisher tally at six. Bryce VanderKodde (19:09.28), Max Stitt (19:10.07), Ethan Schaner (19:15.82), Owen VanderVlucht (19:19.10), Pablo Ortega-Rubio (19:29.35) and Cole Slotman (19:41.71) all finished top 25.
Additional finishers for Hart’s boys were Rhet Johnson (20:12.02), Noah Wolff (20:52.88), Josh Bustos (21:05.34), Reise Bateson (24:14.61), Leonard Udell (24:37.92) and Silas Jones (26:30.68).
For Hart’s girls, it wasn’t a perfect score, but it was pretty close as the Pirates finished in first as a team with 19 points.
Hart sophomore Natalie Rosema paced the girls in first place, finishing at 20:14.29. Finishing behind her were three additional finishers in the top five, starting with Lexie Beth Nienhuis (21:06.33) in second, Alaina Schaner (21:08.93) in third and Bryn Riley (21:23.99) in fifth.
All but one Hart runner on the girls side finished in the top 20. Kenai Kokx (21:45.40) and Joselyn Flores (21:46.16) were top 10 finishers while Emery Velat (22:01.40), Luisa Vander Zwaag (22:47.72), Ellie Gross (24:03.98) and Abigail Studer (24:39.44) rounded out top finishers. Baleigh Klotz came in 30th with a final time of 27:24.22.
This marked the ninth straight conference title for Hart’s girls team and the eighth straight for the boys.
Also competing were Shelby and Hesperia. Hesperia’s boys continued an impressive season, finishing behind Hart in second place with a team score of 69. Shelby’s boys earned a third place finish with a score of 87.
The Panthers’ boys were led by sophomore Nate Ruhstorfer, who was the only Hesperia runner to finish top 10 with a final time of 18:38.16. Zack Temple (18:59.95), Andrew Sherburn (19:04.11) and Andy Lopez-Garcia (19:17.53) all finished in the top 20 as well.
Shelby’s boys were led by two top-10 finishers, starting with junior Iziquiel Picon (18:21.25) in sixth and freshman Parker Weirich (18:52.23) in 10th. Shelby senior Ethan Fessenden was the only other Tiger to finish in the top 25 at 24th place with a time of 20:09.19.
Shelby’s girls finished behind Hart in second place as a team, scoring 51 total points. Sophomore Lydia Soelberg continued to be the Tigers’ top runner, scoring a fourth place finish at 21:18.80. Noel Parker also finished in the top 10 at seventh with a time of 21:39.71 while Kathryn Beyer (22:24.29) and Grace Hasenbank (23:06.61) were top 20 finishers.
Hesperia’s limited runners on the girls side were paced by sophomore Rokhaya Ruhstorfer (25:04.13) in 22nd place. Elyssa Wright was the only other Panther to run for the girls, taking 29th place with a time of 27:07.43.
All three schools – Hart, Hesperia and Shelby – will compete at Regionals in Benzie Friday, Oct. 25 for the right to advance to the state finals. The Division 3 boys race will take place at 3 p.m. while the girls will start at 4:10 p.m. at Benzie Central High School.
