By John Jarvi
Local Sports Journal

A team of current and former Shelby High School athletes and an entry from Cleary University set the pace in the Second Jayhawk 5K Team Cross Country Challenge  at Muskegon’s McGraft Park.The Shelby threesome of Jacob Richison, Dylan Felt and Jonathon Vanderstelt combined for a 55:16 clocking to win the men’s division and the 0-51 years men’s division in the Team Challenge. Richison finished fourth, Felt fifth and Vanderstelt 10th individually in combing for the winning effort.

Second place overall in the men’s division went to Team Team 2 of current and former Muskegon Community College runners. Current runners Mathias Waterdtradt and David VanBergen combined with former runner Kyle Starr for a 55:34 clocking.

One of two Cleary University entries won the women’s overall title. The Cleary Red team, from Howell, won the women’s overall and ages 52-123 years crowns. The Cleary entry of Aleighsha Engisch, Kellie Szewczyk and Kyndra Palinkas combined for a1:14.10 time and a two-second victory in the women’s division.

The Hart Pirates threesome of Jennie Gottardo, Jenny Herrygers and Kayleigh Gordon had a 1:14.12 clocking to narrowly miss beating the Cleary entry.

The top men’s finishers had Alex Dennis, from Whitehall, winning the overall honors with a 17:18.0 clocking on a revamped Muskegon High School 5K course at McGraft Park. His mark also counts as a course record. Mathias came in second in 17:23 while Roger Champion clocked 17:29, Richison 17:49 and Felt 18:19.

Elaine Lowe, of the Cleary Navy entry, had the best finish by a woman runner. Lowe, came in 15th overall with a 19:46 clocking. Jessica Sowles, of a coed team, came in 18th in 20:29 while Gottardo followed at 20th in 20:49.

The overall coed title went to a group called PB & J. The threesome competed in the 52-123 years age group and won with a time of 1:00.46.0. Pedro Panteleon, Sowles and Joseph Masvero made up the PB & J team. Panteleon came in 12th overall in19:17, Sowles 18th and Masvero 21st.

Finishing a close second was the threesome called the 3 Musketeers. Keaton Smith, Brayden Berson and Cassandra McAllister combined for a 1:00:47 clocking and missed the overall coed title by one second. The 3 Musketeers competed in the 0-51 age group.

The meet attracted 55 runners as a fund-raiser for the Muskegon Community College Jayhawk Cross Country team. MCC coach Dan Fishel said the meet had a bigger entry list and showed improvements overall in its second year. MCC runners handled many of the event working stations for the meet.