LocalSportsJournal.com
Several local cross country teams competed in the Cougar Falcon Invitational at Calvin College Saturday. The event is divided into four races — The Cougar, The Falcon, The Eagle and The Gainey.
Mona Shores, Reeths-Puffer and Spring Lake competed in The Cougar, while Hart and Ludington ran in The Falcon.
Both Hart teams came out victorious on the day. The Hart girls finished with 28 points, 13 points ahead of second-place Sheppard. The Pirates had each of the top four finishers, with Alyson Enns (18:54), Savannah Ackley (19:10), Audrianna Enns (19:31) and Lynae Ackley (20:05) claiming the top four. Lauren VanderLaan (22:09, 18th), Layla Creed (22:21, 22nd) and Savanna Owens (22:36, 25th) were also in the top 25 finishers.
The Hart boys finished with 66 points, just one ahead of second-place Saugatuck. The Pirates were led by three Top 10 finishers — Alex Enns in fourth (16:43), Spencer Vander Zwaag in sixth (17:10) and Clayton Ackley in seventh (17:15). Seth Ackley (18:14), Wyatt Dean (18:15) and Noah Bosley (18:32) finished 24th, 25th and 26th overall, respectively, for Hart.
Ludington finished eighth in the girls race and ninth in the boys race. The top Oriole runners in the girls race were Annie Kline (21:46, 14th), Gwen Shamel (22:33, 23rd) and Olivia Anderson (23:06, 31st). Ludington’s top finishers in the boys race were Craig Fuller (18:09, 22nd), Andrew Talsma (20:01, 41st) and Nevin Slater (20:53 50th).
Spring Lake was the top area team in the Cougar race. The Lakers were second in the boys race, led by Ian Hill (16:18) and Callen Carrier (16:27) in second and third place, respectively. Adam MacLeod (17:48, 19th) and Asher Liu (17:57, 21st) were in the Top 25 for Spring Laker.
In the girls race, Spring Lake finished fourth. The top finishers were Lily Parker (19:47, 6th), Nora Boufford (19:47, 7th) and Bea Reeser (21:33, 25th).
Mona Shores finished sixth in the boys race and eighth in the girls race. Jackson Helmer (16:52, 9th), Caleb Branch (17:10, 11th) and Aidan Kreps (17:59, 22nd) led the boys, while Robyn Hunt (20:00, 8th), Cecilia Conrad (22:12, 34th) and Destiny Douglas (22:28, 39th) led the Sailor girls.
The Reeths-Puffer teams finished fifth in the boys race and ninth in the girls race. The Rocket boys were paced by Klay Grant (16:33, 4th), Brett Schlaff (17:09, 10th), Jaxon Allen (18:45, 37th), Tate Bradley (18:50, 41st) and Alex Chipman (18:55, 42nd), while Kennedy Hynde (21:45, 30th), Eva Shinabery (22:36, 42nd), Grace Lockhart (22:41, 43rd), Kylie Raynor (22:43, 45th) and Audrey Darling (22:00, 48th) were the top runners for the girls team.