Western Michigan Christian girls capture first Alliance League cross country jamboree

LocalSportsJournal.com

MUSKEGON – The Western Michigan Christian girls’ cross country team captured the first Alliance League Jamboree on Wednesday with all five runners finishing in the Top 10.

The event was run at Muskegon Catholic Central.

WM Christian finished with 28 points, followed by Grand Rapids West Michigan Aviation with 33, Wyoming Potters House with 76, Grand River Prep at 129 and Wyoming Lee with 130. Muskegon Catholic had three runners so the Crusaders did not qualify in the team results.

The WMC girls were led by Grace VanderKooi, who won the overall title with a time of 19:21.59. Grace Folkema was fifth overall at 22:06.01, Eleanor Kingshott was sixth at 22:06.24 and freshman Leah Sneller was seventh in 22:10.15. Kalie Riksen was the Warriors’ fifth runner. She finished in 22:29.35 and finished 10th.

Photo/Randy Riksen

“We had some familiarity with some of the Alliance League teams, but knew that Grand Rapids West Michigan Aviation had been strong in past seasons and have a very strong No. 1 and No. 2 runners,” WMC coach Greg Gould said. “We had to respect them and use our pack running to get the five-point win today. We were working on certain aspects of team racing today and I like the way the girls executed.”

Muskegon Catholic’s runners included Catherine Cone, who was 26th in 26:01.37, Ella Staniforth in 44th at 29:54.61 and Abby Lee was 45th at 30:46.81.

Potters House outran the field in the boys’ meet with 47 points. Grand Rapids West Michigan Aviation was second with 71 points, followed by Western Michigan Christian (77), Muskegon Catholic (89) Wyoming Tri-unity Christian (91), Grand River Prep (148) and Byron Center Zion Christian (177).

Potters House runner Jackson Rodriguez was the overall winner in 17:15.29.

The Warriors’ top five finishers included Matthias Morse, who was second in 17:27.41, Graeson Lawrence was 14th in 18:46.44, Reuben Anderson was 16th in 18:53.91, Alexander Lawrence was 22nd in 19:18.52 and Owen Sytsema was 23rd in 19:23.41.

For the Crusaders, Owen Lyonnais led the way with a sixth-place finish in 18:08.38. He was followed by Jacob Lyonnais, who was seventh in 18:13.08, Jack Wolkenhorst was 15th in 18:49.72, Luke Rennells was 26th in 19:39.68 and Nathan Walkenhorst was 40th in 20:43.88.

“We knew Potter’s House would have a lock on the boys meet today,” Gould said. “We focused our attention on Muskegon Catholic Central as they are in regionals with us later in the season. Their first three ran very well, but we employed as much pack running as we could to try to split them up. We had limited success today, but still a solid improvement over our last race.”