Western Michigan Christian wins first-ever girls GMAA cross country meet; Vanderkooi leads the way

MUSKEGON – First it was Abby Vanderkooi and now it’s her sister, Grace, who is dominating the girls’ race in the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association cross country meet.

Abby, now a sophomore running at Grand Valley, won the GMAA meet all 4 years of high school. Grace, now a junior, has now won two in a row. As a freshman, she was running in the shadow of Abby, then a senior.

Now it’s Grace’s turn to pencil her name on the top spot after Saturday’s race that she won by 40 seconds over her nearest competitor. Saturday’s race was at University Park Golf Course.

That effort, along with the balance of the Western Michigan Christian team, earned the Warriors its first-ever GMAA meet. 

WM Christian, which had four runners in the Top 10, finished with 37 points. The Warriors were followed by Fruitport with 54 points, led by runner-up Tatum Dykstra, and Reeths-Puffer with 84 points. Whitehall’s Kami Kraai finished third, followed by Reeths-Puffer’s Jersi Bilek.

Western Michigan Christian coach Greg Gould had a good feeling this could be the Warriors’ year to finally take home the championship trophy.

“The plan was to run like we’ve been running,” Gould said. “I think a lot of times we get into these championship settings and we try to over-coach and try to do something extraordinarily different than what got us here and that has not been our plan all season.”

WMC’s other runners included a fifth-place finish for Grace Folkema, seventh for Eleanor Kingshott, ninth for Leah Sneller and Kaylie Riksen rounded out the scoring with a 15th-place finish.

“Our 2, 3, 4, they’ve been somewhat separated, but not massively,” Gould said. “Today, they really stayed together very well which was nice because Fruitport’s strategy was definitely to try to go out with us and see if they could hang. I knew their No. 1 (Dykstra) would go fast because she is fast and their 2 and 3 went out really hard. We set up behind them and chipped away and went to work. I thought it went really well.”

 

For Vanderkooi, she was pleased with the victory, but said her asthma was causing some issues for her on Saturday morning.

“I had a hard time breathing today,” said Vanderkooi, whose winning time was 18:43.86. “The asthma really kicks in on days like today. The weather is good, but it’s not my day today, but it was good.”

At the 1-mile mark, Vanderkooi was running with Dykstra and Kraai, but pulled away from them not long after that.

“I like to run that way,” she said. “I don’t want to start out too fast and instead of getting passed by people, I pass them and it’s a lot more fun.”

“We try to be patient in that first mile and not fall asleep in the second,” Gould said. “But, just keep on competing and then close really well. That has worked for us really in all of our big meets.”

But Vanderkooi also is focused on the team, which could make some noise at the state level the first weekend in November.

“Our team is very good this year and I think we could have a shot at a state title again,” she said.

 

 

Western Michigan Christian (37): 1, Grace Vanderkooi, 18:43.86; 5, Grace Folkema, 20:31.78; 7, Eleanor Kingshott, 20;39.25; 9, Leah Sneller, 20:47.24; 15, Kaylie Riksen, 21:22.62.

Fruitport (54): 2, Tatum Dykstra, 19:24.30; 6, Lauren Lee, 20:36.84; 8, Valerie Pollock, 20:39.88; 19, Tresa Dykstra, 21:48.72; 21, Treasure Fleese, 21:54.75.

Reeths-Puffer (84): 4, Jersi Bilek, 20:24.08; 12, Gabrielle Chevez, 21:07.76; 13, Adrienne Fluette, 21:15.66; 24, Darcy Keefe, 22:12.47; 34, Kaitllyn Durow, 23:31.65.

Mona Shores (102): 10, Ellery Horness, 20:56.13; 17, Diamond Madison, 21:42.28; 25, Ella Grimm, 22:17.42; 26, Adrie (AJ) Schalk, 22:22.10; 27, Kendall Braginton, 22:33.59.

Whitehall (134): 3, Kami Kraai, 19:45.07; 11, Adalyn Britton, 21:05.74; 41, Kassidy Parmely, 24:29.41; 49, Samantha Mead, 25:10.51; 51, Isabella Izaguirre, 25:18.19.

Montague (139): 14, Cammie Erickson, 21:18.62; 29, Grace Torsch, 22:38.61; 31, Greta Auch, 23:17.37; 35, Emma Pendell, 23:42.62; 36, Delaney Schultz, 20:01.42.

Oakridge (177): 16, Merceydez Patton, 21:39.89; 23, 23, Raegen Ruel, 22:09.27; 55, Milla Hanks, 25:55.69; 60, Chasity Nuell, 26:16.97; 75, Fynnlay Hanks, 28:15.75.

Ravenna (243): 50, Aurora Pelham, 25:17.55; 71, Ximena Yanez, 27:37.42; 77, Alivia Gilbert, 29:11.54; 78, Kendra Denhof, 29:20.32; 80, Skyler Villegas, 30:14.62.

North Muskegon (No team score): 18, Sylvia Skujins, 21:43.60.

Holton (No team score): 67, Ava Crowell, 27:12.16; 76, Justice Hill, 28:58.93; 86, Molly Burkett, 30:55.63.

Muskegon Catholic (No team score): 47, Catherine Cone, 24:59.20; 59, Lyla Kotecki, 26:14.75; 69, Abby Lee, 27:25.20; 73, Ella Staniforth, 27:39.46.