OGEMAW HEIGHTS - Aug. 31, 2006 - Though there have been a few cross country meets in late August, Ogemaw Heights got the cross country season off and running for the majority of the 17 participating teams at the Falcons' Dwayne Rau Memorial Cross Country Invitational on Thursday, in which more than 250 male and female athletes competed.
The host Falcons turned in a strong showing, particularly on the girls side, where Ogemaw finished in a tie for first place with Traverse City Central but ended up with the runner-up trophy due to tiebreak criteria. The two teams finished with 39 points, with Valley Lutheran a distant third with 96. Among other area teams, Tawas Area finished sixth with 226, and Roscommon had 313.
For the boys, Elk Rapids won the meet with 34, edging Traverse City Central (37). Tawas finished fourth (149), three points behind Rogers City, with Ogemaw fifth (150), Hale 10th (299) and Oscoda 11th (312).
The Ogemaw and Traverse City Central girls boasted 10 of the top 14 finishers. The Falcons' Holly Mester (2nd, 20:17.67) led her team, followed by win sister Noelle Mester (4th, 20:41.69), Chelsea LeForce (8th, 21:14.77), Heather Villarreal (11th, 21:34.60) and Lindsay Van Oosten (14th, 22:06.19).
"The top five ran a fine first meet," said Ogemaw girls coach Rick Frank. "Traverse City Central finished fifth in Division 1 (at the state finals) last year. They are usually a top-notch team, so it was a good judge of where we are at this early point in the season.
"(The other girls) ran a nice first meet. Some had OK races, especially with the lack of training done in the off-season. But now we must work at improvement. There are a lot of girls in that pack who can be very good runners and October help us if we were to have a tie score again."
Tawas Area was led by Sandy Brandt, with a 15th-place finish in 22:13.54. Other Braves included Ashton Cotter (39th, 23:50), Abbie Hutchinson (77th, 26:20), Angie Tripi (89th, 27:32) and Bethany Britt (99th, 28:25).
Ashley Malin was Hale's lone female runner with a 28th-place finish in 22:49.77.
Oscoda was led by Emily Schwedler's 66th-place finish in 25:44.28. Other Owls included Maggie Ungurean (73rd, 26:08), Tricia McDonald (90th, 27:35), and Emily Courey (118th, 30:57).
Tyler Bischoff paced the Tawas boys with an 11th-place finish in 18:25.97. Other Braves included K.C. Kaiser (26th, 19:25), Jordan Smith (44th, 20:23), Guy Cotter (45th, 20:27) and Jacob Winn (56th, 20:45).
The Ogemaw Heights boys showed why Falcon coach Doug Grezeszak has high hopes for a vast improvement over last season, as several of his young runners stood out. The Falcons were led by sophomore MIke Lentz (15th, 18:40.29), who was followed by freshman Erik VanOosten (27th, 19:27.47). Others in the Ogemaw top five were Zach Lynch (38th, 20:07), freshman Martin Nelkie (41st, 20:13.21), and freshman James Padden (64th, 20:57.31).
"This was a really good performance from a very young group of runners," Grezeszak said. "Our first man (Lentz) ... was the sixth-fastest time ever by an Ogemaw sophomore in this meet. Erik was the fastest freshman in the meet and the second-fastest Ogemaw freshman ever in this meet. He gave Deven David's freshman record for this meet a real run for his money."
For Lynch, it was his fastest time on the Falcons' home course, while Nelkie and Padden also made Ogemaw's all-time top-10 freshman list. The Falcons also had Garrett Benjamin, a sophomore, as their sixth finisher and junior Mike Morris as the no. 7.
David Wood (69th, 21:18) led Oscoda, followed by Kyle Myers (97th, 22:33), Jeremiah Johnston (112th, 23:21), Daniel Vandruska (137th, 28:47) and Craig Laubon (139th, 29:39).
Hale was led by Ethan Parent (55th, 20:45.13). Also finishing were Zach Putnam (101st, 22:48), Cole Eno (126th, 25:37, John Champine (127th, 25:50), Larry Thayer (130th, 26:28) and Nathan Turland (13th, 28:48).
Fairview didn't field a full team, but boasted two of the top finishers in Ryan Kauffman (6th, 17:56.29) and Titus Brown (10th, 18:20.52).
Full Results - Boys
Full Results - Girls
