It was a near banner day for the varsity cross country girls at the Oakland County Cross Country championships at Kensington Metropark on Saturday, Oct. 8.
For a brief minute it looked like the girls would leave as county champions after unofficial results revealed the Wildcats beat Birmingham Seaholm by a point. However, due to the Lakeland Eagles not fielding a full squad, Seaholm gained two points and defeated the Wildcats 134-135.
Even in defeat varsity head coach Ray Sutherland was pleased with how well his team ran.
‘We ran phenomenally and it was a great, great day,? Sutherland said.
Sophomore Brooke Kovacic led all Wildcat runners with her second place finish (18:50) and was selected to the all-county team. Brittany Johnson (19th; 20:04) and Chelsea Johnson (23rd; 20:10) also earned all-county honors.
Other performers for the Wildcats include freshman Jenna Feeney, who finished 36th in a time of 20:40. Feeney’s time was 15th fastest in school history and a personal best as well.
Sophomore Alora McCoy was 55th (21:12), sophomore Kristen Godwin was 66th (21:31) and freshmen Sabrina Smith was 77th (21:43).
For the boys, junior Ryan Gillespie’s time of 17:10 (27th overall) paced the Wildcats to an 11th place finish. Gillespie was the only Wildcat runner named all-county.
Other top performances for Oxford include senior Alec Smith (51st; 17:37), junior Ross Chapman (83rd; 18:07), junior Aaron Pletta (87th; 18:11), sophomore Noah Jenkins (95th; 18:20), senior Kyle Feeney (119th; 18:42) and sophomore Joey Uffola (123rd; 18:45).
‘We had an okay day,? Sutherland said. ‘We expected a higher finish than that and we are better than that, but it was a good effort.?
The Wildcats will be working hard this week as the annual Oxford Invite takes place on Friday, Oct. 14 at Oxford Hills Golf Course. The varsity girls run at 4 p.m., while the boys run at 4:30 p.m.