BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
The Wolves hit the path at Springfield Oaks County Park in the Holly/ Duane Raffin Festival of Races on Saturday.
The Clarkston varsity and JV cross country teams finished in the top ten.
“We did alright,” said Kevin Breen, coach for the girls varsity and JV teams. “We’ve got some room for improvement but for the most part we saw what we needed to see.”

The girls varsity team finished in fifth place out of 20 teams in the Division 1 race with 150 points.
Senior Mia Patria led the pack with a third place finish at 19:15.7. The top five runners also included junior Mattie Drennan, 18th place, 20:36.6; freshman Lindsey Darnell, 41st, 21:34.4; sophomore Elise Wilhelm, 54th, 21:58; and sophomore Mackenzie Montigano, 76th, 22:38.1.
Breen added performance from Patria, Darnell and Drennan stood out.
“Mackenzie did amazing,” he added. “She moved up through the pack very well. The teamwork between Mackenzie and Olivia Galio was really something exciting to see. Mackenzie kept pushing. Their teamwork in the second mile made up a lot of ground and made a lot of difference.”
Breen explained it was a good meet to add to the calendar because the Wolves will compete at Springfield Oaks during the regional meet.
“It’s a bear of a course,” he added. “The kids are never on flat ground. They are always running up and down. sometimes they are significantly slower. There’s a lot of uneven ground in spots and soft as well. The goal was to go in there and not necessarily think about time but think about place, think about going out there a little more conservative so we could finish the second half of the race on a positive note. We have a lot of progress to make. We have to chip away and find the back end. Our varsity needs to get stronger and keep pushing up and challenging themselves.”
The girls JV team finished in seventh place in the Division 1 race out of 17 teams with 198 points.
Freshman Cate Cotter led the girls with a 17th place finish at 23:01.7. The top five runners also included freshman Rebekah Wilson in 32nd place, 23:22.8; freshman Annelise Lemieux, 68th, 24:30; junior Kelsey Roth, 70th, 24:32.4; and sophomore Crysa Gasiorowski, 75th, 24:39.8.
“We have some JV girls really stepping it up including Cate and Rebekah,” Breen added. “Kelsey had a really great performance. Cate and Rebekah are really contending for a varsity spot.”
The boys varsity team finished in fourth place in the Division 1 race out of 22 teams with 135 points.
Senior Brendan Favazza led the Wolves, finishing in seventh place at 15:59. 8. The top five runners also included senior Nathan Sesti in 14th place, 16:26.6; sophomore Andrew Sesti, 27th, 17:00.2; senior Christian Collis, 33rd, 17:21.2; and sophomore Joey Taverna, 49th, 17:38.7.
The boys JV team finished in seventh place out of 20 teams in the Division 1 race with 180 points.
Senior Jacob Carusello led the pack finishing in 14th place at 18:41.7. The top five runners also included junior Valen Kurmaniak, 21st place, 18:46; senior Luke Snudden, 29th, 18:51.4; sophomore Nolan Puffer, 46th, 19:14.1; and junior Bo Anderson, 59th, 19:21.
The girls from Clarkston Junior High School finished the 3,200-meter middle school race in second place out of 42 teams with 116 points.
Alexandra Brigham led the Wolves, finishing in fifth place at 13:34.3. The top five runners also included Kennedy Mareches, 14th place, 13:59.6; Anna Reineck, 22nd, 14:22.4; Morgan Poploskie, 47th, 15:12.6; and Nora Miller, 91st, 15:59.7.
The girls from Sashabaw Middle School finished in 17th place with 574 points. Seventh grader led, finishing in 17th place at 14:11.8. The top five runners also included seventh grader Kendall Sieradski, 16:11.1; sixth grader Sydney Fischer, 16:28.1; sixth grader Gabriella Duffy, 16:52.5; and sixth grader Maren Studt, 17:01.6.
The boys from Sashabaw Middle School finished the middle school 3,200-meter race in seventh place with 289 points out of 36 schools. Sixth grader Brendan Sesti led the pack, finishing in 15th place at 12:57.2. The top five runners for Sashabaw also included sixth grader Ethan Heist, 35th place, 13:22.5; seventh grader Cayden DeGrendel, 65th, 14:04.4; sixth graderAnthony Dubeck, 73rd, 14:15.2; seventh grader Joshua Ellingsworth, 83rd, 14:27.
The boys from Clarkston Junior High School finished in ninth place with 316 points.
Eighth grader Brycen Lefief led the pack finishing in 25th place at 13:08.5. The top five runners for Clarkston also included Zac Montgomery, 41st place, 13:32.8; Bryce Nowik, 51st place, 13:44.1; Andrew Floros, 52nd, 13:44.2; and Aidan Barnes, 57th, 13:52.6.
The varsity runners head to the Jackson Invitational this Saturday. The first race begins at 10 a.m. Breen explained he isn’t looking for the girls to place.
“One of the things I understand about this year is we lost four of the toughest, fastest girls in the state,” he said.
“We came back knowing we had a lot of rebuilding to do. We are getting there but at the same time when we go to these big races like Jackson we are going to see some of the best in the state. The focus isn’t to beat them, the focus is what are our goals and how do we move up and become a top ten team.”
The Wolves head to the OAA Jamboree No. 2 at Lake Orion High School on Tuesday.

  Clarkston Cross Country, cross country