BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
The Wolves topped the OAA Red once again as they took first place at the league’s second Jamboree at Stony Creek Metropark, Sept. 27.
The Clarkston Boys Cross Country team finished with 42 points for their second win in the league races. Birmingham Seaholm finished in second place with 66 points. Lake Orion took third place, Rochester Adams, fourth; and Troy, fifth.
William Eisert led the Wolves as he finished in fifth place with a time of 16:26.4. The Wolves had four more runners finishing in the top 20 with Shawn Slater in seventh place, 16:44.7; Nickolas Favazza, ninth, 16:47.8; Brendan Favazza, 11th, 16:49.9; Mika Juuhl, 12th, 16:54.4; and Jacob Dolan, 20th, 17:11.
The Lady Wolves finished in second place during the varsity race as they finished with 51 points. Birmingham Seaholm finished in first place with 40 points while Troy finished in third; Rochester Adams and Lake Orion tied at fourth; Oxford, sixth; and Rochester, seventh.
“I really couldn’t have asked more from them,” said Kevin Breen, head coach for the Clarkston Girls Cross Country team. “They really performed well. It was the first showing our runners had where it looked like they were working together as a team – running together in packs and groups. It’s always a goal at the end of the season – making sure our runners are closing the gap from our first runner to our seventh runner. There are also little things – everyone is working hard, everyone is healthy and we are focused on the right direction right now.”
Elizabeth Dalrymple led the Lady Wolves as she finished in fourth place at the time of 18:54.1. Mallory Ferguson finished close behind in fifth place, 19:03.9. Rounding off the top five places for Clarkston were Emily Ferguson in 13th , 19:38.8; Mia Patria, 14th , 19:48; and Emily Gustafson, 15th, 19:58.3.
“Last time we raced against the teams in the OAA we had some slip ups and it cost us to drop back quite a bit,” Breen added. “This past OAA Jamboree we showed what we were capable of.”
The JV girls team finished in third place with 103 points as Rochester Adams finished in first, 26 points; and Seaholm finished in second place, 43 points.
Heather Burrum led the Lady Wolves as she finished in fifth place, 21:57.7. Alex Gladding finished in seventh; Riley Kloostra, 26th; Madeline Forshey, 36th; and Olivia Gilmore, 46th .
The boys JV team finished in fourth place with 93 points while Lake Orion finished in first place with 25 points. Jeremy Cavallo led the team as he finished in fifth place at the time of 18:22.6. Also finishing in the top five for the team were Ben Allen in tenth; Mark Sprague, 24th ; Ryan Nicosia, 25th ; and Quinn Schreiber, 33rd .
All teams continued the momentum with first place finishes at Hanson’s Invitational on Saturday.
The Wolves finished in first place in the varsity Division 1 race with 66 points. Canton finished in second with 93; Grosse Pointe North, third with 103.
Juuhl led the team as he finished in tenth place at the time of 17:19. Five more Wolves finished in the top 20 with Eisert at 12th place, 17:21; Brendan Favazza, 13th, 17:22; Slater, 14th, 17:26; Nickolas Favazza, 17th, 17:37.5; and Nate Sesti,18th, 17:38.
The Lady Wolves finished in first place in the varsity race with 24 points.
“Fifteen points is a perfect score and we scored 24 points, in an invitational setting when there’s over 10 teams, you don’t get scores that low unless everyone is performing on all cylinders and your team is ready to run,” said Breen.
Grosse Pointe South finished in second place with 56 points as Rochester, Utica Ford and Port Huron Northern rounded the top five.
“We played around with a few things,” said Breen. “Elizabeth made it more into a workout which helped our third runner to close the gap. She performed for two purposes – for her to get a workout in knowing she will be a front runner anyway and rather than go out there and be No. 1 runner she did the team a service and tried to help the third runner to close the gap.”
Mallory Ferguson led the team as she finished in second place at the time of 19:32, 12 seconds behind the first place runner Karenna Duffey from Macomb L’Anse Creuse.
“She made some improvements and usually she is running with Elizabeth,” Breen added. “By Elizabeth dropping back a little bit it gave Mallory an opportunity to front run and challenge the front of the pack.”
Dalrymple finished closely behind for the third spot at 19:42. Ferguson finished in sixth place, 20:27; Gustafson, eighth place, 21:03; and Patria, tenth place, 21:09.
The teams head to the Oakland County meet this Saturday at Kensington Park.
“We are going to be in a really good position going into Saturday,” said Breen. “I can see us battling it out with Troy and Birmingham Seaholm. Milford always come out and runs hard. They’ve got some of the best runners in the state, too. Waterford Mott has a number of runners. These are teams who will give us a challenge.”