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Regional Championship Meet Willow Metropark October 27, 2007
Varsity Highlights In a Region 5-1 championship meet that will surely go down in the record books, Pioneer narrowly defeated Saline, winning by two slim points. It’s almost unheard of for the first and second place teams to both have scores in the 40’s and is a true indication of the strength of these two teams. After losing to Saline all season, Pioneer came to regionals with all their varsity runners healthy and injury free and with a strong will to win. Braving the off-again/on-again rains, it was all worth it for the spectators who were treated in the end to a real nail-biter duel. But, even the savviest fans were not aware of just how close it was. In what can only be described as the definitive cross country race, it DID come down to the 5th man. The scores of the top four runners for Pioneer and the top four runners for Saline ended in a dead heat – 29 points for each team. Pioneer’s top placer, Senior Charlie Cavell spent most of the race battling for third place, with the number one and two runners out of reach. He wasn’t quite able to hang on for 3rd place with his time of 16:14.9. But, his solid performance was enough to secure 4th place, outdistancing the 5th place runner by over 11 seconds. Excellent race, Charlie! Sophomore Nick Kern delivered again for the team, gaining an important 6th place ranking in his time of 16:29.4. In the race of his lifetime, Sophomore Nathan Karr broke his PR by 13.1 seconds, to bring home an 8th place finish in 16:30.6. Awesome job, Nathan! We were all delighted to see Junior Dan Culbertson back in the race and his strong performance was needed in order for Pioneer to pull off a win. In a battle for each and every point, Dan took 11th place (16:35.8), finishing just in front of Saline’s fourth man. At this point in the race, Pioneer and Saline are tied. Pioneer took 4th, 6th, 8th, and 11th places for a total of 29 points. Saline took 2nd, 5th, 10th, and 12th places, also for a total of 29 points. Little did the spectators know what a foot race it was to determine the first place team! Meanwhile, Senior co-captains David Cogswell and Taylor DeLuca knew what they had to do. They knew they had to beat the Saline’s 5th man and working together, they did it! David finished in 17th place, with a time of 16:49.1 and Taylor finished in 18th place (16:50.3), together fending off Saline’s fifth man who followed closely in 19th place. Sophomore Adam Kern followed soon thereafter, taking 21st place in a time of 16:59.2, putting all seven varsity runners in the top 21 and resulting in all seven finishing under 17 minutes.This truly was a team effort and each and every runner contributed to the team’s success in an important and powerful way. Congratulations to the Pioneer varsity team for an excellent race! You are ready for the state meet, you know what you have to do, and you can do it.. Go Pioneer!! Junior Varsity highlightsThe Pioneer JV dominated their D1 “Reserve” race in the wind-driven mist – although the race not officially scored, Pioneer claimed seven of the top-ten spots, including the top 3 finishers. Senior Jon Henrichs literally ran away with the race, opening up a substantial lead during the last mile and once again claiming first place for Pioneer with a time of 16:57.4 - and becoming Pioneer’s 8th man to finish sub-17:00 on this course today. Congratulations Jonathan! Sophomore Andy Sanz-Guerrero ran right up there with Jonathan for much of the race, and finished in second place with a time of 17:21.6. Andy has really matured as a runner this year, and in the process he has lowered his PR by more than a minute. Wow! Running in just his third meet this year, Senior Captain Erik Levinsohn poured on the speed to open a significant gap between himself and the rest, finishing 3rd in 17:36.2, a season-best performance for Erik. Although not quite 100% back to last year’s PR after struggling with injuries much of the season, Erik cut 19 seconds from his best time this season today, a sure sign that he’s well on his way to recovery before track season begins. Senior Eric Hubbard was a 2006 season varsity runner who had a great finish at the State meet last year, but was unable to continue running this fall due to the season switch-over for men’s tennis, where he also had an amazing season for Pioneer. But when tennis season ended, Eric was once again available to run – and that’s exactly what he did! Eric and fellow Senior Kinshuk Rajan ran together almost the entire race, until Eric kicked a little harder during the final stretch to finish a second ahead; they took 5th (17:47.9) and 6th (17:48.9) places for Pioneer. Kinshuk is another unsung hero for the Pioneer JVs and he cut his PR by nearly a minute this season, down to 17:41.5. He is consistently one of our top-seven JV runners and one of only a handful who ran in every meet this year. Juniors Robin Nitzer (9th in 17:54.5) and Neil Keicher (10th in 18:04.7) also gave very strong performances in this race. Neil has cut about 17 seconds from his PR this year, and we look forward to his return next year as a senior. Robin has dropped 1:29 from his time since his first race for Pioneer this fall, and we’ll miss his contributions next fall after he returns to Germany for his senior year. Will we see him on the track for Pioneer in the spring? Sophomores Kevin Chaperon, Juan Sanchez and Joe Frakes ran together for most of the race. Kevin had a little more steam left for his kick and pulled slightly ahead to grab 13th place in a time of 18:16.6, leaving 14th place to Juan in 18:18.9 and 16th place for Joe in 18:19.7. These three have a lot of potential for next season: Kevin has dropped 1:00 from his PR this year; Juan has kept his times in the low-18-minute range since his first race (Carson City); Joe has dropped an incredible 1:50 from his PR since his first race (Kensington). Junior Julius Theophilus finished 24th in 18:48.7, followed by Caleb Fogel (27th in 18:52.5, a new PR by 15.5 seconds) and Niko Rombes (29th in 18:57.8). Julius has dropped 50 seconds from his PR since the beginning of this, his first, CC season. Caleb has dropped his PR by more than 25 seconds this fall, despite missing several meets due to injury, and Niko Rombes, who describes himself as being better at shorter distances than at the 5k, also improved his PR by over 1:15 during this season. Freshman David Torres and Sophomores Lucas Arias and Jonathan Diep also ran together much of the race. David claimed 41st place in a time of 19:09.0, trimming his PR by 1.4 seconds; Lucas finished 46th with a time of 19:12.5 (a new PR by more than 20 seconds!); Jonathan Diep also chopped 33 seconds from his PR to end the race in 52nd place in just 19:16.6. Senior Co-captain Jacob Whiten finally did it!!! Jacob had been trying to break that 20-minute barrier ever since last year, and we congratulate him for achieving his goal by finishing in 19:51.5 (78th place), chopping 8.5 seconds from his old PR. Congratulations Jacob! Jacob has been a model of tenacity, never losing site of his goal. This is exactly the kind of leadership that we’ve come to expect from Jacob, and our young runners have benefitted from his example.Sophomore Mike Sullivant was right behind Jacob, finishing 78th with a time of 19:54.6.Senior Dylan North posted a time of 20:12.4 for a 90th place finish and Sophomore Ben Aukerman dropped 5.4 seconds from his PR as he finished 93rd in 20:17.6. Junior RJ Marable’s 20:37.7 earned him 101st, Sophomore Aaron Trierweiller’s 20:47.4 was enough for a 104th finish, John Fonte was 112th in 20:58.1 and Freshman Gabe Crisman finished 112th in 21:27.4. Sophomore Zack Keller slashed his PR by 1:20 to finish in 22:25.7 and take 141st place – Zack has dropped a whopping 6:15 from his 5k time this season. Juniors Manuel Akard (143rd, 22:32.7) and Sebastian Ullrich (144th, 22:33.3) finished the race together. Manuel cut his PR by 1:49 this year. We hope Sebastian enjoyed his U.S. cross country season with Pioneer, where he dropped over 2 minutes from his PR – keep on running! Freshman Malcolm Shanks, who joined the team mid-season had a time of 27:05.1, but has cut his PR by more than 3 minutes since his first race. Junior David Wallington started the JV race in a strong position, but had to withdraw – more tough luck after a good season which saw his PR drop under 17 minutes despite being plagued by injuries. We’ll expect more great races from you next year, David. What tremendous talent, potential and growth this JV group has demonstrated this year! We thank all the seniors who have finished their seasons - and their Pioneer cross-country careers. They have been tough competitors, and many would have been permanent varsity starters in slightly smaller high schools. Their team “graduation” leaves many gaps at the top of the JV squad, but thanks to their excellent example and leadership during the 2007 season, we have no doubt that next year’s team will keep up their training so they can step up to fill the shoes (spikes?) the seniors leave behind. Good luck, seniors!
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