Varsity highlights

The Pioneer mens varsity cross country team rebounded strongly at the Holly invitational. As compared with the Brother Rice meet on the previous Saturday, the top 5 runners improved by an average of 62 seconds. As a result, Pioneer jumped up from 12th place to 6th place against a tough field. Equally important, Pioneer was only 60 points out of first place. The team can be proud of an excellent performance.

Leading the way for Pioneer was senior James Naughton. James took 6th place with a personal record (PR) time of 16:24. Joe Anderson improved by 54 seconds from Brother Rice and took 32nd place (17:04). Andy Harvey improved by 1:16 (wow!) and took 40th. Soren Berg had a PR time of 17:24, which was good for 44th place. Freshman Takashi Gould also had a PR time, as he took 59th place (17:44). In the past 4 years, only James Naughton has run a faster time as a freshman. Finally, Mike Roth and Mortie Stensones-Fornaess both broke 18:00 for the first time.

Varsity team results

Team                     Points
1. Portage Northern       121
2. Traverse City West     134
3. Detroit Cath. Central  135
4. Temperance Bedford     152
5. Grand Blanc            152
6. Ann Arbor Pioneer      181
7. Brighton               193
8. Northville             234
9. Troy                   252
10. Rochester Adams       286
11. Lake Orion            306
12. South Lyon            345
13. Rochester             353
14. Saline                354
15. Saginaw Heritage      367
16. Howell                400
17. Port Huron Northern   408
18. Jackson               427
19. Troy Athens           461
20. West Bloomfield       496
21. Portage Central       553
22. Romeo                 583
23. Kalamazoo Loy Norrix  633
24. Bay City Central      705
25. Utica                 792
26. Wayne Memorial        826
27. East Detroit - incomplete team
28. Saginaw Arthur Hill - incomplete team

Pioneer varsity runners

Place  Name                      Time
6.     James Naughton            16:24  PR!  (-8)
32.    Joe Anderson              17:04
40.    Andy Harvey               17:11
44.    Soren Berg                17:24  PR!  (-26)
59.    Takashi Gould             17:44  PR!  (-17)
71.    Mike Roth                 17:50  PR!  (-10)
76.    Mortie Stensones-Fornaess 17:52  PR!  (-11)
Weather: 60, sunny, low humidity

Junior varsity highlights

The JV team wasn't quite as awesome as the varsity. Still, there were lots of fine performances.

Sophmore Jeff Hubbard and Junior Kevin Goehring led the way. Both ran PR times. Jeff grabbed 5th place (17:57) with Kevin just behind in 6th place (17:58). Both broke 18:00 for the 1st time.

Sam Milgrom cracked the 19 minutes barrier for the first time. Dave Ross got under the 20 minute line. It seemed that Erron Morton, Tom Bergman and Brenner Heintz decided to get serious about running a cross country race. All three got major improvments in their PR's.

All in all, the JV runners established 17 PR's. That's great.

Name                 Place  Time
Jeff Hubbard          5     17:57  PR!  (-21)
Kevin Goehring        6     17:58  PR!  (-43)
Jesper Jarkvist      --     18:26  PR!  (-13)
Alan Antonuk         --     18:39
Sam Milgrom          --     18:43  PR!  (-28)
Dan Moyer            --     19:14  PR!  (-10)
Phil Dokas           --     19:26  PR!  (-17)
Nick Wilkenson       --     19:27
Dave Ross            --     19:48  PR!  (-36)
Josh Salvner         --     19:55
Carl Duke            --     20:03
Alex McGuiness       --     20:06  PR!  (-1:02)
Eric Ressler         --     20:34
Kellan Winbourne     --     20:54
Stuart Remick        --     21:08  PR!  (-42)
Erron Morton         --     21:10  PR!  (-1:12)
Alex Reynolds        --     21:11  PR!  (-6)
Cedric York          --     21:54
Johannes Widmalm     --     21:54
Ross Acheson         --     22:09  PR!  (-18)
Decker JP            --     22:11
Alex Urbanik         --     22:21  PR!  (-55)
Tom Bergman          --     22:31  PR!  (-2:02)
Brenner Heintz       --     22:40  PR!  (-1:45)
Jeff Nao             --     22:50  PR!  (-22)
Dale White           --     22:54  PR!  (-24)
Nick Wickstrom       --     23:48

Final notes

The next race is the Jackson Invitational. This is a fast course and an excellent opportunity for a PR. Also, the JV race is run on Friday and is completely separate from the varsity race on Saturday. They give out medals for the JV race. A number of Pioneers JV runners should earn medals.

PR! - new personal record, refers to all-time PR, not just the best time of the season

Go Pioneers!