Varsity highlights

Pioneer had an excellent team effort at the second SEC Jamboree. Although there was only one personal record, all seven varsity runners were within 10 seconds of their season-best times (well almost, Joe was within 14 seconds). This is a fine performance considering that the Pioneer course is fairly challenging. As in the first jamboree, Pioneer beat out rival Saline.

Once again, James Naughton led the way. After finishing ahead of Saline's Dustin Voss at Jackson, James had hoped to finish first in this race. But a strong performance by Voss (16:09) relegated James to second place. Still, a 2nd place finish and a 16:21 time is a fine accomplishment.

There was excellent running by the next group of Pioneers. Joe Anderson (#7, 17:18) and Andy Harvey (#8, 17:19) ran together the entire race and finished with a strong kick. Soren Berg (#10, 17:29) was not far behind. This gave Pioneer four runners in the top ten. Takashi Gould completed the scoring, as he took 13th place with a PR time of 17:43. Way to go Pioneer varsity.

Varsity team results

Team       Points
1. Bedford   29
2. Pioneer   40
3. Saline    53
4. Adrian   113

Pioneer varsity runners

Name                 Place    Time
James Naughton         2     16:21
Joe Anderson           7     17:18
Andy Harvey            8     17:19
Soren Berg            10     17:29
Takashi Gould         13     17:43  PR!  (-1)
Mike Roth             15     17:55
Jeff Hubbard          16     17:56
Weather: 75, sunny, low humidity

Junior varsity highlights

Jesper Jarkvist, you da man! Jesper smashed his PR by 35 seconds and took second place in the JV race. Jesper's time of 17:51 was faster than two of the varsity runners, which will make it tough for Coach Sleeman to choose the varsity runners for the next meet. Great work Jesper.

Other than Jesper, it was a so-so day for the JV team. There were only a few PR's. All of PR's were fairly modest, 10 seconds or less. Since most of the JV team had never run a race on the Pioneer course, many runners were surprised by the course difficulty. The second hill can be tough.

Not to worry, the next meet is at Portage. This should be the fastest course of the year for the JV runners. So there should be a bunch of PR's come Saturday.

Name                     Place  Time
Jesper Jarkvist           2     17:51  PR!  (-35)
Marty Everin             --     18:26  PR!  (-10)
Kevin Goehring           --     18:28
Alan Antonuk             --     19:06
Nick Wilkenson           --     19:08  PR!  (-1)
Sam Milgrom              --     19:31
Dave Ross                --     19:37  PR!  (-5)
Josh Salvner             --     19:47
Walker Rutter-Bowman     --     19:58
Phil Dokas               --     20:00
Carl Duke                --     20:01
Dan Moyer                --     21:18
Jeff Nao                 --     21:30  PR!  (-6)
Alex Reynolds            --     21:31
Johannes Widmalm         --     21:52  PR!  (-2)
Erron Morton             --     22:02
Decker JP                --     22:39
Ross Acheson             --     22:47
Tom Bergman              --     23:25
Dale White               --     23:25
Luke Hospadarak          --     23:41

Final notes

Next up is the Portage Invitational. This is a fun meet with a very fast course. Portage is a suburb of Kalamazoo. It is about two hours from Ann Arbor, with nearly all expressway driving.

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

Go Pioneers!