Varsity highlights

Though Pioneer placed fourth and sixth, respectively, in this meet in 2000 and 2001, its 8th place finish among 20 teams in a strong field was respectable. It turned out to be another tough morning to run - unexpectedly hot and humid - but four of the top five runners bettered their times from Tuesday's SEC Jamboree #1. All things considered - including the fact that the flu kept co-captain Soren Berg out of the race - Pioneer showed some encouraging signs.

Morty Stensones-Fornaess and Kevin Goehring continued to set the pace. Morty grabbed 12th place overall and Kevin 25th - and both ran their fastest races ever as Pioneers. Kyle Kulseth showed clearly that his strong cross country debut at the Jamboree was no fluke, and Takashi Gould and Jeff Hubbard both improved their times considerably. Dan Moyer and Johannes Widmalm performed admirably in their first-ever Varsity starts. (Note of encouragement to freshmen: Johannes finished in 21:54 at last year's Holly Invitational, yet improved enough to earn a spot in this year's Varsity race!)

Varsity team results

Team                     Points
1. Bedford                101
2. Detroit Cath. Central  109 
3. Grand Blanc            162
4. Saline                 167
5. Brighton               171
6. Rochester              173 
7. Traverse City West     180
8. Ann Arbor Pioneer      227
Out of 20 teams

Pioneer varsity runners

Last Name               First      Place       Time
Stensones-Fornaess      Morten        12       17:04 PR!  (-19)
Goehring                Kevin         25       17:25 PR!  (-16)
Kulseth                 Kyle          59       18:13
Gould                   Takashi       61       18:16
Hubbard                 Jeff          76       18:35
Moyer                   Dan          111       19:33
Widmalm                 Johannes     112       19:38
Weather: 85, sunny, humid

Junior varsity highlights

Walker Rutter-Bowman ran a strong and steady race, finishing 16th overall in 18:53, and though Sam Milgrom faded a bit in the second half he also had a good showing, finishing second for Pioneer and 24th overall in 19:14. Both times were better than this week's 6th and 7th place varsity runners, so after two races a pretty healthy competition seems to be shaping up among at least four or five runners for those last one or two varsity spots. The hot weather kept the times down; whereas a whopping 17 JV runners set personal records in cool weather at this meet last year, only five did so this year: Adam Fisher, Dale White, Dan Zhang (by nearly a minute-and-a-half!), Craig Marlatt, and Paul Kimeldorf. In fact, of all those who ran in this race last year, only three runners - junior Carl Duke and sophomores Jeff Nao and Nick Wickstrom - ran faster this year. Wickstrom improved his Holly Invitiational time by more than two minutes: something for this year's freshmen to shoot for.

Speaking of freshmen, Eric Anderson was once again at the head of his class in 19:52. Mark Antonuk (20:38) was the second fastest freshman. And senior Gabe Velasquez had a solid cross country debut, looking strong at the end to finish third among Pioneer JV runners at 19:29.

Last Name        First Name   Place     Time
Rutter-Bowman      Walker      16       18:53
Milgrom            Sam         24       19:14
Velasquez          Gabe        --       19:29
Duke               Carl        --       19:39
Anderson           Eric        --       19:52
Wilkinson          Nick        --       20:26
Antonuk            Mark        --       20:38
Lyjak              Andrew      --       20:47
Totsuka            Hiro        --       20:48
Fisher             Adam        --       20:58 PR!  (-06)
Burghardt          Langdon     --       21:06
Johnson            Greg        --       21:35
Wickstrom          Nick        --       21:36
Nao                Jeff        --       21:40
Boonin             John        --       22:07
Holmes             Jake        --       22:34
White              Dale        --       22:35 PR!  (-30)
Zhang              Dan         --       23:36 PR!  (-1:27)
Marlatt            Craig       --       23:36 PR!  (-10)
Decker             JP          --       23:37
Kimeldorf          Paul        --       23:44 PR!  (-49)

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!