Varsity highlights
The 2004 Pioneer Cross-Country team opened the season at the very
competitive Brother Rice Invitational placing 11th out of 24 teams.
There is no doubt this team would have fared much better if it were
not for a couple of injuries to key runners. Senior Morty
Stensones-Fornaess pulled out of the race after the two-mile mark
with an injury to his hip. In spite of the disappointing team
finish, there were some outstanding individual efforts.
Leading the way for Pioneer was Junior Peter Christmas (17:00),
who finished in an impressive 7th place in a very competitive field.
His time was also exceptional on one of the most difficult courses we
run on all year. In recent years only two runners have broken 17
minutes (Morty Stensones-Fornaess and Jeff Hubbard), and considering
it was Peter's first-ever cross-country race, his run was
outstanding. Great job Peter!
Juniors Eric Anderson (17:47) and
Craig Marlatt (17:58) also turned in very strong performances. Eric
finished in 38th place, while Craig was 46th. Last year these two
runners ran together (and won) many of the JV races, and they
continued running together again this year at Kensington. Running in
his first-ever varsity race Sophomore Ben Bross turned in an
outstanding effort by running a time of 18:21. There is no doubt, on
any other course, Ben would have run a personal best with this effort
finishing 74th. Rounding out the final two spots, and also running
in their first-ever varsity races, Junior Will Barden and Sophomore
Nick Ochal (filling in for Takashi Gould) ran solid races and
finished 127th and 132nd respectively.
Junior varsity highlights
As was the case in 2003, Pioneer JV runners had a very impressive
and dominating showing. Though team results are not officially
scored in this race, Pioneer's top four runners - Senior Kyle Kulseth
(18:46), Junior Leo Callender (18:52), Senior Dale White (18:53), and
Junior Mark Antonuk (18:57) - not only broke the 19 minute mark, but
appeared to all finish in the top 15 places. Kyle is bouncing back
from a difficult injury-filled junior season and looked strong from
beginning to end, finishing in 3rd place. Leo was running in his
first-ever race for Pioneer, and will be a force as the year
progresses.
Charlie Cavell (19:15) was not far behind, and had the fastest
time of the freshman class. Great job Charlie! Other freshman
standouts include Jon Heinrichs (20:57) and Taylor Deluca (20:59).
Very impressive debuts for these guys.
Also impressive, and almost unheard of on this difficult course,
was PR's for Dale White and Yan Charniauski! Other notable
performances were Mack McDonald-Wilkins (19:17), Lang Burghardt
(19:42), and Adam Fisher (19:45) all breaking the 20 minute mark.
Congratulations to all of the JV squad for such a fine effort!