Clare girls win final JPC meet of the season

By BEN MURPHY

Cleaver Sports Writer

With the regular season winding down, area cross country teams took part in the final Jack Pine Conference meet of the season on Wednesday, Oct. 15. The event was held at Shepherd, and the big highlight was the Clare girls taking first place.

The Lady Pioneers won with 36 points, edging out host Shepherd who had 40, Bullock Creek was third with 99 and Meridian was fourth with 102. Shepherd won the first two JPC meets, giving them the league championship over Clare.

The Lady Pioneers had Alison Villa-Bilton lead them with a third place finish, thanks to her time of 19:44. Sophia Buzzelli was sixth with a run of 20:26, Lauren Leis crossed eighth at 20:28 while Elizabeth Letherer and Emma Stotzel were ninth and 10^th with times of 20:30 and 20:37. Olivia Forsberg followed in 14^th with a run of 20:52, Ava Robinson was 22^nd at 21:50, Leah Leis was 39^th at 23:04, Reagan Somers crossed the line 52^nd after timing out at 24:26, Olivia Dubay was 65^th at 41:04 and Kayla Villa-Bilton was 66^th with a run of 44:05.

For the Lady Eagles, Evalynne Bell was 27^th with a run of 22:06 and Ines Ferrer was 64^th thanks to her time of 35:49.

The Lady Hornets had just one runner compete, that being Hope Purvis, who finished in 54^th after timing out at 24:55.

On the boys’ side, Shepherd was well in front, winning the race with 28 points. Clare was second with 78 and Bullock Creek was third with 80. Harrison placed eighth with 195 points and Farwell was ninth with 251.

The Pioneers saw Connor Schmidt place 10^th on his run of 17:07, Clayton Peacock was 13^th at 17:21 and Christian Villa-Bilton was 16^th with a run of 17:33. Placing 17^th with a 17:36 was Joseph Haupt, while Sutton Klaus was 22^nd at 17:42, Matthew Rodgers was good for 29^th on a time of 18:28 and Kona Crump was 30^th at 18:33. William Warner finished 33^rd at 18:45, Ian Letherer added a 44^th place spot at 19:26, Cullen Gallagher ran a 19:45 to come in 50^th and Cole Grundy was able to finish 52^nd on a sub-20 run of 19:51. Greg Steele was also 60^th on a time of 20:13 and Carter Chapman was 64^th at 20:16.

For the Hornets, Logan Young had a solid seventh place finish with a blistering time of 17:04. Jayden Bobzien was 38^th at 18:52, Cory Westbrook was 57^th at 20:02 and Malachi Coulson crossed at 20:15 to come in 62^nd. They also had Kaiden Eichorn cross in 63^rd with a 20:16, Gavin Jansen was 71^st at 20:53 and Lucas Dodd added a 101^st place finish, as he crossed the line at 25:51.

As for the Eagles, Connor Cousineau placed 27^th with a run of 18:21, Keagan Terrian finished 39^th at 18:55, Marcos Allen Quero was able to finish 73^rd at 20:55 and Callen Mogg was 75^th at 21:07. Memphis Peever ran a 21:28 to place 80^th and Paxton Terrian was 94^th with his run of 22:40.

Clare runs in a Division 2 regional meet at Benzie Central on Saturday, while Harrison heads to Benzie as well, to run in the Division 3 portion of the event. Farwell heads for Deckerville on the same day for its Division 3 regional action.