The Cedar Springs Girls Cross Country team opened its conference season at Riverside Park this past week in the first OK Gold Conference Jamboree. The Lady Red Hawks finished in 5th place out of the eight-team field.
The team was paced by Senior Larissa McGrath who turned in a strong showing finishing in 6th place (20:16) in the 101 runner field. Freshmen Serena Piotrowski and Junior Annalise Elliott finished 28th and 29th respectively. A trio of runners led by Hannah Reed (39th), Molly Bentley (40th) and Kaitlynn Brown (41st) finished within seconds of one another and worked together throughout the race. Junior Addyson Brown rounded out the Varsity squad in 52nd place.
On Saturday, September 10, the team traveled to Central Montcalm to compete in grade level races. In the Senior class race, Larissa McGrath finished 3rd and Molly Bentley 12th in a competitive field. A trio of Juniors finished in the top 12 in their race led by Hannah Reed (9th), Addyson Brown (10th) and Kaitlynn Brown (12th). In the sophomore class race the three Red Hawk entrants all ran season personal records (PR’s). This group was led by Emily Hoort in 14th, Kaisa Maki in 16th and Allie Teuscher in 18th. All three took off over 50 seconds from their previous seasons best times. The freshman class race saw a quartet of harriers finish in the top 17. The group was led by Serena Piotrowski’s strong 3rd place finish. Lucy Hotz (10th) and Amaya Gomez (12th) both improved on their times from the conference meet, by 20 and 45 seconds respectively. Shelly Zimmerman rounded out the quartet in 17th place in her first high school meet.
“We didn’t perform anywhere near our potential at our first OK Gold Conference Jamboree but were able to bounce back on Saturday with some steady performances that show we are headed in the right direction. I’m looking forward to us improving in practice this week so that we can have a successful team effort on Friday at the Ottawa Hills Invite,” said Coach Katie Weiler.
