By Mark Blentlinger
Schoolcraft Golden Eagles Cross country has been busy this season running in invitationals. On August 30, the team’s first competition of the year was the Robuster Invitational in Grand Junction where Junior Dante Pillot not only finished in 18th place but became the 16th fastest male runner in Schoolcraft cross country history with a time of 17:15. Two weeks later, the team headed to Centreville for its invitational. Collectively, the varsity, JV and middle school teams came home with three trophies and 18 medals. Both varsity teams and the girls’ middle school team finished in second place.
Ariana Pillot, Jenna VanDussen, Addison Blodgett, Alyssa VanDussen, Samantha Pavlak, Mallory DenHartigh, and Abigail Mulder all earned medals as did Dante Pillot, Connor Candler and Ace Drewyor. Middle school medalists were Olivia Bays earning first place overall, Alyda Leep, Aubrie Fox, Kayla Barkalow, Reese DeVisser, Arden Sziede, Eric Beehler and Isaac Mulder.
On September 19th, all four teams headed to Parchment where the varsity girls team finished second place. The varsity boys team finished in fourth. Both middle school teams finished in 1st place overall with Olivia Bays taking the top spot. Teammate Kayla Barkalow finished second.
The Otsego Invitational was next for all teams. The middle school girls team finished third, and middle school boys finished sixth. The varsity girls finished in 4th with medalists Ariana Pillot and Jenna VanDussen. Varsity boys seventh place medalists were Dante Pillot and Ace Drewyor.
At the Kalamazoo Christian Invitational, the Varsity Eagles had two medalists: Dante Pillot 14th place and Jenna VanDussen 19th.
The SAC Championship ended the Golden Eagles Varsity teams last regular season event where both teams finished in sixth place. The Golden Eagles had two runners finish with All-Conference honors: juniors Ariana and Dante Pillot.
The future of the Schoolcraft Cross country team is looking very good with both teams finishing their seasons as the Conference Champions.
At the middle school regional championships, the girls team finished in 3rd place with Olivia Bays finishing as the Regional Champion. All-Region Girls were Kayla Barkalow, Alyda Leep and Avery McCrumb. The boys finished as runner up. All-Region boys were Reese DeVisser, Arden Sziede and Eric Beehler.
Resse DeVisser as a 7th grader was able to set a new Schoolcraft Middle school record for two miles with a time of 11:48.6.