By Journal Sports Staff

EAST LANSING — One area runner earned top-30 medalist honors at the prestigious Spartan Invitational cross country meets held at Michigan State University on Saturday.

Senior Colton Yesney of Negaunee placed 25th out of 288 runners in the boys high school Elite Division race at MSU’s Forest Akers East Golf Course in East Lansing.

He and two girls from Negaunee joined full teams from Marquette Senior High School at the large meet, which MSHS head coach Kyle Detmers said drew more than 2,000 runners in collegiate, high school and middle school divisions.

The Marquette and Negaunee runners competed in the highest of four high school divisions against the largest schools in the state.

Northern Michigan University and several athletes from area schools at other colleges competed in the collegiate divisions, too.

High school runners

As Negaunee’s only boys runner, Yesney clocked 16 minutes, 4.4 seconds on a fairly flat course but in weather conditions Detmers described as a “furnace” during mid-afternoon.

“I thought that our runners competed really well,” Detmers said. “If it had been a cooler day, we would have run faster, but they fought through the heat.”

Senior Shuaib Aljabaly of Coldwater won the boys Elite race in 15:28.1.

The Marquette boys came in 22nd of 42 schools fielding full teams with 666 points, led by senior Garrett Rudden placing 46th in 16:45.4. He missed the top-30 cutoff for medalist honors by just a tad under 30 seconds.

Next for the Redmen was senior Luke Rambo, 96th in 17:19.4; followed by junior Garrett Zueger, 137th in 17:37.4; junior Mathurin Gagnon, 203rd in 18:27.4; sophomore Moses Waite, 220th in 18:40.6; senior Nathan Zika, 231st in 18:48.4; and senior Drew Thomas, 251st in 19:06.4.

The Miners also had the fastest area runner in the 297-strong girls high school Elite Division. Sophomore Emily Paupore was 43rd in 19:39.7, while senior teammate Clara Johnson was 47th in 19:47.7. Paupore missed top-30 medalist honors by 29.4 seconds.

The race was won by senior Olivia Theis of Lansing Catholic in 16:59.0.

Marquette was 29th of 42 schools in the girls Elite team race with 719 points.

Top finisher was sophomore Erica Asmus, who came in 45th in 19:42.4. She was followed by sophomore Delaney Sall, 122nd in 21:04.9; sophomore Reegan Ketzenberger, 138th in 21:12.6; junior Sammy Borzick, 224th in 22:25.5; freshman Guinn Wuorinen, 228th in 22:29.0; and freshman Josie Danielkiewicz, 246th in 23:01.8.

College races

No college team results were listed, but times for individual runnes were available for NMU and a number of former high school athletes.

NMU sophomore Katelyn Smith came in ninth in the women’s race in 22:02.0, while Ferris State sophomore and Westwood graduate Katie Etelamaki finished 24th in 22:35.2.

Smith, who improved her time by more than a minute and a half from last year at this meet, was the top NCAA Division II finisher in the women’s meet that featured more than 300 runners.

Northern junior Kieren Becker was 41st in 23:02.8, junior teammate Abby Fifarek was 58th in 23:37.6, sophomore Hanna Torvi was 67th in 24:02.7, junior Kelly Pietrzak was 81st in 24:18.3, junior Maddy Walters was 104th in 24:53.2, freshman Elise Longley was 119th in 25:06.8 and junior Kalina Pfannenstiel was 129th in 25:26.7.

Another Wildcat, sophomore Shayla Huebner, is also an MSHS graduate and finished 132nd in 25:31.5, while Western Michigan University freshman and MSHS graduate Rebecca McNamee was 121st in 25:10.8.

NMU junior Hannah Lonergan was 219th in 28:04.7, while teammates Victoria Harris and Annicka McDonald did not finish. MSHS grad and MSU freshman Lindsey Rudden also did not finish.

In the men’s race, Michigan State freshman Lance Rambo, another MSHS graduate, came in 68th in 27:03.4.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal. net.