Portage

The week of Portage always seems to signify a transition point in our season.  While not officially considered as any part of the post season, Portage always provides a great opportunity for our athletes to see how they stack up against the competition.  This year was no different as we knew we would face strong competition from some of the best teams in the state (TTUN, Brighton, Northville, Okemos and Holland West Ottawa to name a few).  

Before we get to Portage results though, I want to take a moment to acknowledge a non-race event that took place on Friday.  The team was honored to have Kelly Dahl (Hall) from the class of 2013 come and speak with the team.  Kelly shared her experiences running for Saline XC (she showed her framed leaf from Jambo 3 and her bottle of sand from camp, all traditions that still continue).  She also talked to the team about her life since Saline and the important work she is doing in Atlanta as an Epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control.  She encouraged any athletes interested in public health to reach out to her at any time.  For me, Kelly's advice to the team to "be gentle with yourself" really resonated.  Thank you, Kelly, for taking the time to come all the way from Atlanta to share your important advice with the team. 

Okay, on to the results from Portage!!

Varsity Race:

The varsity team ended the day in 6th place, 1 point ahead of 7th place Grand Haven and 8 points ahead of 8th place Traverse City West, 2 excellent programs.  As we explained to the entire team on Friday, every place matters - it certainly did at Portage for us this year.  Our team made sure that they were making passes in the last 200 meters - those passes were key! 

Individually, we had some good races from the team.  One of the workouts we did this week has a little longer recovery period, so I did not expect us to be at our best on Saturday (but I did not share this with the team until AFTER they raced).  In spite of that workout, and in a nod to my friend Jeff Hollobaugh (@michtrack) at Michtrack.org, who believes (and I agree) you should compare XC performances to the same course, I used my day job skills to take a look back at Portage 2022 compared to Portage 2023. 

Mackenzie Sellenraad rounded out the scoring for the Hornets finishing in 80th place followed closely by Sophie Roth (89th) and Abby Roth (99th).  

The varsity crew continues to edge closer and closer to the post season where we expect the weather to continue to cool and the times to continue  to drop.  

Open Race

The athletes in the open race really showed up yesterday.  Overall, we finished 2nd to a very strong Brighton team and ahead of Dexter, a squad our open team had not beaten in two previous SEC Jamboree's.  

Grace was followed by Madi Rogan (12th place, season best 20:55), Bailey Burt (16th) and Grace Roth (28th).

Senior/Captain Avery Bogdasarian was right on Rebecca's heels at 22:09.5.  These two are good leaders of our program - on the course and off the course as well. 

Many of the other Saline athletes experienced their first ever race at Portage.  Being in that crowd is an experience in and of itself.  As always, the PR's should be celebrated.  Mimi Staton (23:00) and Lucy Sweeney (23:42) both ran PR's.  They likely used their skills from field hockey (Mimi) and ice hockey (Lucy) to skate through the field to run such fast times.  

As always, Coaches Lagerquist, Harrison and I are very pleased with the work everyone is doing.  We're excited to see what the end of the season will bring!  

The team is next in action on Friday at Willow Metropark for the River Rat Invitational.