MHSAA State Meet

There are several words that sum up yesterday.  I think the most appropriate is "Wow"!!!  We had an absolutely amazing day at MIS.  The course and the day were easily amongst the best conditions I have ever seen for the state meet.  The team took it upon themselves to take advantage of the beautiful day and ran a phenomenal race!

McKinley Jones continued to lead the Hornets across the line.  Her 17:59 is a PR and solidifies her status as the fastest freshman ever at Saline High School.  She was also All State, finishing in 18th place overall.  Savannah Staton, another freshman, finished in 33rd place in a time of 18:32.  Senior/Captain Corynn Gady, was 35th with a time of 18:35, a PR (at the State Meet).  It does not get any better than that!! Corynn picked up 4 places in the last 0.1 miles and 15 in the last 1.1 miles.  In a one point differential, that is huge!  Corynn was closely followed by sophomore Kate Munson who ran a huge PR of 18:37 (her first time sub 19).  Lilli Schlack  was the fifth Saline runner, finishing in 63rd place with a season best time of 18:58.  She covered the last 200 meters in 30.8 seconds!!  Freshman Addie Turck was the 6th Saline finisher.  I like to call her "2nd half Addie) because she is amazing in the back half of the race.  Yesterday was no exception as she picked up a remarkable 53 places from the first mile to the finish line.  Senior/Captain Grace Roth rounded out the Hornet 7 with a 20:15 good for 192nd place. 

While they did not race yesterday, an equally important part of our state meet team was our alternates: Mackenzie Sellenraad, Sophie Roth, Abby Roth, Lizzie Thibeault and Kylie Warner.  In particular, for Mackenzie, Sophie and Abby, I asked them to be at the line and be "race ready".  This was the 2nd year in a row that Mackenzie has been in that position and she handled it with the importance that it deserved.  I cannot thank our alternates enough for being ready at a moments notice should we have needed them.

We also had those other "special"  things that made a difference.  The rock pictured above, painted by Sandy Tilt, was a special surprise on our way to MIS.  The FGFF stands for Freaky Good Freaky Fast and is our unofficial slogan.  The team did not know it had been done until we got there.  Add to that, Sandy's husband, George Tilt, one of the premier announcers in the country was the voice you heard over the speakers at MIS.  They are aunt and uncle to Laney and Lydia Alig, two all state runners from Saline.  We also had the Roth grandparents present.  I swear we run great when they are at a race and yesterday was no exception.  Baby Emma (Lagerquist) was there to support her team.  That cute little girl is the source of much inspiration.  Sandy Stafford, head coach of the best middle school program in the state was present.  She and the other middle school coaches do an amazing job of preparing athletes for middle school and beyond.  The high school program would not be what it is without her.  

Not only did the girls team get 2nd place, so did the boys team.  They actually ran the earlier race and set the bar very high.  No other program in Michigan had both girls and boys teams on the podium yesterday.  It was an exciting day at MIS.  We are so proud of what both programs accomplished not only yesterday, but all season.  We talked about this a lot on the girls side, but it also applies to the boys.  For the girls program, we had 3 running goals for the season: 

• SEC Champs

• Regional Champs

• Top 5 in the State - Stretch Goal - Podium

We achieved all of our goals.  Somewhere along the way, I agreed to a bald head bedazzling if we made the podium so I have that to look forward to over the next few days.... 😀. 

This is an amazing group of athletes. Whether they ran in the state meet yesterday or finished a 5k for the first time this season, the coaches are proud of what this team has accomplished!!