Rambling Rock & Bath

The team was split this weekend between Rambling Rock at Willow Metropark and the Bret Clements Bath Invitational in Bath, MI. I'm not a big fan of splitting the team but logistics this year required that we do so. In the future, I hope to have everyone at the same venue.

Rambling Rock

We will start race notes with our runners at Willow Metropark. There were 23 Saline finishers in the open race. Of those 23, 8 ran a PR! Not only that, but our team won the open race! Yes, we were champions!

Junior Mia Washington and Senior/Captain Riley Provost pushed each other around the course in the open race. Mia was the first Saline athlete across the line in 22:29, good for 2nd overall. Riley finished in 3rd at 22:32

Michelle Jiang was the next Hornet across the line, finishing in 8th overall with a PR of 23:11

Isabelle Calati was 9th overall with an 80 second PR of 23:30. She was followed by Senior/Captain Ruthie Bonfiglio in 11th overall and Lola Lange in 14th overall and a PR of 24:09.

Jenna Hardy finished in 18th with a PR of 24:21 - over 2 minutes faster than her previous PR.

PR's were also set by Ellie Rodriguez, Gloria Jambon and Grace Patton.

Teagan Dzagulones was the final and most impressive PR in the open race. She ran 30:52, improving 6:03 from her previous best. That's incredible!!!

Sometimes, races are tough and you just need to find your teammates to get through it. That's the sisterhood of Saline Cross Country - being there for one another. Olivia Lewis and Elizabeth Giles supported each other around the course on Saturday. Helping each other cross the finish line - way to go!

In the varsity race, we assigned a workout to our athletes to preserve some freshness for Jambo 1 on Tuesday. Despite being restricted in the 2nd half of the race, of the 6 who finished, 4 set PR's and the other two set season bests. That's nice running.

Caroline Cotner led the way in the varsity race, finishing in 17th overall with a PR of 20:39

Caroline was followed by Payton Aagesen in 65th place at a PR of 22:28

Ruby, with this look of determination, set almost a 1 minute PR finishing in 78th place at 22:50

Rounding out the varsity finishers were Senior/Captain Hannah Gritzmaker (82nd, 23:02), Senior Kennedy Lange (90th, 23:16) and Senior/Captain Claire Oberski (91st, 23:17 - another PR for her!!)

The team finished 11th of 26 teams. That's an impressive result for a workout day!

Bath Invitational

Like the varsity athletes at Rambling Rock, the seven athletes competing at Bath were assigned a workout. While no PR's were set at Bath, we accomplished a lot. We were 3rd overall to strong Northville and Okemos teams. Most importantly, athletes ran the workout as designed which will set us up for future success - in Jambo 1 and beyond.

This picture was taken late in the race (probably at about 4200 meters). You can see how relaxed Savannah is finishing this race. She ran 18:56 while doing a workout. At this race last year, Savannah raced the entire course and ran 18:55. We're excited about what this season has in store for her.

The next finisher was Senior/Captain Lilli Schlack. She was so relaxed we had a conversation over the last 800 meters with me asking her if she was comfortable. She ran 19:58. In 2024, Lilli ran 20:22 doing the same workout. Addie Turck was the 3rd finisher for Saline in 20:12 - by comparison, she ran 20:33 in 2024 and that was her PR at the time. Sophie Roth was the 4th Saline finisher in 21:10. Lauren Tomaszewski (21:15), Mahalia Staton (21:30) and Senior/Captain Jillian Hayes rounded out the Saline runners

While we are at Bath, we take the opportunity to visit with Bret Clements' mother. The Bret Clements Bath Invitational is run in honor of her son, who lost his life in a military training accident. He was an avid cross country athlete and the many cross country and track medals he earned are always on display.

Jamboree 1 is up next. We have our work cut out for us against some strong teams from TTUN and Ann Arbor Skyline. Please come out to support the team at Willow Metropark on Tuesday. Race times are 4:30 for varsity and 5:30 for our open athletes.

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