The Reeths-Puffer girls cross country team is progressing and starting to move up in the standings against tough competition.
A good example came on Saturday when the Rockets finished sixth out of 12 teams at the Allendale Invitational, which was a step up from last year’s eighth-place finish.
The Rockets finished with 174 points. Grand Haven won the event with 49 points.
Four Reeths-Puffer runners posted their best times of the season.
It started with junior Jersi Bilek, R-P’s top runner, who took ninth place out of 80 competitors with a time of 19:24. That was a full 10 seconds better than her previous best time for the season.
Jersi Bilek (front row, second from left) and Gabrielle Chevez (back row third) receive their medals at the Allendale Invitational.
“She started strong and hung on to her pack, which took some grit,” R-P Coach Linday Keefe said about Bilek.
R-P sophomore Gabrielle Chevez also had her best time of the season - 20:20 - and finished 17th overall.
Both Bilek and Chevez received medals for their top 20 finish.
R-P sophomore Kaitlyn Durow finished in 22:12 and took 41st place. Senior Adrienne Fluette set a new personal season record with a time of 22:39 and took 47th place.
Charli Belinger also had her best mark of the season at 22:35 while Darcy Keefe, coming back from injury and illness, had a time of 24:03.
Jersi Bilek
The Rockets were also happy with their performance at the second O-K Green conference meet last week, despite finishing fourth out of five teams.
The O-K Green has several new teams this year, and Coach Keefe described it as “our new and tough conference.”
The Rockets finished with 104 points, which was 20 points better than rival Mona Shores. Jenison took first place with 23 points.
Bilek turned in a time of 20:10 and finished third in the individual standings, improving from her fifth-place finish at the first conference meet.
Chevez finished in 21:36 and took 13th place, which was a big step up from the first conference meet, when she finished 37th.
Durow finished 41st with a time of 23:18. Belinger came in at 24:06 and Fluette had a time of 24:09.