Reeths-Puffer’s Jersi Bilek continued to show her enormous potential in cross country, finishing among the top 10 freshmen runners at the MSU Spartan Invitational on Friday at Michigan State University.
Bilek finished 58th overall in the field of 230 runners with a time of 22:11.
The R-P girls finished 19th in the 23-team field.
Eva Shinabery had the second-best time for R-P at 23:47, followed by Bella Cole (25:40.05), Alison Jakobi (25:48.39) and Hope Latsch (26:08.11).
“Being on a college course with so many other schools, it was neat to witness the next level of competition,” said R-P girls coach Lindsay Keefe. “The girls really rose to the occasion and made some tough decisions to keep pushing, keep passing people and stay in a good mind set. It was very hot and humid and this definitely had an effect, but it did not change what they wanted.”
The R-P boys team at the Michigan State University meet.
The R-P boys, currently dealing with injuries, finished 19th in the 27-team field.
Kye Grant was the top runner for the Rockets, finishing 51st with a time of 17:58.81 while Tate Bradley was 61st with a time of 18:10.32.
Jack Yonkman turned in a time of 18:59.07, followed by Gage Bouwman (22:22.54), Dylan Sturr (23:40.11), Jeffrey Church (25:19.12) and Nate Darling (27:53.65).
R-P boys Coach Darin Grant said that several positives came out of the race. Bouwman shaved 31 seconds from last week’s event, Grant shaved off seven seconds and Bradley improved by one second.
“I saw several guys attacking the hill at the 4,000-meter mark and overall making good choices during the race,” the coach said. “At times making good choices matters more than the finishing time, especially on a hot, humid day where the overall race times were not that fast.”