Saints lead the area, Vikings win MAC-Blue in girls cross country
Updated: Dec 6, 2022
Tough competition and a beautiful but windy day at the Lake St. Clair Metropark set the stage for the 25-team MAC cross country championship Saturday morning.
The St. Clair girls finished fifth overall with 155 points to lead the area, Marysville was ninth with 294 points, Port Huron Northern finished 11th with 316, and Marine City took 18th with 462.
Leading the Saints was senior Ava Pergitone who placed 10th overall in a season’s best of 19 minutes, 48.7 seconds.
“It was a little hard, but it was good. It kind of felt long because you could see the end [of the course], and the wind was not too pleasant on the way there,” Pergitone said.
She and four other teammates finished in the top 50 with one of the lowest team spreads (1 minute, 50 seconds) at the meet, which bodes well for the upcoming regional championship. Sophomore Allie Komarowski finished 28th in 20:38.2, junior Lilyana Bratt was 36th in 21:02.9, senior Katelynn Jalosky took 38th in 21:16.1, and freshman Aubrey Sargent rounded out the pack in 21:38.7 to take 50th.
“I’m excited, it should be good. We want to qualify for states as a team,” Pergitone said. “We ran well today, a lot of girls ran around their usual times. It wasn’t like anyone ran super slow or super fast, so that’s always good to stay consistent.”
Marysville, which finished ninth overall, won the MAC-Blue. The Vikings were led by sophomore Lillian Rutallie who ran her second-best time of the season, 19:59.5, to take 15th overall.
“It felt kind of long and it was a little windy,” Rutallie said. “[Running in a championship] gets you ready and prepares you for regionals.”
Rutallie said she thinks she and her teammates have progressed well so far this season and are excited for this weekend’s race.
“We don’t do a ton of long runs, so maybe that helps,” she said. “I’m very excited for regionals.”
The meet will be at Goodells County Park, the home of the Midseason Spectacular – a meet in which the Vikings ran back in September when Rutallie and four others had run then-season-best times, and many have improved even more since then.
In fact, three of them ran personal-best times on Saturday: sophomore Addison Stevens (22:06.3), junior Kylee Hall (23:31.6), and freshman Autumn Klepach (26:11.0).
As for Northern, the Huskies were led by senior Reese Georgia who ran 20:07.1 to take 18th overall. Fellow senior Dylan Pasia was 31st in 20:46.5. And for the Mariners, junior Casidhe Flesher led the way in 21:19.8 to take 39th overall.
Both the Division 1, Region 9 and Division 2, Region 17 championships will take place on Saturday, Oct. 29 at Goodells County Park. The Division 2 boys race will start first at 10 a.m., followed by the Division 1 boys at 10:30. The Division 2 girls will run at 11 a.m., and the Division 1 girls will follow at 11:30 a.m.
For more information regarding the meet, please click here.
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