Traverse City Record-Eagle

Cross Country

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  • Jan-Michael Stump

    TC WEST CROSS COUNTRY INVITATIONAL
October 21, 2009

Central, Otwell nail down Big North

FROM STAFF REPORTS

GAYLORD -- It was a sweep for Traverse City Central in the Big North Conference on Tuesday.

The Trojan girls won their third league meet, earned the conference title and had the top overall runner in the Big North.

Central scored 23 points at the Gaylord Country Club to finish first at the final league jamboree. Traverse City West was second with 55. The Titans were followed by Alpena (74), Gaylord (101), Cadillac (116) and Petoskey (147). The teams finished in the same order for the final conference standings.

"One of the things that's very important for me is getting lower scores as the season progresses, in comparison with our conference," Trojans coach Lisa Taylor said, adding that the team had 37 and 26 in the previous two jamborees.

Central senior Julia Otwell won Tuesday's race in 19 minutes, 14 seconds. Teammate Katie Perkins finished second in 19:23 while Alpena's Taylor Stepanski was third in 19:39.

Otwell's finish, coupled with Perkins edging Stepanski, gave Otwell the individual conference title.

"She's been very consistent all four years," Taylor said of Otwell. "She's not one to really get nervous about racing, but you could tell today she had an extra mission in mind. She was focused."

The Trojans also placed Sam Ehle fifth (19:39), Maren Bahra sixth (19:47), Jessica Krantz ninth (20:16), Hannah DeBortoli 10th (20:19) and Maria Lyons 11th (20:31).

West had a fourth-place finish from Marcy Marek in 19:37. Hannah Rickard was eighth (20:14), Rachael Favela 12th (20:32), Kaylee VanDommelen 13th (20:39) and Aria Jelinek 18th with a personal-best 21:05.

"We've come a long way," West coach Eric Houghton said. "The last two to three years, we've been fifth. To move up to second is a testament to their hard work."

Also finishing in the top 10 was Alpena's Samara Donajkowski, placing seventh (20:05).

Otwell, Stepanski, Perkins, Marek, Ehle, Donajkowski and Bahra earned first-team all-conference honors while Rickard, Krantz, DeBortoli, Favela, Lyons, VanDommelen and Gaylord's Megan Borgenson and Amanda Olds were second teamers.

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