CARSON CITY -- Traverse City Central is heading back to the state finals.
The defending Division 1 state champion girls will be at Michigan International Speedway to defend their title after finishing third at Saturday's regional at Carson City-Crystal.
"Every year, this is the weekend you train for," TC Central coach Lisa Taylor said. "I'm pleased we were able to pull it all together today and make our 14th trip (to the state finals) in a row."
Top-ranked Rockford won the meet with 21 points, followed by Grand Ledge with 75, the Trojans with 76 and TC West fourth at 110. The top three teams and the top 15 individuals qualified for the state finals.
"To be a part of it is always good," Taylor said. "When you're the defending champs, there's always a target on your back. They girls were able to look beyond that all season. We hope it will be like years past and we have our best race next weekend."
Rockford's Jane Hawks won the meet in 18 minutes, 33 seconds, but TC Central's Julia Otwell was right behind with a second-place finish in 18:55.
The Trojans also had Sam Ehle 14th (19:42), Jessica Krantz 16th (19:54), Hannah DeBortoli 18th (19:56), Maria Lyons 26th (20:34), Maren Bahra 28th (20:37) and Aimee Marsh 32nd (20:51).
Leading the Titans were 10-place finisher Marcy Marek (19:40.3) and Rachael Favela (19:40.6) in 11th, putting both in next week's state finals.
Hannah Rickard was 17th in 19:55, followed by Kaylee Vandommelen (20:38, 29th), Aria Jelinek (21:10, 43rd) and Clancey Hawke (21:34, 49th).
In the boys' race, Rockford won with 41 points, followed by Okemos (79), Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills (89), Muskegon Mona Shores (137), Grand Ledge (146), TC West (150) and TC Central (184). Kenowa Hills' Reed Kamyszek won in 15:46.1.
Evan Cover led the Trojans with a 17th-place run, just finishing out of the top 15, who qualify for the state finals. Cover completed the course in 16:56.
Drew Dancer (17:24, James Padden (17:26), John Miller (17:57) and Caleb Thompson (18:04) were Central's other counters.
It was the first year in 21 seasons that the Trojans won't have a male runner at the state finals.
"We ran into a lot of injuries," Trojans coach John Lober said. "And when you're hurt, it interferes with your training a lot. But I was happy with the boys we had running for us."
Juniors Dancer, Padden and Miller were 32nd, 33rd and 44th in a competitive regional race.
Traverse City West was paced by Sebby Kucera's state-qualifying run of 16:50.9, good enough fro 14th place.
Sam Kosinski just missed qualifying, placing 16th in 16:53.8.
"Sam missed it by three inches, diving for the finish line," West coach Dan Zemper said.
Other top Titans finishers were Matt Laylin (17:19, 29th), Hunter Swogger (17:34, 37th) and Jonah Laursen (18:07, 54th).
Zemper said he had four varsity runner who contracted upper respiratory infections this week.
"I feel like we had our legs cut out from under us," Zemper said. "Now I know how the football team felt. We could have done better, but not today."
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