Benzie runners make college picks

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Theresa Warsecke, left, and Amber Peabody are set to sign letters-of-intent to run at the collegiate level.

February 21, 2012

Two standouts to sign letters-of-intent on Wednesday

BY JAMES COOK jcook@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Tue Feb 21, 2012, 07:18 AM EST

BENZONIA — On Wednesday, Theresa Warsecke appropriately moves from being a Husky to a Rocket.

After all, speed is her thing.

The Benzie Central cross country and track standout is set to sign a national letter-of-intent to run at the University of Toledo during Wednesday's boys basketball game against Kingsley, where the entire girls track and cross country teams will be recognized for their Division 3 state title and receive championship rings. Coaches Asa and Traci Kelly will be honored for their Division 3 state coach of the year awards as well, and Amber Peabody will sign her letter-of-intent to Michigan Tech.

As the senior leader of the cross country team, Warsecke cut 1:15 off her personal best to rocket up recruiting lists, which caught the eye of many college coaches, including those of the Rockets.

"Track has always been my favorite," Warsecke said. "Something clicked in cross this year. Since Taylor (Nye) and Michaela (Carnegie) were both gone, I had a chance to be the top runner. I guess it just all clicked and I kept getting faster."

With Nye, Carnegie and Warsecke as the Huskies' top three, Benzie was once again a cross country and track force. After two-thirds of that trio was gone, Warsecke stepped up to help fill the void.

"Coming into this cross country season, she had done very well in track," Asa Kelly said. "She had done well in cross, but not as well as in track. Coming into cross (season), she already had 10 all-states from three years in track, which is outstanding. She's been on multiple winning relay teams and gone to nationals in track. In cross country this season, she really came into her own.

"She grabbed that opportunity and took the No. 1 spot and ran with it. All that together opened up the eyes of a lot of coaches really quickly."

I doesn't hurt that former Benzie teammate Devyn Ramsey is also running at Toledo.

"That helps a lot," Warsecke said. "It made me fell really comfortable there because I already knew someone there and I could get her opinion on it and how she felt being there."

She also looked at Western Michigan, Bowling Green, Saginaw Valley, Ferris Sate and Michigan State before narrowing down her search to Toledo, Central Michigan and Oakland.

"Toledo is a really good program," Warsecke said. "I feel I'll get even better there and excel there.

"They have medical programs there. And that's something I want to go into, something in the medical field."

After this spring, Peabody will stay a Husky, signing a partial scholarship at Michigan Tech.

"She's an outstanding runner, but even a stronger student," Kelly said. "She's a 3.99 GPA student that wants to go into engineering, which is perfect for Michigan Tech. So she was leaning towards Michigan Tech anyway. Then she went on her official visit up there and they offered her a pretty nice scholarship — and it was a match made in heaven."

"That was pretty much the only school she considered, and she got lucky that they offered her a lot of money to run."

Peabody — who missed much of her junior year between a stress fracture during cross country and anemia in the track season — cut 45 seconds off her personal best this fall as she and Warsecke were the only two seniors on Benzie's title-winning team.

Peabody and Warsecke are expected to be contributors as Benzie goes for another run at the Division 3 state track title. The team will also have the addition of Cass City transfer Alyssa Bennett to help offset losing Nye, Carnegie and Taylor Wichtner — each of whom is running for a Big Ten team this year.

"I'm really excited for track," Warsecke said. "I think we'll be really good. We have a lot of girls returning from last year."

Bennett was selected to the Bay City Times track Dream Team and was the Female Athlete of the Meet at the Huron Daily Tribune Meet of Champions, where she won the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 events last year as a freshman. She placed 15th in the 1,600 state finals in Division 3.

"We have a pretty good group of girls again in the spring," Kelly said, "so we'll see what we can pull off."