Lady Packers Place 7 Runners Under 24:00 Mark at Portage

Pre race

Story by Michael Paige
Photos by  Jessie Kendziorski

Fremont Cross Country teams ran on Saturday at the huge mega-meet in Portage, MI. Close to 4,000 runners compete in the day-long event, spread out over boys and girls Div. 1-4 varsity and JV races.
This meet should be a good indicator of a team’s position going into late season regional and state finals meets.
The Fremont ladies were up for the task in the field that included 295 runners from 43 teams, with all seven finishing in under 24 minutes.
Junior Linnea Paige led the way with a strong performance placing 21st with a season record time of 19:27. Junior Joelle Patten ran a strong race, as well, with a personal record time of 21:25, placing 94th. Kira Manchip ran a stellar time of 22:11, a half-second off her personal best. Rachel Maddox (23:19), Ava Krohn (23:33), Jailyn Saum (23:34) and Rocquel Richards (23:47) completed the top seven for Fremont. Krohn’s time was 25 seconds faster than her previous best while Saum ran almost a minute faster than hers. Richards’ time was almost a minute and a half faster than her previous best this season. Per Coach Cliff Somers, “Jailyn Saum had a big PR today placing 205th moving up 16 positions in the last mile. The whole girls' team had a strong last mile with all of them finishing better than what their position was at the 2-mile.” Fremont scored 639 points for a 25th place finish.
In the girls JV race Riley Chase (25:13), Alayna Bukala (26:57), Maddi Dunbar (28:21), and Ann Kausch (36:56) all ran personal records. Jessie Kendziorski tied her previous personal best time at 25:59, running the course about 45 seconds faster than last year. Margarita Romero ran as well, with a season best time of 32:30.
The team will be back in action on Oct. 15 for the final WMC Lakes Jamboree at Oakridge.

Top 50 finishers: Linnea Pige just right of center in red stripes