By Dan Hardenbrook
Cross country runners from Newberry and Engadine lined up and raced at one of the largest meets in Northern Michigan last week. The Indians and Eagles were among a huge number of participants in last Wednesday’s Party in the Park Cross Country meet at East Jordan. Several local standouts had strong showings in one of the most crowded fields of the season.
The premiere race for the female runners had 102 entries including schools from the largest division 1 regions down to small schools like Newberry. Facing some of the giants of the sport, Lady Indians top runner Abby Taylor stole the show with an incredible third-place overall finish. Her time of 19:59 was the fastest recorded 5K race time by an Upper Peninsula female runner so far this season.
Equally impressive was the performance by Newberry sophomore Molly McNamara, who finished 7th overall with a time 21:04. Taylor and McNamara were the only smaller school runners at the front of the field. The other five finishers in the top seven were from Class A Division 1 schools from Traverse City and Sault Ste. Marie.
Engadine’s runners entered the Division 4 race. Sarah Chapman led a strong showing for the Lady Eagles, cracking the top 5 in the competition with a time of 22:07. Sophomore Maggie Mersnick crossed the line at 25:51, finishing 29th overall. Sophomore Bryleigh McClellan finished 34th (26:32), Fern Stielstra was two spots back at 36th (27:16), and Cali Robinson finished 55th (34:46). That group led Engadine girls to a 6th place team finish.
The Engadine boys also delivered a strong showing, with Eddie Franckowiak making the top 10 with an 8th place finish. Franckowiak’s time of 19:01 was one of the top U.P. times in any of the races on the day. Teammate Nate Steilstra just missed the top 10, taking 11th with a final time of 19:18. Birch Bitely gave the Eagles a third top-20 finish, coming in 17th place (20:12).
Freshman Eli Franckowiak rounded out the Engadine boys finishes, taking 56th with a time of 27:39.
