By Jim Newell
Review Editor
ORION TWP. — One point. One.
That’s all that separated the Lake Orion boys cross country team from at least a share of the title at the inaugural Lake Orion Stan Ford Cross Country Invitational at Lake Orion High School on Friday.
The Lake Orion girls also ran strong races, placing five girls in the top 10 on their way to earning a second-place trophy at the invitational.
The boys cross country team finished with 38 points, one behind Rochester Adams with 37 points. Cranbrook Kingswood finished in third with 89 points, followed by North Farmington, 91 points, and Troy Athens, 118 points.
The girls cross country team finished with 38 points, second to Rochester Adams, 21 points. Adams runners took the top four spots but Lake Orion had five girls in the top 10, more than any other team. North Farmington finished with 79 points and Cranbrook Kingswood finished with 104.
After 40 years as the Lake Orion varsity boys cross country coach and 41 as the head track coach, Ford retired in May. He was on-hand at the invitational with his camera, taking photos of runners, presenting the trophies and enjoying being a spectator.
Boys cross country head coach Andrew McDonald said he was proud of the way his team ran, although he was visibly haunted by that one point, and asked Ford to present the trophy to the team.
Sophomore Blake Peardon was the top runner for the Lake Orion boys, finishing in third place overall with a time of 16:54.4 minutes in the 5k race.
Senior Horacio Lopez finished in fifth place (17:13), sophomore Raymond Lucero II was sixth (17:19.7), senior Eddie Cromwell was 11th (17:39.1), freshman Max Houvener was 13th (17:51.1), senior Luke Peardon was 14th (17:51.5), junior Sean Stein was 18th (18:08.4), junior Oliver House was 25th (18:24.3) and senior Nathan Yee finished 30th (18:31.2).
Dragon Addison Verlinden was her team’s top runner, finishing in fifth place overall. The sophomore finished the 5k race in 20:55 minutes.
Other Dragon runners to score were freshmen Nadia Fedorinchik in sixth place (20:58.3), freshman Elizabeth Crawford (21:24.8) was eighth, junior Maddie Feurig (21:31.6) was ninth and senior Annika Russell was 10th (21:32.9).
Senior Kyra Andrews was 14th (21:57.1), junior Lauren Dumeah (22:00.6) was 16th, junior Katie Broth was 17th (22:00.9), junior Katie Adams was 18th (22:10.4), junior Mackie Shoskey was 19th (22:17.6) and freshman Eva Winter was 20th (22:29).
The teams next race is the OAA Red Cross Country Championships beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday at Clintonwood Park in Clarkston.