Team qualifies for the State Finals on Saturday

By Jim Newell

Review Editor

It was a rainy, cold day on a soggy, muddy course but the Lake Orion runners, as they have all season, put in a dominate performance and ran as a pack, earning second place at regionals on Friday.

The Lake Orion High School varsity boys cross country team finished second at the Michigan High School Athletic Association Lower Peninsula Division 1, Region 9 meet at Anchor Bay High School.

The Dragon runners finished with a low score of 52, second behind Romeo High School’s score of 32.

Port Huron Northern finished third out of the 16 teams at the meet, with 114 points, while Stoney Creek High School finished fourth, 131, and Clarkston was fifth, 159.

With the second place finish, the Dragons will move on to the MHSAA State Finals at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.

Lake Orion senior Clayton Kuiper was the Dragon’s top runner, finishing fourth overall with a time of 17:48.3 on the 5K course.

Lake Orion seniors Hong Bing Tang (18:04.3), Will Houvener (18:04.5) and Adam Hafeli (18:04.6) finished 10th, 11th and 12th overall, respectively.

Senior Jacob Gleason (18:21.7) was 15th and junior Luke Peardon (18:23.4) was 16th out of the 110 runners at the meet. Senior Ronnie Leonard was 30th.

The Dragons have seven titles this season. The team won the Anchor Bay Early Bird invite on Sept. 2, the Averill Invitational on Sept. 11, the OAA Red Jamboree 1 on Sept. 14, the 53rd Holly/Duane Raffin Festival of Races on Sept. 18, the Oakland County Cross Country High School Championship on Oct. 9, the Oxford Invite on Oct. 15 and the OAA Red Jamboree 3 on Oct. 21.

The Dragons finished second to Brighton at the Mott Fall Classic on Sept. 25 and second to Oxford at the OAA Red Jamboree 2 on Sept. 28.

Girls Cross Country

The Lake Orion girls cross country team finished 10th out of 15 teams in the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 1, Region 9 meet, with a score of 243.

Oxford won the girls meet with a score of 73, followed by Romeo, 102, and Macomb Dakota, 117.

Freshman Addison Verlinden was the top runner for the Dragons, finishing 17th overall with a time of 21:32.9 on the 5K course.

Senior Alexandra Boes was 53rd, sophomore Lauren Dumeah was 54th, sophomore Maddie Feurig was 57th, senior Kendall Osborne was 62nd, freshman Luciana Lacroix was 64th and sophomore Mackie Shoskey was 81st.