Boys take second place

The Lake Orion boys varsity cross country team competed in the Mott Fall Classic in Waterford on Friday and took home a second-place trophy.

Brighton led with a low score of 42 points, followed by Lake Orion with 63 points, and Walled Lake Northern, 65 points, to round out the top three teams in the 12-team field.

Lake Orion senior Will Houvener did not run in the race, and the Dragons had to step it up to score, said Coach Stan Ford, with solid performances from Hong Bing Tang, Adam Hafeli and Clayton Kuiper, finishing seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively.

Tang (16:47.7), Hafeli (16: 48.2) Kuiper (16:48.8) finished just 1.1 second apart in the 5K race, and all were under 17 minutes.

Senior Jacob Gleason ran a season personal record, finishing 20th, with a time of 17:21. Junior Luke Peardon finished 21st, with a time of 17:21.8 to round out the Dragon medalists.

So far this season, the team has taken first place at the Anchor Bay Early Bird Invitational, the Averill Invitational, the OAA Red Jamboree 1 and the 53rd Holly/Duane Raffin Festival of Races.

Girls cross country

The Lake Orion girls varsity cross country team continued to improve and finished seventh out of 13 teams at the Mott Fall Classic.

Northville High School won with a low score of 42 points, followed by Walled Lake Northern (84) and Grand Blanc (101). Lake Orion finished with a score of 220.

Dragon freshman Addison Verlinden finished 20th overall with a time of 20:51.6. Sophomore Lauren Dumeah finished 35th (21:47), sophomore Maddie Feurig was 63rd (22:51.2) sophomore Mackie Shoskey was 66th (23:02.2) and senior Kendall Osborne was 71st (23:31.4) out of the 112 runners in the field.

Both Dragon teams competed in the OAA Red Jamboree on Tuesday after Lake Orion Review press time.

The Dragons next compete in the Oakland County Cross Country High School Championships on Oct. 9 at Kensington Metropark. – J.N.