Girls Cross Country

Ann Arbor Pioneer this week mourned longtime girls track & field and cross country coach Bryan Westfield, who died Sunday at the age of 72 and led Pioneers teams to a combined 19 MHSAA team championships over a career spanning more than three decades. He began coac...

Rachel DaDamio of Birmingham Seaholm may be the only runner to ever finish second in an MHSAA championship cross country meet without ever having won a race in her career. Not one race. Not even a dual meet or low-key invitational. 

Karrigan Smith of St. Johns had been closing the gap on Kenzie Weiler of Cedar Springs the past three years. Smith finally caught her and passed her Saturday to win the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 cross country championship at Michigan International Speedway.

Holly Bullough of Traverse City St. Francis had raced Amber Way of Charlevoix numerous times, but never with as much at stake. Bullough closed a gap of about 75 yards and used one final surge in the last 10 yards to beat Way to the finish line and win the MHSAA Lower ...

Ava Strenge's goals were constantly being upgraded as she made her way along the five-kilometer cross country course at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday.  She didn't come into the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 4 meet as one of the favorites, having pl...

For the second straight season, many eyes at this weekend’s MHSAA Lower Peninsula Cross Country Finals will be focused on a girls race of the best from some of Michigan’s smaller schools. On Saturday, Macomb Lutheran North’s Gina Patterson will run fo...

The element of surprise always is a possibility in any athletic endeavor. Gladstone High School sophomore Leigha Woelffer surprised many people including herself Saturday by earning her first Upper Peninsula Division 1 cross country championship at Gentz Homestead Gol...

Gentz Homestead Golf Course in Harvey will host MHSAA Finals on Saturday that could showcase a few extremes in Upper Peninsula girls cross country. In Division 1, Marquette is seeking its 29th MHSAA team title. Ishpeming in Division 2, meanwhile, can add a crownin...

Jaylee Brown, a 2012 graduate of Onekama and current member of the Northern Michigan University cross country and track and field teams, recently received a Student-Athlete Sportsmanship Award from the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct. Brown encounte...

Cross country runners will cover 5 kilometers a lot this fall, with unique courses and different competitors providing the variety to go with that standard race distance.

Audrey Belf tuned out all of the noise. The Birmingham Seaholm junior didn't want to get caught up in all of the chatter surrounding her quest to win the MHSAA Division 1 cross country championship. She wanted to relax her mind all week, then do what she does best &m...

Kenzie Weiler was satisfied with being the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 cross country runner-up the last two years. This time, Weiler wasn't going to be content with second place.

Amber Way of Charlevoix made up a lot of ground since last year, but couldn't quite close the gap entirely against Gina Patterson of Macomb Lutheran North. Patterson repeated as the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 3 girls cross country champion, but had to win a ferocio...

Kirsten Olling's greatest competition wasn't on the course at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday. The names she was chasing were names from the past, some of the greatest runners in the history of Michigan cross country. 

Breckenridge High School has a mere 244 students. But one could finish this weekend's MHSAA Finals among an elite few in state girls cross country history. Three-time champion Kirsten Olling already is one of the all-time greats. But if she can win one more title, she&...

The Marquette girls and Menominee senior Kameron Burmeister concluded their cross country seasons in impressive fashion in Saturday’s Upper Peninsula Division 1 Final.

The first MHSAA Finals of cross country season will be run Saturday at Gentz Homestead Golf Course in Munising, and there will be more than a few familiar faces in the field.

Success comes so easily for some great athletes that they take it for granted.   West Bloomfield senior Erin Finn has experienced enough adversity in her running career that she appreciates each and every accomplishment.

Julia Bos of Grand Rapids Christian seems to answer more questions about the style of her running, rather than the substance. It's impossible to argue with the results. On Saturday, she won her second straight MHSAA Division 2 individual championship.

The level of competition made its first MHSAA cross country championship even sweeter for Birmingham Seaholm. Seaholm, Grosse Pointe South and Saline took turns beating each other this season, setting up a three-way showdown for the Lower Peninsula Division 1 girls c...