Two Top Ten Finishes at States

Girls 8th and Boys 10th
Megan Heeder - State Runner-up

After a nail biting regional meet both teams went to the State Meet and came away with top ten finishes.

The girls who had been ranked in the top 10 all season showed they were deserving by coming home in 8th place, which is the second highest finish in school history. The boys came into the State Meet after suprising a lot of people by finishing third at regionals (despite losing the top 3 from last year's team). The boys proved they were no fluke and finished in 10th place, which was also the second best finish in school history. Last year the boys were 12th and the girls 13th.

The individual highlight was once again Megan Heeder who finished in 2nd place behind only two-time defending champin Devon John of Allendale. Megan's state runner-up performance was the highest State Meet finish ever by a Cougar in XC. It was a great race for Megan as she and the two Allendale runners pulled away from a pack of eight at the mile and a half and then Megan held of numerous challenges for second place and proved once again just how tough she is. She was 40th in last year's race.

The leading runner for the boys was Jimmy Hicks who ran a personal best time of 17:21. It was the first time in his short career that he was the first finisher for the team. He was followed in short order by Austin Winter, Zach Zingsheim and Ben Flint who also ran a PR. The tight pack did the trick as the Cougars once again surprised everyone by finishing in the top ten. Alex Thompson was the fifth runner. Freshman, Emma Frost was the second runner for the girls team in 61st place followed by Adrienne Powell, Catherine Swiderski and Allie Brown as scorers.

It was agreat season for both teams.

Both Teams Qualify For States

Heeder Regional Champ

Both the boys and girls teams continued their streak of consecutive State Meet appearances. The girls qualified by finishing second at regionals, It is the fourth year in a row and ninth time in 11 years the girls have qualified. The boys ran their streak to six straight years by finishing third in the regional meet. Lansing Catholic is one of just a handful of schools to have both boys and girls qualified four years in a row.

The individual highlight of the day was Megan Heeder running away from the field to win convincingly. She was the first individual regional champion in XC for the Cougars since Rachel Kirvan won in 2000. The only other individual medalist for the Cougars was Austin Winter who finished 15th. The fact that combined the boys and girls only had two medalists but were the only school in the region to qualify both teams shows what great TEAMS we have.

Both teams have overcome many obstacles on their way to this accomplishment and should be extremely proud of it. They should also be focussed on having great efforts at the State Finals and placing both teams as high as possible.