2012 XC Season Review

2012 Cougar Cross Country

Boys and Girls CAAC White Champions
     The girls team won all three league jamborees with Emma Frost winning each race and extending her personal streak of jamboree victories to 6 and the Cougars streak to 9 in a row. All seven of the girls varsity runners earned all-league honors. The highlight of the three meets was the first jamboree when Emma Frost, Mary Delaney and Amy Hicks went 1-2-3.

     On the boys side the Cougars won the first two jamborees and finished 3rd in the last. Keenan Rebera won all three jamborees and extended the Cougars streak to 6 straight wins. It was the boys 2nd championship in a row. The highlight of the season came in the final 600 meters of the 2nd jamboree at Williamston where Max Hayden passed 6 runners to move the Cougars past Stockbridge by 1 point.

Boys and Girls Regional Champions
    Both the boys and girls teams won the regional. For the boys it was the 3rd consecutive regional win and for the girls it was the first since 2000. The girls win was by a convincing margin over three other ranked teams. This was particularly sweet for the girls as they missed by just 4 points of qualifying for States last season, but came back in 2012 as one of the state's best teams and easily beat a very good field. On the boys side it was sweet in that 5 of the 7 from the team that won last year was not in the 2012 regional lineup but the boys were still able to prevail and take home the Cougars third staright crown beating Ithaca who ended up 6th in the State Meet. Keenan Rebera was regional champion.

Girls 5th Place State Finals
     The girls team after not qualifying for States in 2012 was ranked amongst the top-5 in Division 3 all season and proved worthy of the ranking by finishing in 5th at the the State Meet. It was the highest team finish since 2000. Emma Frost earned all-state honors for the third time in her career becoming the first Cougar to do so.

Boys 10th Place State Finals

      The boys followed up two straight runner-up finishes with a solid top-10 effort as they returned only two runners from last seasons varsity and had no seniors in the top seven and three first year HS XC runners. Keenan Rebera finished in 5th place to earn his second all-state honor in his two years.

Other highlights of the season included Keenan Rebera setting a new school record for the boys of 15:32 and Mary Delaney moving into 6th on the all-time girls record board. Amy Hicks ran 19:59 to become only the 11th girl in Cougar history to break 20 minutes and only the 2nd to medal at regionals as a freshman and a sophomore.

STATE CHAMPS !!!!!!

STATE CHAMPS

Zingsheim LSJ Track Athlete of the Year

LSJ DREAM TEAM

Coach of the Year

Article from Lansing State Journal - 6/3/12

COUGARS ARE KINGS
COMSTOCK PARK — They’ve been setting records all season. They’ve overcome injuries and disqualifications. And on Saturday, the Lansing Catholic boys track and field team realized a dream — the Division 3 team state championship.


Even before the final scores were announced on the track at Comstock Park High School, Cougars coach Tim Simpson got a cooler of water dumped on his head. He didn’t seem to mind.

“Every one of our guys that ran today has finished second in the state in some other sport,” Simpson said. “Every one of them knows what it’s like to be second, and they all got to win today. It’s the first time we’ve won (a track state title) at our school and we don’t even have a track.”

The Cougars knew they would need strong performances and they got plenty of them.

Senior Dan Liesman took first in the shot put with a throw of more than 54 feet right and helped the Cougars take third in the 400-meter relay.

Cedric Lee overcame a strained hamstring to anchor the Cougars in the 400 and 800 relays.

Bolstered by standout senior leaders Zachary Zingsheim, Matt Macksood, Conner Caporale and Jimmy Hicks, the Cougars also won the 1,600 and 3,200 relays and the 800.

Also, freshman Keenan Rebera took fifth in the 3,200, earning key points for the Cougars.

When it was all over, the Cougars had dominated, finishing with 68 points — well ahead of second-place Union City with 45 and Frankenmuth with 31.

Excerpt from Tim Staudt column 6/17/12

Track team a success: Lansing Catholic’s state championship boys track team numbered 10 runners and eight will compete in some sport in college. Jimmy Hicks will run cross country and track at Georgia; Zach Zingsheim, both sports at Georgetown; Austin Winter will run both at Xavier; Cedric Lee track at Tuskegee; Conner Caporale track at Michigan State; Matt Macksood football at Michigan State, Dan Liesman football at Michigan, the latter two as preferred walk ons; and Joe Marrah will run both sports at Lansing Community College.