NEW BOSTON — When recalling the girls who have won Catholic High School League Cardinal Division cross-country championships recently, it’s been a decade of dominance.
The 2023 winner, Jackson Lumen Christi’s Madison Osterberg, went on to finish as runner-up at the state finals and accepted a scholarship to Michigan State University. She ended the string of Allen Park Cabrini’s Ava Teed, a three-time league champion and four-time all-state runner who now competes for Central Michigan University.
Before that, Royal Oak Shrine’s Ellie Kendell won in 2018 and 2019. She was a two-time all-stater, now running for MSU. The two titles prior were taken by Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes’ Olivia Hankey, a four-time all-state runner who recently completed her career as a decathlete at CMU. Her older Laker teammate, Tessa Fornari, won the Catholic League meet four times and crowned her career by winning an individual state title.
Ann Arbor Greenhills’ Addison Gregg could be the next runner destined for long-distance success. The Gryphon freshman cruised to the individual win at Willow Metropark on Oct. 19, covering the 5-kilometer cross-country course in a personal-best 20:02.5.
“I thought it was possible to win because I had been running in the Catholic League (jamboree) meets and I did well in those,” said Gregg, who won both of regular-season races she had participated in. “There was one girl seeded ahead of me (Chesterfield Austin Catholic freshman Cassidy Bowers) so I was planning to keep up with her and get ahead of her before the finish line.”
That actually happened for Gregg much earlier than she had planned. Gregg pulled away from the pack one-quarter mile into the race and held the lead for the rest of the way. Bowers placed second in 20:20.6, and the third finisher, Clarkston Everest Collegiate senior Erica Walker, was at 21:07.5.
“Inside, I didn’t feel too great, but it feels good now,” Gregg said following the race. “I worked hard to get this win, and I’m happy with my time. My PR (personal record) prior was 20:29.”
Gregg had also competed for three seasons with Greenhills’ middle school program, so despite her young age, she had plenty of prior race experience. She said it’s been a good season overall.
“Our team is growing and we continue to train, it’s just exciting,” she said. “I’ve had a great time training and racing with my teammates, and we’re all going to be back next year, so it will be even better.”
It was Walker, though, that led her team to the title. Allison Schmitt (21:52.1/sixth overall), Isabella Page (22:45.4/11th), Susan Nedwick (22:48.0/13th) and Maria Saad (22:49.6/14th) also contributed to Everest’s winning score of 40, five points lower than regular-season champion Royal Oak Shrine.
“We took second to Shrine in the second jamboree by just two points,” Everest coach Mary Williams said. “We have some dual-sport athletes and we couldn’t run a full squad for Jamboree number one and Jamboree number three. We knew we couldn’t win the regular-season title, but we thought we had a shot at this.”
Everest was also coming off of a team title at the prior weekend’s Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard Invitational, and Williams said that was a real confidence-booster for her runners.
“They were motivated, they were confident,” she said. “They know they train on hills. They went into it with a great attitude. The top five were shooting to run sub-23, and they all did.”
It’s the second league title for the Mountaineers, who also won in 2020. They lost to Shrine on tie-breakers in 2019 and 2021, and made a substantial climb from last year, when they finished sixth.
“The team brought in some new talent, some freshmen, and this is our biggest team in three years,” Williams said. “The team came out very strong this year, and I would actually attribute a lot of that to our middle of the pack. Our front runners have continued to improve throughout the year, and the fifth through ninth runners have duked it out all year for a varsity spot. We have an incredibly positive culture that has brought the whole team together.”
Royal Oak Shrine sweeps boys’ team, individual titles
Shine junior Abenezer Cerone is accustomed to leading the pack. He’s won the past five Catholic League jamborees in which he raced over the past two seasons, but when he finished second in the 2023 Cardinal Division finals, he was “annoyed” that he didn’t win.
Cerone finished second in that race to eventual state champion Tyler Lenn of Marine City Cardinal Mooney. But with Lenn now attending Grand Valley State University, Cerone had the course to himself this year and finished in 16:17.2, which was 50 seconds comfortably ahead of the runner-up, Jacob Ferdubinski of Riverview Gabriel Richard..
“I actually had a faster time last year, because I had a couple of people pushing me,” Cerone said. “But winning this race feels good, because of all the work I’ve done, and I’m starting to see results.”
Cerone has won seven of the 10 events he’s raced in this fall, and is aiming to peak at the upcoming state finals on Nov. 2 at Michigan International Speedway, where he finished third last season.
“I want to perform well at states,” he said. “What that means in terms of my placement or my time, I don’t know, but I will feel happy as long as I run the race I am capable of running.”
For now, though, Cerone was happy to see his Shrine teammates win their first Cardinal Division title sine 2014. The Knights finished with 41 points, 10 ahead of Greenhills.
“My teammates have been really putting in the work, and we’re getting the results we want to see, so it feels really good,” he said.
Michael Bowker (17:41.5, fourth), Joseph Kemp (18:39.2, 11th), Drew Lopez (18:41.3, 12th) and Caesar Soma (18:41.7, 13th) also figured in the scoring for Shrine.
“I just think they really wanted it,” coach Faith Luddy said. “It was part of their goals, and we were positive all year long. I think they all ran well and did what they wanted to do, so we were happy for them. We’re very excited for this team.”
It was the first Catholic League title since 2014 for the Shrine boys, who were also the regular-season sectional champions.
“We’d just been taking it one meet at a time,” Luddy said. “While we thought we could win Catholic League, we didn’t look at that until it was approaching, and we didn’t take anything for granted. We told them they had to run hard. All runners had to run well.”
Copy Permalink
