NEW BOSTON/MILFORD — No one is going to accuse Marine City Cardinal Mooney’s boys cross-country team of taking the easy road to a Catholic League championship last weekend.
The Cardinals’ top runner, Tyler Lenn, sprained his ankle two weeks earlier. The team’s second runner, Matthew Zammit Jr., was diagnosed with a stress fracture in the pre-season, and crawled across the finish line in a woozy state before being carted away in an ambulance.
But the two finished the 5-kilometer race at Willow Metropark in New Boston in second and ninth place, respectively, pacing the Cardinals to their first-ever league championship. Isaac Zammit (12th), Max Procissi (19th) and Jack Luzynski (22nd) also figured in the scoring as Cardinal Mooney had a low total of 64 points, 11 better than Ann Arbor Greenhills.
“In our last race I busted my ankle pretty good. It’s a high ankle sprain, probably, but we had to get it done anyway,” Lenn said. “It was kind of my own decision. It was something I knew needed to be done for our team. I’ve worked hard, the whole team has worked hard. I didn’t want to let anyone down, so I decided to risk it.”
Lenn called his teammate, Matt, “the star of the race.”
“He came off of a stress fracture this summer at the start of the season, and he’s kind of been working his way back up,” Lenn said. “Today he gave an extra-hard effort for the team. He was the one who forded out today. He made the difference, but I’m proud of everyone. Everyone works hard.”
It was expected to be a battle for first place between Lenn and Allen Park Cabrini’s Christopher Russelburg, who had the second- and third-best race times statewide in Division 4 this season. But with Lenn less than 100 percent, Russelburg was able to pull away and win by 50 seconds, in 16:31.6.
CARDINAL GIRLS: Greenhills has the edge
The slimmest of margins had separated Greenhills from regular-season champion Royal Oak Shrine all year, but the Gryphons had the extra motivation to turn the tables and win the Cardinal Division girls title by one point, 49 to 50. Shrine had won two crowns in the past three seasons by one-point tie-breakers.
Jarrett Bussell, filling in for Greenhills coach Sara LeBlanc, who was out on maternity leave, said it took a total team effort for the Gryphons to win.
“It just comes down to guts at the end, trying to pick up that one spot,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who it was. Positions one through five, and really six and seven, too, just have to be ready for that tie-breaker.”
Freshman Janaan Rehman led the Greenhills group with a fifth-place finish, while Victoria Cunningham, Meezan Hamzavi, Ava Kittendorf and Anika Bery all finished among the top 20.
“We’ve had a strong five, six, even seven,” Bussell said. “They’re close together, they run as a pack, they use each other to know where they need to be and when they need to push. They work really well together, and they show how this can be a team sport.”
Greenhills had four state championships and two runner-up finishes to its credit, but this is the school’s first Catholic League championship, having joined the CHSL in 2018.
Individually, Allen Park Cabrini junior Ava Teed won her third gold medal in three seasons, covering the 5-kilometer course at Willow Metropark in New Boston in 19:44.9.
BISHOP BOYS: Divine Child surprises defending champ
Dearborn Divine Child’s boys came into the Bishop Division championship with one goal: keep up with Detroit Catholic Central, the squad that had won the title the past four years.
But the Falcons — the runner-up team in the AA Division — surpassed their wildest dreams. They not only were competitive with the Shamrocks, but finished in front to win their first team title in 29 years. With five individuals finishing among the top 10, Divine Child’s 28-point score was the lowest of any league race since Shrine had 23 in 2010.
“We were hoping to sneak by by one point — that was all we wanted — but this was great news,” said Michael Hegarty, who defended his individual championship by covering the 5-kilometer course at Kensington Metropark in 16:24.9.
“It just meant a lot more today with the team having a chance to win,” he said. “It’s a lot different running when the score might come down to a few points. The last few years I was just running for myself.”
Hegarty’s support crew included Colin Murray (4th), Nathan Ulcak (5th), Elijah Horgensen (8th) and Dylan McGrath (10th). Although Catholic Central was also in the mix, their top runners finished 6-9-11-14-15.
“A lot of it was just saying, ‘We’re a team, we know we’re pretty good — we just have to go race. We’ve trained hard, we’ve done this before, so just go have a day,’” Hegarty said. “I was yelling their names as they came in, due to all the excitement. It was a pretty cool thing to watch.”
“We thought this was going to be one of the closest races in the history of the Catholic League, but our boys trained for this race,” coach Randy Williams said. “Catholic Central still is one of the best cross-country programs in the history of the Catholic League. Tony Magni has done a great job with his team and you can’t take anything away from them. We felt this year would be very competitive and we knew it would come down to either them or us. The boys were just psyched for it. They earned it.”
BISHOP GIRLS: A one-point win for Fr. Gabriel Richard
When the preliminary results of the girls’ Bishop Division race were first tabulated and showed Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard winning the title by a point over Dearborn Divine Child, Fighting Irish coach Jim Spencer doubted the results were accurate.
When the results were re-tabulated and Richard was still a one-point winner, Spencer still found the results hard to believe.
“I had some thoughts in my head that Divine Child was stronger, but we came through,” he said. “I’m very proud of all of them, and especially that pack of three at the back. They really pushed each other and got the championship.”
Spencer’s team, led by a fourth-place individual finish by Gianna-Marie Schubert, totaled 73 points. Elise Bodary, Erin Stuk and Ella Caplea finished in the top 20, and Madeline Fleury, Avery Faut and Lucy Cousino all finished in front of the Falcons’ fifth runner.
“I thought we ran well against them in the regular season, but I watched them and I thought they were getting a little stronger,” Spencer said. “I’m very proud of our runners. I’m happy for them, I’m happy for the school.”
Richard had won nine cross-country titles in an 11-season span through the early part of the 2000s, but had not finished first since moving up to the larger Bishop Division in 2013.
Defending champion Warren Regina was third, but had the top individual in Elizabeth Ambroggio, who ran 20:40.5 over the challenging Kensington course. Ambroggio finished 14th as a freshman in 2021.
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