Region 9 Championships

The Region 9 Championships were held at the South Course - Bloomington Hills North park - on a perfect day for racing.
The day started with our Youngsters racing very well.  The boys took 2nd in Region with Alex Hill taking 7th, Logan Hall 11th, Wesley Pugmire 13th, Alex Klein 14th, and Scottie Bushar 15th.  The girls won the Region title led by Cristina Gaona in 5th, Rylee Holt in 6th, Addi Baker 7th, Jacey Finch 10th, and Karissa Gillespie 11th.  Many of the Youngsters ran their course PR's today and have really shown a lot of improvement this season.
In the JV races, PV also did very well.  The JV boys won the Region title despite having "off races" for a few of the runners - really showing the depth of our program.  Reed Burr took control of the race early and dominated it throughout.  His time of 17:11 would have placed him near the top 20 in the Varsity race and easily led him to another JV Individual Region Title for the Panthers (at least our 6th straight).  Jake Taylor, Cameron Brown, and Andrew Nielsen also placed in the top 10 for PVXC.  Some strong front running led our JV girls to a strong finish as well.  Taylor Boyer placed 2nd overall and Kaelie Gillespie was 5th.
In the Varsity races, our girls team was facing some adversity.  The team had lost Liz Lunt to an emergency appendectomy on Sunday and Megan Finch was stepping in for her first race/running in over 1 1/2 months.  The team responded very well however and took 3rd place overall - just 3 points behind Canyon View for 2nd.  Leading the team was Freshman Alli Peterson with a 12th place finish and her best race of the year.  Nicole Heinrich ran a very strong race finishing in the top 15.  Josie Bushar, Ali Johanson, and Mia Hart rounded out our scoring placing 20, 21, and 23 respectively.  It was a great team performance, and we are all so proud of the girls.
The boys race saw DH run a very strong race and dominate for the Region title, and our PV boys distance themselves easily from the rest of the region for a strong 2nd place showing.  Byron Warby raced hard to the line to finish 2nd overall and Taylor Abel placed 6th.  Colton Bowler ran a strong race finishing 11th.  Other Panther scorers were Nick Hill at 14th and Matt Young at 17th.
This was a great Region Championships for our program.  It showed how our team has grown and that were are very strong as a team at all levels of XC competition - and set some high standards for us to reach toward in the coming season!
Now let's focus on State and good luck to the Varsity Boys and Girls who will be running there!