Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
GRAND JUNCTION—The Otsego girls cross country team faced a tough early season test at the Southwest Michigan Rustbuster on Wednesday, Aug. 31.
It’s a test the Bulldogs passed with flying colors.
Otsego, ranked fifth in Division 2, took home top honors by edging out Jenison—ranked sixth in Division 1—by a margin of 26-32.
Plainwell was third with 100 points, while Fennville was sixth at 182 points. Allegan also competed, but didn’t have enough runners to factor into the team standings.
“Our girls were coming in with a previous invitational win (St. Joseph Invitational) and they’ve been running strong so far,” Otsego coach Steve Long said. “With Jenison being a school of almost 1,600, I knew they’d likely have more depth than us, but the girls really had a great day.”
And no Bulldog had a better day than junior Megan Germain, who ran a personal best 18:33.3 to finish 62 hundredths of a second behind Jenison senior Maya Guikema for first place.
Megan Aalberts holds the Otsego record at 18:28.7, which she set in 2016.
“Megan was chasing Maya from Jenison and just missed catching her and the school record,” Long said. “It was a great effort.”
Freshman Emma Hoffman (third with a personal record 19:06), sophomore Taylor Mitchell (fourth with a personal record 19:29), junior Logan Brazee (sixth at 20:21) and freshman Rebekah Stachura (11th with a personal record 21:09) were the other scoring runners for Otsego.
Sophomore Olivia Timmons (15th at 21:34), sophomore Taylor Klimp (18th at 21:53) and senior exchange student Maeline Dehanne (19th at 21:53) also medaled by placing in the top 25.
“We have a slew of really fast girls fighting for those 5-6-7 spots on the team, but Rebekah had a great race and finished fifth for us, chopping almost two minutes off her personal best time,” Long said.
“The girls now have a pair of impressive invite wins, so hopefully that helps build their team confidence moving forward.”
Plainwell, competing without one of its top runners in senior Grace Pettit, got a team-leading effort from freshman Josie Longcore, who placed eighth at 20:55.
“Josie ran a great race,” Plainwell coach Brett Beier said. “She is still getting used to the 5K distance and has improved each race. I’m excited to see what she will be able to accomplish throughout the rest of the season.”
Plainwell had won its first two invitationals of the season: the Niles Stampede and the Early Eagle Invitational at Kent City.
“I felt that we raced really well,” Beier said. “It’s tough going into a race knowing that you are competing against two top five teams in the state, especially after we have pretty much dominated the other two races we’ve run this year. But the girls went out and really competed against the girls around them and moved up nicely throughout the race.
“Obviously, missing one of our top girls in Grace didn’t help our team score out much, but the rest of the girls rose to the challenge and helped us get that third-place spot.”
Sophomores Emma Taggett (23rd at 22:17) and Hannah Erlandson (24th at 22:19) joined Longcore in medaling for Plainwell.
For Fennville, junior Nidia Martinez placed 20th at 22:03. Senior Sabrina Mills led Allegan, placing 26th at 22:34.