BROOKLYN — Benzie Central could not have done much better, when it came to individual success at cross country state finals on Nov. 6.
At the top, things went as expected for the Huskies, with Hunter Jones running away with the boys race by 41 seconds for his third straight state championship and Mylie Kelly racing to her second straight top 10 finish, but the Huskies also got a huge race from Elise Johnson to place 21st (19:12) and earn all-state honors.
What made Johnson’s finish so exciting is that it came on a 19-second personal record, a feat that rarely happens for Benzie Central runners at state finals, due to their home course always running much faster for the regional meet the week before.
“I would almost use the word impossible. It doesn’t happen,” Kelly said of Johnson’s PR. “That course is not as fast as our course, so it was purely a testament of will out there. She was going to make sure she was all-state, and it was awesome to watch.”
The top runner on the girls side was of course Kelly, who placed eighth in the state last year as a freshman and finished sixth (18:38) this year, with a 20 second improvement from last year’s state finals time.
Kelly believed his daughter could have finished as high as second going into the meet, but he took the blame as her coach for not better preparing her to counter the strategy of the lead Hart girls who took the race out very fast in the first mile.
“She was consistently in fourth pretty much until the stadium,” Kelly said. “Her last mile was definitely her slowest mile by a considerable margin. She said her legs felt like trash at the end, and I think that is because she went out faster than she is used to going out. That is our fault as coaches. We should have practiced that more often and practiced more than one strategy throughout the season.”
Kelly hopes to fix those mistakes over the next year and said the goal should be for Kelly to try to win the state championship next year, when three of the five girls who finished in front of her will have graduated.
Outside of these top two girls, Kelly said he was also impressed with how his two freshmen ran. Ava Iverson came in 127th (21:17), and Nora Grossnickle followed in 130th (21:18).
Kelly called their performance the best races they had ever run.
“They ran equivalent to their lifetime best and handled the pressure so well,” Kelly said. “You would not know they were freshmen the way they were racing out there … I think both of those girls will be in the 19s next year.”
Benzie Central also got a big race from Ella Gaylord, who ran a season best time to finish 149th (21:37). Hayley VanWagoner took 170th (21:59), and Maya Musgrave finished 185th (22:13).
The girls finished 11th overall as a team.
In the boys race, Jones proved that he deserved to be heavily favored, leading the race wire to wire to join Jake Flynn as the only two runners in school history to win three individual state championships in the sport.
“We felt very confident coming in that he would win his third straight state title,” Kelly said. “He raced everybody in the field this year and had beaten them. We had hoped to break the Division 3 record (14:52), but we could tell pretty early on that it probably was not going to happen.”
While Jones missed out on the record, he does seem to be trending toward breaking it next year.
Jones ran 15:45 as a freshman, 15:29 as a sophomore and 15:08 this year. If he can continue his pace of improvement to drop another 20 or so seconds, that would put him in the 14:40s, a time he has already run on his home course, next year as a senior.
Finishing as Benzie Centrals second runner was Dade Allen, who placed 81st (17:32) and has emerged as an incredibly consistent, reliable runner this fall.
“He doesn’t overthink things. He just goes out and races gritty,” Kelly said. “I don’t think the situation phased him a whole lot. He was only about 15 seconds off his lifetime PR, and our course compared to that, that is pretty darn good. He believes in himself more and more and is becoming more mature. If he puts in the work, I really believe he could be all state next year.”
Michael Musgrave finished 100th (17:42). Quinten Musgrave came in 195th (18:56). Hudson Kiteley took 197th (18:56). Dorian Olson was 201st (19:00). Miller Pomper finished 230th (19:50).
Overall, Kelly said he was pleased with how the boys ran.
“As a team, it was definitely one of our better races of the season,” Kelly said. “The majority of our boys ran one of their best races and handled the pressure of the situation very well, being that only one of the guys (Jones) had ever run there before.”
The team ended up finishing 20th in the state.
With no seniors running in Benzie Central’s top seven boys, Kelly said he considers the state finals race a trial run that he hopes will motivate the team to work hard to contend for a top finish in 2022.
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Exciting day for Huskies sees Jones three-peat, three runners finish all-state - Manistee News Advocate
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