Dexter Boys' Cross Country Team Finishes Sixth in State Finals

The boys' cross country team finished sixth at the Division 1 state meet at the Michigan International Speedway on Saturday.

Leading the way for the Dreadnaughts was junior Alexey Vermeulen (16:14), junior Matt Greve (16:17), junior Joe Wendorf (16:19), senior Taylor Neely (16:28), junior Mike Hauke (16:32), senior Zack Dutcher (16:37) and senior Tim Bougher (16:45).

"Our boys got out slower than I would have liked and it unfortunately cost them some positions," coach Takashi Gould said. "If you don't get out quick enough to avoid the traffic in the first 800 meters, you can get caught in traffic as it funnels down for the two quick turns. However, they did an outstanding job recovering and started to move up collectively as a large pack.

"Through 1.5 miles we saw the boys quite spread out and getting pushed around on the inside which worried me, but I noticed they did a good job finding runners (from other teams we scouted) and would pick up spots in the second half of the race."

Gould said overall he was impressed with the team's performance.

"Alexey Vermeulen was just being fearless and throwing himself out in the mix of the chase pack and being tough and aggressive from the gun," Gould said. "Matt Greve kept the pioneer kid right in his sight, but unfortunately he got away from in the final few meters. I could tell he was uncomfortable, but he's just ran a tough race and I couldn't have asked for more."

Gould said Joe Wendorf and Taylor Neely both had strong finishes in the competition.

"Joe's been consistently improving a ton during the last couple of weeks," Gould said. "Taylor didn't have the race he wanted, but he ran such a gutsy race and laid it all out there for the team. He's had a nagging injury throughout the season that most of his teammates didn't even know about, but he never complained once about it and that's just the kind of kid Taylor is."

Rounding out the Dreadnaughts' scoring was a strong performance from Mike Hauke. Mike finished seventh for Dexter at the regional meet and won the reserve races at the Jackson Invitational and Portage Invitational this season.

"Mike and I talked about how if he can translate that attitude of fighting for the lead and a win, but in a varsity race, he could do something big for us," Gould said. "He was about 5 meters behind Saline's No. 6 runner  at the 1.75 mile marker and then just hammered down the speedway and picked up 50 spots easily in the final mile."

Highland Milford won the competition with a score of 128, followed by Hartland (172), Waterford (177),  Saline (186)  and White Lake (188).