Dexter Girls Excel at Spartan Invitational

By Barbara Read 

Dexter High School cross country athletes competed alongside 100 teams Friday at the Michigan State University Spartan Invitational held at the Forest Akers Golf Course in East Lansing.

The Spartan Invite has a very fast course, and the Dexter girls’ team continued to show improvement over the season. The top three varsity runners, Alison McLean (19:44), Alex Ammann (19:52) and Elizabeth Greve (19:53) had season best times at the meet and finished within seconds of each other. In the Spartan Elite varsity race, 255 girls competed, including seven Dexter athletes.

Twenty-one Dexter girls competed in the junior varsity elite/green race. Five of them, Cailin McLean (20:29), Paige O’Piela (20:45), Mara Bottomley (20:53), Charlotte Read (21:16) and Marissa Butler (21:45), received awards in the race while either tying or beating their best times. Awards went to the top 50 finishers out of 748 participants.

The girls’ team has a tradition of setting individual goals at the beginning of the season for a time they want to achieve. They write the time on a tile and when they beat it, they get to smash the tile and make a new goal.

According to Coach Cheryl McLean, “They seem to have a lot of fun with the new tradition, and after the Spartan Invitational, we have many new goal times to set.”

Among the girls who will be setting new season goals for themselves are Marissa Butler, Elizabeth Greve, Emily Bishop and Tara Stetler.  

“I am really proud of all the girls and their determination and hard work. I was excited about all of our performances,” said McLean of her team. 

Parent Julie Schumaker organized the purchase of new tents and a flag this season, so the girls and parents would be able to locate the Dexter tent at the meets. Schumaker said it was for huge meets like this one where everyone was so spread out that having the flag was especially important. 

The Dexter boys’ varsity team competed among 261 athletes. Matt Greve (16:14) received an award for his finish. Joe Wendorf (16:26) and Mike Hauke (16:51) came in just seconds later, and all three finished with season best times.

Seven Dexter boys competed in Spartan Elite varsity race. An award also went to Brad Carruthers (17:55) for his time in the junior varsity elite/green race.

Out of 861 runners, 27 competed from Dexter.

The boys' team also competed in the Nike/Holly/Duane Raffin Festival of races on Saturday afternoon.

On Sept. 21-22, the teams will compete at the Jackson Invitational.

“The top seven finishers from the Spartan Relay will be racing varsity at the Jackson Invitational, this included three of our junior varsity runners: Cailin McLean, Paige O'Piela and and Mara Bottomley. We are looking forward to the Jackson Invitational," McLean said.

The junior varsity races are Friday, while the varsity teams compete on Saturday.