Dexter Girls Place 10th Out of 33 Teams at Portage Invitational

By Barbara Read

The Dexter High School girls’ varsity cross country team placed 10th overall out of 33 teams at the Portage Invitational on Oct. 6.

“The girls did great at Portage, despite the rainy weather. Many personal best times were set,” coach Cheryl McLean said.

There were 226 runners who participated in the varsity race.

Highlights for Dexter:

• Alison McLean ran 19:05 and was the 5th fastest freshman. 

• Elizabeth Greve ran 19:43 and was the 15th fastest sophomore. 
• Alex Ammann ran 19:52 and was the 17th fastest sophomore. 
• Robin Jackson ran a season best time of 19:58 and was the 22nd fastest junior. 
• Rylee Hanson, senior captain, ran 20:06 and was the 20th fastest senior running in the varsity race at Portage. 
• Paige O'Piela ran 20:09 and was the 28th fastest sophomore. 
• Cailin McLean ran 20:14 and was the 29th fastest junior. 

 
In the junior varsity race, 375 runners competed.

• Mara Bottomley, senior captain, placed third with a season personal best time of 19:49 and was the 2nd fastest senior in her race.
• Elise Dombkowski placed 6th finishing in 20:00 and was the 4th fastest junior.

 
The team is now setting their sights on regionals and states.

“We have so much to be proud of. These next few weeks we are going to focus on what we can do as a team to improve. This team is great to coach. They work hard and listen well, I am confident that we will race well enough to make it to the state meet,” said McLean. “But right now, we are working towards having our best performances at regionals.”

For Dexter, the Portage Invitational was primarily a varsity meet. The teams will be returning to Willow Metropark on Friday for the River Rat Open, which focuses on the junior varsity team. The Southeastern Championships will take place Oct. 18 at Hudson Mills Metropark in Dexter.