Dexter Cross Country Girls Place Third at River Rat Invitational

By Barbara Read

The cross country River Rat Open was a very fast race for the Lady Dreads on Friday. Even though this was an optional meet for the varsity girls, the team took third place overall with outstanding performances by the runners.

The top seven Dexter finishers were Alison McLean (19:20, second out of 233), Mara Bottomley (20:07, 18th), Charlotte Read (20:11, 21st), Madeleine Nicholas (20:27, 28th), Elise Dombkowski (20:36, 30th), Marissa Butler (20:38, 32nd) and Kayleigh McCarthy (20:56, 32nd). 

More than half of the Dexter girls ran season or personal best times in the race on Friday. These included Emily Bishop (22:17, -0:37 from the previous race), Amanda Breuninger (22:27, -1:20), Marissa Butler (-0:55), Grace Latshaw (21:18, -1:10), Kayleigh McCarthy (-3:15), Madison Moss (22:49, -0:45), Allison Murphey (23:42, -1:22), Madeleine Nicholas (-0:26), Allyson Nicholson (22:48, -0:48) and Charlotte Read (-0:41). Of special note is Kayleigh McCarthy who cut more than three minutes off her previous best time at the Jackson Invitational.

“We had some great performances. Marissa and Charlotte both ran an amazing race. We are looking forward to our first home meet of the season: the Southeastern Conference Championship at Hudson Mills," coach Cheryl McLean said.

Junior varsity boys make strides at meet

Dexter's varsity boys' cross country team sat out the race while their reserve team did well, placing seventh overall. Mirroring the girls team, a freshman led the way. Alex Nevin (18:04) ran a personal best time and came very close to breaking the 18-minute mark. He was followed closely by Zach McKenzie (18:17), Rem Vermeulen (18:19), Al Shoopman (18:22),and Ben Nicholas (18:23).

"Attaining benchmarks (barriers that are rewarded with varsity points) in today’s race were Stephan Robards (18:47), Nate Shay (19:12), and Ryan McGinnis (19:42). Other notable performances were by Reed Yalisove, who ran a 44-second improvement from his previous race at Willow Metropark (Jamboree 2) and Gabe Thomas who knocked off a whopping 1:03 from his previous best. Awesome job to all the Dreads that competed," coach Takashi Gould said.

Twelve of the 18 competing Dexter athletes ran personal best times: Garit Birchmeier, Ryan McGinnis, Alex Nevin, Ben Nicholas, Stephen Robards, Peter Sculli, Nate Shay, Al Shoopman, Justin Skiver, Gabe Thomas, Rem Vermeulen, and Reed Yalisove.

"The men of Dexter are looking to continue their mark of excellence, having won nine of the last 10 SEC white titles,” Gould said.

The next meet is the SEC Jamboree No. 3 on Oct. 18 at Hudson Mills Metropark. The boys varsity race is at 2:30 p.m. and the girls varsity race is at 3 p.m. Reserve boys run at 3:30 p.m. and reserve girls run at 4 p.m.