Jamboree #1

Start of race...

The first SEC Jamboree of the year took place this afternoon at Munson Park in Monroe. This was the first league CC event for Monroe and Ypsilanti High Schools. The weather was very warm and the athletes clearly struggled with the temperatures. The varsity race team race was easily won by AA Pioneer as expected. They showed once again that they are the strongest team in the SEC by a large margin. This was a good effort by Pioneer after their surprising loss this weekend to a strong Detroit CC team. This was the Pioneers first loss since the 2007 season. AA Pioneer placed their first 5 runners in the top 10 today for a total of 29 points. Also, as expected, the race for second place in the team race was very close with just 8 points separating second and fourth place. This is basically one point per runner and as usually the case, emphasizes that EVERY PLACE COUNTS in cross country. Bedford was once again led by Tommy Valade and Nick Kaiser. They ran with the lead pack for the first 3 miles. Tommy tried to take the lead thru the last few hundred meters but fell to the strong kick of Nathan Karr of AA Pioneer who won the race in 15:47. Tommy finished in second at 15:51. Nick was a strong 5th place with another sub-16 minute effort of 15:56. Derek Hibbs continued his strong senior season with a 13th place finish. Adam Horace (28th), Cory Schoendorf (30th), and Troy Tidwell (31st) continued their pack running, and finished high enough as a group to allow Bedford to earn second in the team race. Chad Machinski rounded out the varsity today finishing in 41st place (top half of race).