Leland sophomore Sophia Grinage blew away the field in the small school division at the Pete Moss Invitational Saturday at Benzie Central.
Grinage won the girls' race with a time of 18:43, a minute and a half better than her best time last year.
“I paced myself better,” Grinage said. “I just want to stay positive, keep running, and keep progressing to hopefully get to the low 18-minute range.”
The sophomore was ahead of second place by 15 seconds over Onekama sophomore Callie Sinke.
Leland, St.Mary, and Glen Lake all started their season at the Benzie Pete Moss Invite Saturday.
Leland coach Ann Knudsen was excited about the Comets, especially with only two girls competing.
“Now, it’s about that trajectory of progress for the two of them as the season goes on,” Knudsen said.
Glen Lake sophomore Carmella Julian and junior Natalie Burpee both placed in the top-20, with Julian running 20:42 and placing 15th, and Burpee at 20:58 for 18th.
Lake Leelanau St. Mary had one runner at the meet, sophomore Claire Couturier, who ran a 22:51.
Glen Lake was the only school out of the three to field an entire girls team, finishing seventh out of the 18 teams in the small school division.
The Glen Lake boys team finished fourth out of 20 teams in the division that competed at the meet, with Leland finishing 12th and St. Mary 15th.
“It went pretty good, we are down to our number three and four runners today,” said George Drown, Glen Lake coach. “Everybody that raced ran 20 or more seconds faster than they did at the same time last year here, you always like to see that coming off a summer training
block, and we’re not fresh today, we had camp last week, with a good training week this week.”
Glen Lake had two runners place in the top five; junior Abraham Feeney placed third with a 16:30, and freshman Spencer McNitt placed fifth, running at 16:44.
“I feel pretty happy with it because it was the first time I’ve run a 5k on grass, so I think my time was pretty good,” McNitt said. “I think the biggest thing will just be trying to stay as close to Abraham (Feeney) as I can and just push each other.”
St.Mary junior Daniel Chaney finished 15th with a time of 17:30.
“The boys, we have our work cut out for us, but that’s ok, that gives us a direction for this season, looking forward to where they’re going to land at the end as well.”
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