White Pigeon girls qualify for cross country finals
PORTAGE - For the first time in school history, the White Pigeon girls are headed to the cross country finals.
The Lady Chiefs finished third at the regional at Portage West Middle School on Friday. They scored 95 points, narrowly beating Centreville's fourth-place score of 98 points. Winning the regional was Concord with 44 points; it won the tiebreaker over Kalamazoo Hackett, which also scored 44 points.
White Pigeon was led by Jamielynn Delarye in 15th position. She posted a time of 23:12, while Analiese Miller ran to 21st position at 23:37. Rachel Schelstraete was 23rd at 24:17, followed by Rachel Byler in 28th at 25:00, Lydia Byler in 36th at 25:46 and Hannah Helbling in 59th at 30:36.
A couple of other local runners also qualified for the state finals.
Mendon's Presley Allen ran to third place at 21:00 and Rowan Allen was fifth at 21:29.
Marcellus' Addie Curtis came in seventh place overall at 22:33, while Ellie Reed of Centreville ran to ninth place overall at 22:57.
A couple of male runners also qualified for the state finals.
Mendon's Ben Iobe finished eighth overall at the regional with a time of 17:54. Also qualifying for the state finals was Jesse Fielis of White Pigeon, who ran to ninth place at 18:05.
No local teams qualified for the finals. Kalamazoo Hackett won the regional with 34 points, followed by Three Oaks River Valley with 42 and Battle Creek St. Philip in third with 86.
White Pigeon was fourth overall with 132 points, Centreville finished sixth with 184 and Mendon came in ninth with 218 points.
The MHSAA state finals will be run next Saturday, Nov. 4, at Michigan International Speedway.
Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at bwatson@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as twitter, @BwatsonSJ.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: White Pigeon girls qualify for cross country finals
