By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
DOWAGIAC - St. Joseph and Lakeshore both edged out their respective opponents to capture the first Big 16 Conference West Division jamborees on Wednesday at Southwestern Michigan College.
St. Joseph nipped host Niles in the boy's race, 41-47.
The girl's portion of the jamboree was even tighter with Lakeshore holding off St. Joseph, 34-35.
Lakeshore finished third in the boy's race with 53 points, while Dowagiac was fourth with 88 points and Benton Harbor fifth with 138 points.
Niles was third in the girl's race with 63 points, while Dowagiac was fourth with 113 points. Benton Harbor did not finish a full squad.
Ryan Ellspermann of St. Joseph was the boy's overall winner with a time of 17:26.
Derek Prusa of Lakeshore and Steve Scally of Niles finished second and third with times of 18:25 and 18:30.
Niles's Andy Karsten was sixth (19:06). Dowagiac's Jason Tabbert and Brad Lee finished seventh and eighth with times of 19:06 and 19:10.
Evan Bressler finished 18th for the Chieftains and Oscar Azevedo finished 27th. They posted times of 19:55 and 21:24. Tony Saviano was 46th (23:28) and Eric Morton 53rd (24:29).
Niles' Dan Geiger finished 10th with a time of 19:21, while Nick Schuck was 13th (19:30), Nate Allison was 15th (19:41), Brett Ortiz was 19th (20:15), Shawn Calhoun (21:21), Andy Wuthnow (21:36), Derek Percell (22:10) and Matt Ftacek (24:06).
Niles' Samantha Brawley won yet another race on Wednesday as she posted a time of 21:00.
St. Joseph's Sarah Zebell was second with a time of 21:39.
Dowagiac's top finisher was Kayla Saviano, who was 19th with a time of 26:19.
Crissy Huff was 22nd with a time of 26:45, while Katie Hewitt was 29th with a time of 28:05.
Chelsey Preston was 30th (28:57), Ashley Willis (29:40), Moeisha Clabin 33rd (30:09), Catie Hamilton 36th (30:53) and Shellie Langford 37th (33:58).
Niles' Elizabeth VandenHeede was 10th with a time of 23:15. Autumn Grayson was 12th with a time of 23:48.
Nikki Horvath was 20th for the Lady Vikings (26:33), Mehgan Flynn was 25th (27:22), Tami Madison was 26th (27:29) and Amanda Smith 28th (27:53).
The next outing for the cross country teams will be at the All County meet, held in St. Joseph on Saturday, Oct. 1.