By By SCOTT NOVAK and ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - St. Joseph and Lakeshore captured the Big 16 Conference West Division jamboree Wednesday afternoon at Riverview Park.
The Bears won the boy's portion of the meet with 41 points.
Niles, winners of Saturday's Berrien County Meet, finished second with 45 points.
Lakeshore was third with 41 points and Dowagiac fourth with 85 points.
Benton Habor finished fifth with 142 points.
Lakeshore won the girl's portion of the meet with 30 points.
St. Joseph was second with 37 points and Niles third with 67 points.
Dowagiac finished fourth with 110 points. Benton Harbor did not field a full squad.
Ryan Ellsperman of St. Joseph was the overall winner of the boy's race as he posted a time of 17:06.
Niles' Steve Scally finished second with a time of 17:52.
Jason Tabbert led Dowagiac with a fifth place finish and a time of 18:32.
Brad Lee was 11th with a time of 18:58, while Evan Bressler was 15th in 19:23.
Oscar Azevedo, Eric Morton and Tony Saviano finished 25th, 44th and 50th respectively with times of 20:23, 22:59 and 23:26.
Amanda Balk of Lakeshore was the girl's winner with a time of 20:03.
Becky Schmidt of St. Joseph was second with a time of 20:22, while Niles' Samantha Brawley finished fourth with a time of 21:01.
Elizabeth VandenHeede finished 10th for the Viukes with a time of 22:03.
Other Niles finishers were Autumn Grayson, who placed 15th with a time of 23:23, Tami Madison took 23rd with a time of 26:15, Nikki Horvath finished 27th with a time of 27:13, Amanda Smith took 33rd with a time of 28:49 and Chelsea Clark rounded out Niles' squad in 36th with a time of 32:14.
"The girls were a bit tired as we trained right through this meet, knowing that we would have third anyway, thus most of them didn't run their best times,“; VandenHeede said. &#8221We are looking to peak at conference and regionals the last two Saturdays of October - and hopefully have a qualifier or two for the state met again this year."