By By STEVE MORRISON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – On an unseasonably humid afternoon with temperatures hovering near 90 degrees, the Brandywine, Edwardsburg and Bridgman cross country teams ran a grueling triangular meet at Brandywine High School on Monday.
Junior harrier, Tyler Weedon, gave Brandywine fans their best reason to cheer, wrapping up individual first place honors for the host team, with an all out 19:35 performance outdistancing Conner Magro, of Bridgman's Bees, by just over 10 seconds.
The Bobcats' Aaron Sieting (22:15) at 10th, and Tom Buzzard (22:56), with a 16th place outcome made a determined effort to the end of the 5K event. Dennis Angeles was 19th.
Brandywine's Ashley Harrell earned a solid fifth place finish in the girls competition at 25:06. Her teammates: Kylee Salisbury, at 28:57; Nicole Newman, with 29.15; and Jordenne Ferenczi, 29:59, finished a respectable 12th, 14th and 16th respectively. Bethany Fortner finished 19th.
Edwardsburg's Kathy Stewart bested the girls' field with a strong 22:24.
Fellow pacers Kaitlin Buzalski, third: Veronica Brubaker, fourth; Lindsay Ward, seventh; and Holly Billings, eighth; led the Eddies to first place team honors among the female competitors.
Bridgman's boys' team put on an inspired effort to top the team scores with 25 points.
In addition to Conner Magro's second place, Evan Kretlek (fourth), Cameron Magro (fifth), Tony Beilman (sixth) and Mark Hawk (10th), helped to rack up the low score of the evening.
Edwardsburg was led by Ryan Bringedahl's third place overall finish and time of 20:24.
The Eddies also got a seventh place finish out of Zak Eggleston (21:30), an 11th place finish out of Dan Crowell (22:32), a 14th place finish out of Pat Reck (24:12) and a 15th place finish out of Ben Sahey (24:22).
Brandywine Cross Country Coach Jim Murray philosophically summarized the race.
"It's just as hot for the other guy. It's an equal playing field. There are no timeouts, no subs (unlike many other forms of competition). You run until you get it done. It (Cross Country) takes a lot of mental discipline," he said.
Boys' Team Scores
Bridgman 20, Brandywine 42
Edwardsburg 25, Brandywine 30
Bridgman 20, Edwardsburg 40
Boys' Top 10
1. Tyler Weedon (BW) 19:35; 2. Conner Magro (BDG) 19:45; 3. Ryan Bringedahl (ED) 20:24; 4. Evan Kretlek (BDG) 20:39; 5. Cameron Magro (BDG) 20:44; 6. Tony Beilman (BDG); 7. Zak Eggleston (E) 21:30; 8. Mark Hawk (BDG) 21:53; 9. David Holobaugh (BDG) 22:05; 10. Aaron Sieting (BW) 22:15.
Girls' Team Scores
Bridgman 22, Brandywine 35
Edwardsburg 18, Brandywine 41
Edwardsburg 28, Bridgman 29
Girls' Top Five
1. Kathy Stewart (ED) 22.24; 2. Jessica Forker (BDG) 22:42; 3. Kaitlin Buzalski (ED) 22:47; 4. Veronica Brubaker (ED) 24:14; 5. Ashley Harrell (BW) 25:06; 6. Sonny Gast (BDG) 27:42; 7. Holly Billings (E) 28:12; 8. Lisa Billings (E) 28:42; 9. Kim Billings 28:43; 10. Emily Camp (E) 28:49