Niles looking to improve finish at their own Viking Stampede Friday

Published 7:43 am Wednesday, August 16, 2017

The Niles boys and girls cross country teams will be trying to better their finish at their annual Viking Stampede at Madeline Bertrand Park Friday.

Michigan City captured the boy’s championship last year with St. Joseph finishing second, Plainwell third and Niles fourth.

St. Joseph was the girl’s champion with Plainwell finishing second and Niles third.

Michigan City and St. Joseph will return to defend their titles Friday along with Plainwell, Lakeshore and Watervliet.

The girl’s race will begin at 5 p.m. with the boy’s race scheduled to start at 5:45 p.m.

In last year’s race, Niles’ Devin Tomlinson finished fifth with a time of 17:97. He was the lone Viking to finish in the top 10 of the boys race.

“I look for him to improve from last year unless there is some type of injury on the course,” Niles Coach Tony Todd said. “He could win it.”

Much of the rest of the Niles team is freshmen and sophomores. Todd said that Weston Eger has been battling some preseason injuries and may not compete in the race.

Eger finished 16th last year with a time of 20:05.

Taylor Altergott earned a sixth-place finish in the girls race with a time of 22:36. She is not running this season, according to Niles coach Jami Foster.

Despite the loss of Altergott, Foster feels her team could move up in the standings.

“I tell my girls all the time that everyone has to show up and run, so I always feel we have a shot at winning,” she said. “Our first goal is to move up at this meet. I would like to be in the top two this year.”

Kaylee Thompson, who finished 22nd with a time of 25:06, is currently the Vikings’ No. 1 runner heading into the season.

“Kaylee is our top runner right now and I think she will continue to be as we get into the season,” Foster said. “After that, we probably have five to six of them together. That is up in the air, which is a good thing because that is how close these girls are because of their training over the summer and their competitiveness.”

This will be the second year Niles has run on its own course at Madeline Bertrand Park.

According to Niles boys cross country coach Tony Todd, the course is the same as the one that hosted the Berrien County Meet in 2016, but is different from the stampede course, which was the first event run last season.

“Yesterday we just finished walking the hole course again,” he said. “For some reason, I was under the impression that it was 50 to 100-meters short, but that was the stampede course. The course we ran for the county meet is right on 5,000-meters.”

Todd feels that Tomlinson, now a senior, will be a factor in Friday’s race and will improve on his fifth-place finish.