The Edwardsburg girls were the first to compete in their new home course at the Edwardsburg Sports Complex Sept. 14. (Leader photo/SCOTT NOVAK)

Thanks to a lot of hard work, the Edwardsburg cross country team ran its first home meet in almost two decades Tuesday.

The Eddies hosted Wolverine Conference foe Vicksburg at its new home course at the Edwardsburg Sports Complex. For the better part of 18 years, Edwardsburg has been traveling to Dowagiac to compete on its course located at the middle school.

On Tuesday, the Eddies were able to take on the Bulldogs just a few minutes up US-12 from the Edwardsburg High School.

Abbie Smith, a four-year member of the cross country team, was happy to finally compete on her own course.

“It was nice,” she said. “We felt more at home. It was fast, but it was hot. I liked it.”

Edwardsburg coach Beth Gunn has been a teacher at Edwardsburg for 18 years and this was the first time she has seen the Eddies run at home.

“First of all, I want to thank the people at the sports complex for all the hard work they put in to get this course ready,” she said. “This is tremendously exciting to have a home course. As a coach, a parent and a runner, I am thrilled that we have a home course that is off the road so we don’t have to run on a hard surface, but more importantly, away from car traffic.

Patty Patzer with the Edwardsburg Sports Complex was also pleased to be able to bring cross country back to town.

While having a course was not in the original plan, putting one in place was quickly included.

“The walking trail was always a part of the plan,” Patzer said. “It was a recreational trail for people.”

“I don’t think it was every really thought of,” said Jennifer Mackling, facility/program coordinator for the complex. “As we were going along, it was kind of something that just developed. It was like, Edwardsburg doesn’t even run in its own town.”

Patzer and Mackling said that roughly two or three years ago the subject came up and the planning began.

“We decided we could develop something here that they could run on,” Patzer said.

The course is located around the outside of the complex, which incorporates the walking trail. The plan is to create several “loops” which will be viewer friendly for those coming to see the cross country team.

The loops will also give runners several different distances to choose from.

“Having a cross country course will be a huge asset to our program, the ability to use for practice will enable our coaches to use different workouts and most importantly keep our athletes safe,” Edwardsburg Athletic Director Kevin Dean said. “I am very appreciative of everything that Ed Patzer did to make this a reality and I look forward to helping develop this into the best course in southwest Michigan.”

Vicksburg spoiled the debut of the course by sweeping the Eddies.

The Bulldog girls edged Edwardsburg 25-30, while the boys team defeated the Eddies 20-39.

Kara Shrider was the first finisher for the Edwardsburg girls team as she posted a time of 21:13.

Brock Eaves finished second in the boys race with a time of 17:40.

“The girls ran well,” Gunn said. “I thought the meet was going to be more competitive, but Cameron Cleveland, who is usually right up there with Kara Shrider ended up getting sick a couple of times on the course, but she was still able to finish. But that dropped her finish back. It was still going to be close between us, but I thought it was going to be even closer than what it was.

“The boys ran well too. We had some new additions to the team and this was their first meet. I was surprised with how well they did because it was much hotter than I thought it was going to be and there is not much shade out there once you get running.”