MORENCI — First-year head cross country coach Tony Muzzi inherited a program returning only one athlete from its previous season and losing three runners to graduation. The Bulldogs finished the year with three high school athletes as well as three middle school athletes.
“And not just middle schoolers, they’re sixth graders,” Muzzi said. “So if they stick with it they will be in the program for seven years.”
That is great news for a coach and a school that is looking to build the program.
“You’ve got to figure out a way to keep them engaged, to keep it interesting and to keep running fun,” Muzzi stated.
Junior David Bauer was the sole returner from last year’s team. He was joined by fellow junior, foreign exchange student Mohamed Adow and the lone female runner, freshman Jenna Lambes.
Bauer ran his personal record time of 19:03.4 early in the season on Sept. 9 at the TCC Jamboree #1 hosted by Sand Creek.
“Poor David, he was plagued by illness,” Muzzi said, referring to Bauer. “He was sick for three weeks. But he did get a PR before that and he did it at Sand Creek, a big rivalry, so that was cool.”
He finished the season with a race just 10 seconds off that PR pace with 19:13.7 at the Regional Meet held on Oct. 24 in Napoleon.
Adow entered the season with a goal of cracking the 19 minute barrier. His first competition was the aforementioned TCC Jamboree where he ran a 22:49. Just 11 days later at the Pittsford Invitational he knocked off nearly three minutes and finished with a time of 19:55.2. He continued to improve, posting a 19:44.9 at the Hudson Booster Invitational and a 19:13.8 at the Madison Invitational in early October.
Adow waited for his last race during the Regional Meet to post his PR of 18:59.9 and crack the 19-minute mark.
“He just squeezed in there,” Muzzi said.
Lambes’ first competition was in late September where she posted a time of 39:00.6. Just two weeks later she cut off over eight minutes and ran a PR of 30:51.7. She finished her season not far off her PR pace with a 31:07.5 at Regionals.
Muzzi recalled the last week of practice when the weather had turned and it was rainy and cold.
“I asked my kids, ‘Are we doing this? Are we running in the rain?’ ” Muzzi said.
“And they were all about it. I even gave them an out if they didn’t want to because it was gross out. They were like, ‘we want to train, we want to run.’”
Three sixth-grade boys comprised the middle school team.
Harvey Beaverson set his PR at the Sand Creek Middle School Invitational on Oct. 9 with a time of 15:14.8.
Nash Ekins ran his best time of 16:30.6 at the Lenawee County Championships held on Oct. 11.
Sylar Harvey ran to a time of 17:46.7 early in the year on Sept. 2 at the Addison Keunner Invitational.
Muzzi is excited for the opportunity to build and grow the cross country program and is looking forward to next season.
“Everyone says how much they hate running until they get to that point where they break through that brick wall and they find their stride,” he said. “It’s supposed to feel really invigorating.”