The Fruitport girls cross country team maintained a strong pace in the first week of the season by finishing in fourth place out of 21 teams in the Under the Lights Invitational at Grand Rapids South Christian on Friday night.

In the boys race, senior Vincent Pollock was a headliner, finishing fourth out of a field of 230 runners.

In the girls competition, the Trojans finished with 170 points. Central Montcalm took first place with 59 points.

Fruitport senior Valerie Pollock had her second strong performance of the season, finishing 12^th individually in a field of 244 runners with a time of 20:45.

Freshman Peyhton Beardsley continued her strong varsity debut by finishing 24^th with a time of 22:02. Brynley Merkins took 30^th place with a time of 22:20, Treasure Fleese was 32^nd with a 22:26 mark and Zoe German came in 73^rd place with a time of 23:59.

The Fruitport boys, who have a lot of inexperienced runners, finished a respectable 12^th place out of 19 teams with 338 points. Kalamazoo Homeschool Sports took first with 91 points.

Vincent Pollock posted his fourth place finish with a personal best time of 16:16.

Landon Johnson was 40^th (17:55), Dylan Winskas finished 91^st (19:44), Enzo Aggoune was 117^th (20:41) and Landon Peck was 180^th (23:15).

“Nearly everyone on the team improved their times,” said Fruitport Coach Randy Johnson, who coaches both the girls and boys teams. “The girls surprised themselves in this race, placing fourth out of 21 teams. The freshmen – Peyhton, Brynley and Zoe –  improved by over a minute.”