The Fruitport girls cross country team opened the season with a good outing on Saturday, placing four runners in the top 10 in their division at the Muskegon Catholic Central Invitational.
Sophomore Peyhton Beardsley kept building on her great freshman season by finishing in third place in the Gold Division with a time of 21:19. Fellow sophomore Brynley Merkins was seventh with a time of 24:54.10, junior Zoe German finished eighth with a time of 24:54.34 and freshman Aynsley Merkins took ninth with a 25:10 mark.
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Fruitport junior Breanna Cole was 15th with a time of 27:30.
The Trojans finished in second place in the division team standings, behind first-place Holland.
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”The girls ran well, considering the heat and just finishing running camp the day before,” said Fruitport Coach Randy Johnson. “They were all very tired and it showed.”
The Fruitport boys were handicapped by having only three runners, so they did not qualify for the final team standings – but the guys they had did pretty well.
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The big story for the Trojans was sophomore Christian Pavlige, a first-time cross country runner, who finished fifth in the Gold Division standings with a time of 17:37. Senior Landon Johnson took 12th place with a time of 19:56, while sophomore Dylan Winskas finished 18th with a time of 21:24.
“This is Christian’s first year running cross country, so he is still trying to figure it all out,” Coach Johnson said. “He ran an excellent race today. The boys team will continue to recruit a few more boys this season to try and field a full team.”
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