Ingham County Community News
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Bulldog harriers on track late in season By DICK HOEKSTRA dhoekstra@lsj.com
With all but one runner returning from a team that won the 2009 Greater Lansing Cross Country Championships by more than 120 points, it appeared before the season that Division 2 state champion Ionia would easily repeat. But then came the emergence of second-ranked Mason, which lost 110-123 to Ionia in the first meeting of the season against each other at the recent Portage Invitational. “I don’t think we ran our best on Saturday,” Mason coach Charles Miller said. “So we’re happy to take another crack at them.” The boys race was to take place at Ledge Meadows Golf Course on Oct. 16, after this paper went to press. This year’s final victory margin may be similar to St. Johns’ 141-144 win over Ionia in 2008, but each team might score about 100 points less than that since both Ionia and Mason will
likely place all of their first five within the top 30 runners who receive individual medals. Both team’s top runners will also compete with East Lansing senior Robbie Glew and Perry senior Justin Krauss for first place individually. Ionia junior Connor Montgomery has run the fastest time so far this fall, 15:47 while winning the Grand Rapids Catholic Cougar-Falcon Invitational on Sept. 25. Senior Don Blight and junior Nick Wharry were each the Bulldogs’ top runner in the two meets after that. “They have no qualms about who wins, and that’s neat,” Ionia boys coach Chris Young said. “Each is distinctly different. Connor has great heart, Wharry has all of the talent in the world and is still learning how to use it, and Blight runs on pure guts.” Tanner Hinkle has replaced sophomore teammate Alex Whitmer as Mason’s top runner in most
recent meets. Hinkle’s top time of 16:13 is more than a minute faster than his 2009 best of 17:29. “He has run every day since July 2009,” Miller said. “While I wouldn’t recommend that for everybody, that work ethic has made Tanner very strong.” Junior Joe Cecil, who joined other teammates on most of Hinkle’s summer workouts, also improved from a 2009 best of 17:02 to 16:18 so far this fall. The latest Bulldog showing considerable improvement is freshman Mason VanDyke. The 2009 Greater Lansing Junior Cross Country Championship winner was Mason’s second man with a 16:26, down seven seconds from his previous best. “He seems to be coming on at the right time for us after some slight injury issues early in the year,” Miller said. Six returning Ionia runners were faster in 2009 than Mason’s top returner (Whitmer), who ran 16:52
last fall. But the Bulldogs’ vast improvement from 32nd in the 2007 Greater Lansing meet to 22nd in 2008 to ninth last year should take them to first or second on Saturday. “I knew I had a good group coming, but you never know how it’s going to come together,” Miller said. “It’s been fun watching it come to fruition. To have a chance going into this meet of winning it is exciting for them, for me and for Mason.” Determining who may take third to Ionia and Mason will likely depend on the performance of their fifth runners among Division 3 fourth-ranked Lansing Catholic, Division 2 honorable mention Haslett, CAAC Blue leaders Okemos and East Lansing, and Division 3 No. 6 Perry. Other teams aiming to crack the top 10 include Holt, Division 4 secondranked Potterville, Charlotte, Grand Ledge, Alma and Williamston.
Ike Lea
Mason cross-country runners Jacob Hansen (1571) and Joe Cecil (1567) are in action earlier this season at the Spartan Invitational back on Sept. 17. The Bulldogs will compete in the Division 2 regionals at Jackson’s Sharp Park on Oct. 30.
LaSavallii leads Bulldogs to nonleague win By SCOTT YOSHONIS
October 17, 2010
syoshonis@lsj.com
MASON — Saylor LaVallii rushed for 248 yards and four touchdowns to lead Mason to a 45-12 rout of Muskegon Heights (3-4) in a non-league football game on Oct. 8. The win clinched automatic qualification for the MHSAA state playoffs, and gave the Bulldogs some momentum going into their biggest game of the year, the CAAC Red finale against Sexton on Oct. 15. That game, which was played after this paper went to press, gave Mason a chance to clinch a share of the league title with a win. Sean Wren and Ben Hinamanu scored the other touchdowns for the Bulldogs (6-1), in a game of two distinctly different halves. Mason scored just twice in the first half, both with the benefit of a short field. First, Eric Nelson recovered a Tiger fumble at the 50, but the Bulldogs had to settle for a 27-yard field goal by Jacob Derby that made the score 3-0. Then, Mason took over after a shanked Heights punt that gave the Bulldogs the ball on their own 43. LaVallii scored on a 33-yard run three plays later to give his team a 10-0 lead with 2:41 left in the first quarter. Muskegon Heights then also took advantage of good field position, as Deontae Hudson ran the ensuing kickoff back to the Mason 41 yard line, and Adam Ross scored from four yards out on the first play of the second quarter to cut the lead to 10-6.
Penalties and mistakes hampered both teams for the rest of the half, which saw the Tigers’ Division 1 college prospect Willie Snead drive his team down to the Mason one-yard line. A holding penalty drove them back, and Wren picked off a Snead pass in the end zone with 3:56 left in the second quarter to keep the contest 10-6 at the break. “We didn’t get into our rhythm in the first half,” VanHavel said. “Part of that was them (Muskegon Heights) playing well, but part of it was our not playing well in the first half. I told the kids at halftime to just settle in and get a good rhythm, and that’s what they did in the second half.” “We didn’t play our best football game tonight, but that’s a positive for us. It was a great victory, and you can’t look down on a victory.”
Second half better Mason began to find, or create, holes in the Heights defensive line in the second half that were not there in the first, starting with Wren, who ran 64 yards for a touchdown with 3:40 left in the third. Snead scored from 11 yards out on the Tigers’ next possession to make the score 17-12, but it was all Bulldogs from there. LaVallii broke free for a 65-yard TD on the next snap from center, and scored from six yards out on the fourth play of the fourth quarter to increase the lead to 31-12. Hinamanu broke several tackles on the way to a 48-yard
TD run on the first play of Mason’s next possession with 7:35 left in the game, and LaVallii provided an exclamation point to his, and Mason’s, evening with an 88-yard touchdown with 1:09 left. The Bulldogs have scored 44 points or more in all five of its wins this season. “It was a big win for us, but we have the biggest game of the year next week, so we have to prepare for that,” LaVallii said. “St. Johns was a really tough loss for us, so we have to get to work this week for Sexton.” That Sexton game, which gave the Bulldogs the chance to claim their third straight league title, was a mirror image of last year’s clash between the two. Mason went to Sexton having clinched a share of the 2009 title, looking to take it outright with a win, but the Big Reds made it a three-way tie with St. Johns with the upset win in overtime. This year, Sexton went into the game with at least a share in their pocket, and a Mason win would almost certainly cause a three-way tie with the Redwings at the top of the standings. This week, the Bulldogs travel to Eaton Rapids on Friday, Oct. 22 for the regular-season finale against the woeful, winless Greyhounds, winners of just four games in the last six seasons. Mason will begin its postseason with a pre-district game on Friday, Oct. 29, with the venue and opponent yet to be determined.