Ypsilanti Early Bird Invitational
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2008

Overcast and humid conditions greeted the 17 Saline runners who traveled to Ypsilanti High School on Thursday, Sept. 7, for the “Early Bird” Invitational.

Though there were no team scores kept in this early season competition, Hornet runners took command of both the Varsity and JV races.

In the Varsity race, Saline swept the top 3 places led by junior Desi O’Brien, who brought home individual honors with a first place time of 21:20. Following Desi were Chelsie Noble (2nd – 21:27) and Christina Gonzalez (3rd – 21:30). Only 10 seconds separated the top 3 Hornet runners. Other Saline varsity runners were Regan Johnston – 10th, Meghan McGregor – 12th, Emily Hogikyan – 20th, and Marta Swenson – 22nd.

In the JV race, Saline entered 5 of their top freshmen, and along with taking the top 3 spots, all five of them finished in the top 11. Similar to their teammates in the Varsity race, Samantha Szuminski, Katie Colosimo, and Amy Creutz finished only 4 seconds apart to finish 1-2-3 in the field of 47 runners. Closely following the lead pack were Calley Jastrow (6th) and Aviva Shwayder (11th).

Varsity					JV (3200 meters)
Team Place	Overall Place	Name	Time		Team Place	Overall Place	Name	Time
1	1	O'Brien	21:20		1	1	Szuminski	14:22
2	2	Noble	21:27		2	2	Colosimo	14:25
3	3	Gonzalez	21:30		3	3	Creutz	14:26
4	10	Johnston	22:24		4	6	Jastrow	14:56
5	12	McGregor	22:31		5	11	Shwayder	15:23
6	20	Hogikyan	23:32
7	22	Swenson	23:40
8	24	Gleichman	23:59
9	29	Powell	24:35
10	30	Ahadi	24:45
11	36	Martens	25:39
12	39	Lucas	25:55

Highlights

• We had the top 3 places in each race, 4 in the top 10 in the Varsity race, and all five runners in the top 11 in the JV race.
• Three runners under 22:00 in the varsity race and five under 23:00.
• All five runners in the JV race were within a minute of each other.
• Nice job, freshmen, in the JV race!
• There were 67 runners in the Varsity race and 47 in the JV race.