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The Lady Pioneers, with 75 points, placed second in the Division 2 team standings on rainy Goodells County Park course, just three points behind the champion, Flint Powers Catholic. St. Clair was third with 87. All three will advance to the MHSAA Cross Country State Finals this Saturday at MIS Speedway in Brooklyn.

"Obviously, the girls ran well," said C-L coach Lisa Shaw. "A good team like Goodrich, which I think was ranked, didn't make it.

"We would have liked to bring the Regional trophy home. It would have been nice," admitted Shaw. "But, St. Clair had four girls in the 19s and we beat them. So, this was a full team effort (for us) and it always has been."

Cros-Lex sophomore Leah O'Connor continued her impressive first season on varsity by finishing second overall in a time of 19:02. Junior Erica Lerma remained as steady as ever, too, placing ninth in a time of 19:37. Powers' McKenzie Mora, a freshman, was the individual champion (18:48).

"Leah, for being a sophomore, and runner-up for Regional championship, this is nice. And, it's motivation for next year," said Shaw. She added on Lerma, "Has she not been less than amazing? She's running great, isn't she? She's definitely been a great runner for us."

The next three runners for C-L all finished in the top 25. Junior Joz Worden was 18th (20:31), senior Michaela Maze was 21st (20:39), and junior Vanessa Stewart was 25th (20:43).

Matthews qualifies for State

Junior Josh Matthews of Cros-Lex was in real battle for the final qualifying spot coming into the stretch in the boys Division 2 Regional at Goodells. Matthews made a strong charge to finish line to place 15th overall and earn a trip to MIS. His time was 17:29.

Shaw said she had talked about the possibilities of Matthews and a couple of others, with husband, Rich, who coaches the C-L boys.

"We thought our guys had a chance (to qualify)," said Shaw. For (Josh) to hold on was an accomplishment because it was tough at the end. For all the people on the team, (Josh) was the one that really put the time in this summer."

Sophomore Adam Martinelli, meanwhile, just missed qualifying for State, placing 17th in 17:31. Junior Taylor Kasper was just two more spots behind in 19th (17:37).