Chelsea Boys Heading to State Finals for 22nd Straight Year

Photo from Chelsea Distance Twitter

The streak continues for the Chelsea boys’ cross country team as the Bulldogs qualified for the Division 2 state finals for the 22nd
straight year.

The 22 straight years is the fourth longest current streak in Michigan with the Saline girls streak standing at 26 years.

The Bulldogs will be heading to MIS in Brooklyn Saturday after a third-place finish at the Regional at Lake Erie Metropark.

The Bulldogs finished with 101 points for the third spot, just ahead of New Boston Huron with 110. SEC rival Adrian ran away with the title with 32 points and Father Gabriel Richard was second with 89.

Chelsea came up big when they needed it with four runners coming in with season best, including three PR’s.

“We have worked through a number of personal struggles and some team ups and downs throughout the season in order to get to this point,” Coach Loren Thorburn said. “We continue to learn from our own experiences as well as our teammates, and especially learning to be there for each other at the finish.”

Connell Alford claimed the regional title with a season best time of 15:06.2 and will be looking to defend his individual state title at MIS Saturday.

Linus Helzerman set a PR and finished 19th with a time of 17:21.2, while Beckett Boos was 23rd in 17:35.8 and Jackie Dell 28th
in 17:57.3.

Brant Maley set a PR and finished 33rd in 18:03.8, Alex Martin 36th with a PR of 18:04.5, and Wyeth Angus 18:32.2 in 49th.

“These guys can look back on this meet and say that the 2023 team did its best to uphold the standard

set in the early 2000s by Coach Swager’s teams over the years and being a part of the 22 consecutive

seasons of qualifying for the State Meet,” Thorburn said.

The Bulldogs will run at MIS in the D2 state finals Saturday at 2:50 PM.