Chelsea Girls 17th, Boys 20th at D2 Cross Country State Finals

The Chelsea cross country teams both had strong showings at the Division 2 state cross country finals at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn Saturday.

It was near perfect weather conditions for the runners for the first weekend of November and it was a fast course with state finals records falling in nearly every division.

The girls came home with a 17th-place finish out of 27 teams with 449 points. Grand Rapid Christian won the title with 112.

All seven runners ran near or better than their season best times at the race.

Natalia DeMea came up just short of all state honors with a 36th-place finish in 19:02.8 to lead the Bulldogs.

Samantha Bieber was 131st in 20:24.8, while Zora Ziolkowski was 157th in 20:46.7 and Lauren Thompson 161st
in 20:52.2.

Seren Angus was 197th in 21:31.6, Clara Fredenberg 224th in 22:18.7, and Marah Putnam 234th in 22:52.6.

The boy finished 20th out of 27 teams with 474 points in the race won by Forest Hills Eastern with 134. SEC White rival Pinckney was state runner-up with 156.

Connell Alford finished third overall with a time of 15:11.2. Alford was the defending D2 state champion and beat his time from last year when he won the title by one second, but a new D2 state record was set by the champion TJ Hansen of Freeland with a scorching time of 14:52.8.

Alford finished his Chelsea career as the Bulldogs record holder with the school record of 14:53.1. He earned all-state honors all four years with his worst finish being 11th in the state as a freshman.

Jackson Dell ran a season best time of 17:01.8 and finished 126th, while Linus Helzerman set a new PR with a time of 17:18 to finish 145th.

Beckett Boos finished 174th in 17:39.7, Brant Maley 215th in 18:13.3, Alex Martin 216th in 18:14.4, and Wyeth Angus 237th in 18:54.