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Sports

Wyandotte Girl's Cross Country Wins All-Area, First In 20 Years

The Wyandotte Girl's Cross Country beat out Woodhaven by one point to take the All-Area Downriver title.

Back in 1993, Bill Clinton was President, gasoline cost $1.16/gallon, the top-grossing movie was Jurassic Park, and the Wyandotte Girl’s Cross-Country squad won the All-Area title.

That was 20 years ago, and yes, that was the last time this girl’s squad won the all-area title. None of the current players on this squad were even born then. That all changed on Saturday, Oct. 12 at Young Patriot’s Park in Riverview when the team won the News-Herald Invitational.

Coming in first and second respectively, freshmen Robyn Loselle (18:55.9) and Maggie Pawelczyk (19:00.4) ran away from the competition, finishing almost two minutes ahead of the third place finisher.

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Woodhaven finished just one point behind Wyandotte, a 60-61 win for the Bears.

Head coach Dave Lustig said he was very proud of the way his girls came out and performed that day, and all season. 

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“The 1-2 finish by Robyn and Maggie wasn’t necessarily ‘surprising’ but it was a great way to start the day," Lustig said. "They beat some really great and heavily accomplished runners."

It wasn’t just Loselle and Pawelczyk that secured the win that day for the Bears -- it was the remaining cast behind them that ensured the win. 

“Alyssa (Harlow) was 6th (20:09.9) which was huge. Brittany Cini (11th grade) had a great race (finished 24th, 21:32.9)," Lustig said. "Not only did she claim all-area honors by finishing in the top 25, she also beat out a Riverview girl at the finish line, which we can point to and say ‘that’s our one point’.”

Lustig said that Woodhaven and Grosse Ile were the top competition in the meet, as the Red Devils were the defending champions, and Woodhaven was behind by just one point.

September was the key month for the Bears, as they geared up for the long season. “All of the meets honestly in September, built up to what we call the ‘championship’ part of the season. We trained all summer and raced in September to put ourselves in a position to be successful in October,” Lustig said. “It’s a lot of work to put in for 3-4 weeks of quality racing, but it definitely showed the girls that hard work does pay off.”

Although the Bears lost the Downriver League Meet on Thursday, Oct. 17, the Bears still have the Regional meet along with the State meet to focus on to end the season. 

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