The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Boys take strong second
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: November 8, 2007
All season long, from meet to meet to meet, the Saline boys' cross country team chased top-ranked and heavy state favorite Pinckney.
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At Saturday's state finals, the Pirates and Hornets finished far ahead of the pack and Saline drew closer to the defending champions than ever.
But it wasn't quite enough to unseat them. Saline finished as runners-up, totaling 137 points to Pinckney's 120.
"When you're talking about 17 points in a state meet, that's nothing," said Saline head coach Carl Spina. "We ran very well, and we were running against a great team. We just got edged by a little bit."
Nonetheless, the second-place finish was the best in the history of Saline's program at the Division 1 level, surpassing the third-place finishes in 1999 and 2003. Saline took second in Class B twice, in 1989 and 1991.
"It was a great performance," Spina said. "We finished sixth last year and lost a couple of guys, so to move up into second place is very impressive.
"We ran the best we could and we had a fine season. We just lost out to a great team, so what can you do?"
Saline finished well ahead of third-place Rochester Adams, which totaled 207 points. Rival Ann Arbor Pioneer, a week after edging the Hornets for the regional title, finished fourth with 213. Ann Arbor Huron made it three Southeastern Conference Red schools in the top-five with a score of 230.
Saline was led by senior Blake Johnson, who ran a personal-best time of 15:38.6 to finish fourth overall, ahead of even 2006 state runner-up Mike Katsefaras of Pinckney. The Pirates' David Hawkins won the race in 15:26.9.
"He had another great day," Spina said of Johnson. "He challenged throughout the race and that last mile made a big difference."
"I wanted to get out quick and not get caught up going around that first turn," Johnson said. "After that, I just tried to hang on and battle all the way to the end."
Johnson was joined on the top-30 All-State team by junior Brian Conn, who ran 15:59.2 -- also a personal best and his first time under 16 minutes -- to finish 29th. Junior Tommy Hunt finished 38th with a time of 16:09.1.
Daniel Filipsson lowered his personal-best by almost 30 seconds to post a remarkable time of 16:26.5 and finish 66th, just :00.02 ahead of teammate Brian Hernandez, rounding out the Saline scoring in 67th. Hernandez, a senior, was the race's fastest fifth runner.
"Brian Conn, finishing All-State and getting under 16 minutes, is a great accomplishment and, with Tommy Hunt finishing just outside (the top 30), that will give him something to work toward," Spina said. "Daniel Filipsson ran out of his mind today. It's one of those things that happens every once in a while and today it did. Brian Hernandez had another steady performance for us. He was huge again.
"We got five PRs (personal records) out of seven, so we can't complain," Spina said.
No. 6 runner Joe Lipa's time of 17:16.3, which was a personal best, placed him 180th with fellow sophomore Andrew Harper taking 227th in 17:58.1.
"This was a good experience for our sophomores," Spina said.
Johnson said the team would have liked to have won, but didn't have any regrets.
"Our fifth runner was under 16:30. That's the first time that's happened all season," he said. "We started this year wanting to finish first, but that seemed like a really lofty goal. As the season went on, we realized, 'We can do this.' We worked hard and it got us here. It was exciting to come this close."
The Hornets will say goodbye to captains Johnson and Hernandez and Filipsson, a Swedish exchange student, but Spina believes there's no reason the Hornets won't be able to challenge again next season.
"We're not going to just rest on what these seniors accomplished," he said.
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