Teri Tune
Sports Scene
The Perry cross country team is off to a strong start this season and is aiming to return to the state meet.
They finished third at the Chesaning Invitational with a team score of 86.
Leading the Ramblers at Chesaning was Jon Bell with a time of 17:06.2. He was followed by Alex West 17:11.6, Ian Nemeth 17:57.5, Tyler Neros 18:34.0, Brett Navarre 18:49.0, and Jimmy Davission 19:22.8.
“We are doing good this season so far,” coach Carl Willits said. “We lost our number one guy last year who was all-state, but we got one all-state runner back in Bell. We are looking for Bell and West to help push us through regionals and back to state this year,” he said.
The Lady Ramblers also competed at the Chesaning Invitational, where they finished second with a team score of 69.
“The girls are looking really strong, and this could be the best team of all time for us,” Willits said. “ Our regional is stacked though, so it’s going to be tough to get out of it.”
Leading Perry was Jordan Krauss with a time of 20:49.1, followed by Julia Young 22:01.8, Karla Graves 22:08.6, Aleisha Tomlin 22:19.1, Allizon Middleton 22:45.1, Amanda Demerly 23:24.3, and Abigail Feuka 23:33.8.
PERRY TO LEAVE CAAC NEXT SEASON
Perry schools will leave the CAAC at the end of this year. Next year it will join the Genesee Area Conference (GAC) in the Red Division.
Perry had 490 students last year and was the fifth-smallest of the six schools in the CAAC. High school enrollment was down by approximately 30 students from 2009-2010 to 2010-2011. This made it difficult to be competitive. Now Perry will be the sixth-biggest of the 18 schools in the GAC, and if enrollment continues to drop, the school feels it would still be able to be competitive.
“I’m not familiar with the GAC yet, and so it’s going to take getting a year under my belt before I can say how I’m going to like it. I like the competition that the CAAC has given us, but I think we will be even more competitive in the GAC,” said Willits.