Cross country season may have ended for most but a select few a still striving to meet goals! Mitchell Day hit one of those goals Saturday in Kenosha Wisconsin. Mitchell, Aden Smith and Josh Smith headed to the Footlocker Midwest Regional at University of Wisconsin Parkside to compete with the best runners from 13 states. The top 10 runners from each of the 4 regions qualify for Nationals and earn another race on December 10 at Balboa Park in San Diego, California. Mitchell finished 8th earning a much coveted spot to San Diego. He will be racing with the top 40 runners from the United States. This is his end goal for high school cross country. Last year, Mitchell raced and finished 16th at the Midwest Region ending his season before he was ready. This year, he entered the race with a different mindset and was mentally and physically ready for the challenge. He also had one last opportunity to mentor the Smith boys and encourage their mindset focusing on what they can yet accomplish. The Smiths could have run the freshman/sophmore race and walked away in the top 5 with medals. They decided to step it up and run the seeded race knowing that this is where they will be next year. The finished well, breaking down the race afterwards and already planning for next year. Mitchell will race 10am Pacific Standard Time. The race will also be live stream. For more information go to FootlockerCC.com. Sent from my iPad

For the 1st time in Alpena High School History, the boys cross country team won the Regional Championship! And it is the first boys team that has qualified for the State Competition since 1999. In 1999, the team of Adam Borchert, Matt Boyk, Chad Kaiser, Donald Maller, Dan Quaine, Lyle Schultz, Nick Suszek qualified for the Class A State Championship. The Alpena High School Varsity Boys team consists of Mitchell Day, Aden Smith, Josh Smith, Isaac Cross, Clay Donajkowski, Avery Burrone and Sam Tuscher. Regarding the Regional meet, the importance of placement, not time, was stressed. We had a team meeting on Wednesday prior to the race and discussed the potential of the team. The team was predicted to finish 4th with 93 points. I believed their potential was 75 points. I also told them that I believed that 75 points would win the meet. The rest of the week was spent mentally preparing for the race. The team executed the race strategy to perfection. Even though Mitchell Day was the favorite to win the meet individually, the region was taken by surprise with Aden Smith and Josh Smith finishing 2nd and 3rd. The 3 runners worked together to make that happen. Isaac Cross, an experienced runner on our team, is dependable and determined and worked to be where he needed to be within the pack of 100 runners finishing 23. Rounding out the team was Clay Donajkowski finishing 44th. He worked his way through the group to a position better than planned. Alpena High School finished 1st with 73 points topping Bay City Western by 3 points! Grand Blanc finished 3rd with 80 points topping Saginaw Heritage by 3 points as well. The top 4 teams were separated by a mere 10 points! Anna Young, a freshman, will also be representing the girls cross country team for Alpena High School. They will all compete at the Division 1 State Championship meet on Saturday, November 5.

Mitchell Day, son of Scott and Jodi Day, has been representing Alpena Schools with charm and humility since he was a Freshman. Now, as a Senior, he continues to excel and prepares to compete at the collegiate level. In the Fall of 2015, Mitchell Day decided to become a 1 sport athlete. He regrettably quit soccer, a sport that he loves, and followed his natural talent in the running world. He will admit that it isn't necessarily the running that he loves but instead the challenge, discipline and planning. Last season, he broke a 30 year old school record. The record had been held since 1984 by Todd Zeilinski with a time of 16:00. In 1984, Todd finished 6th in the Class A Individual State Competion. Also, in 2015, Mitchell was expected to win the Conference Championship after winning the 1st two conference races. He lost that title after taking a fall down a hill finishing the race 17th. He easily earned the title of Regional Champion and he became the Division 1 Runner Up Champion finishing 3 seconds behind Isaac Harding from Rockford. Currently, he is accomplishing all that he did in 2015 and more. He has re-broken his school record with the biggest races of the season yet to come. He is the 1st Big North Confernce Champion from Alpena High School. He Is expected to win the Regional Championship again. AND, he is currently seeded #2 in the State of Michigan for Division 1 runners! Cole Johnson from Rockford has posted a time of 15:12.0 while Mitchell has posted a time of 15:13.1. The 2 runners have faced each other one time this season at the Spartan Invitational hosted by Michigan State University in early September. Mitchell finished ahead of Cole Johnson that day. This is quite an accomplishment for Alpena High School to have an athlete of this caliber! The best part is that Mitchell has had a huge impact on the rest of the team. He is a team leader by actions and encouragement. He has been guiding the underclassmen through their workouts all season. Not only is he making his mark with Alpena Athletics but his example will be used for years to come. The Alpena Cross Country Teams will be running Regionals at Delta College on Saturday, October 29. The qualifiers will move from there to the Division 1 State Meet at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, November 5. To qualify for the Division 1 State Meet, the runners need to finish in the top 3 teams or the top 15 individuals.

Wednesday, August 10 is our first official day of cross country season!  We will be meeting behind the high school (near the practice soccer fields and tennis courts).

Practice will begin at 9 am with warm-up and dynamics. The workouts will be tailored to fit the physical fitness of each athlete.  We will be done by 11 am. 

Athletes are expected to dress appropriately and comfortably!  Please bring a reusable water bottle!  Disposable are not reccommended because they tend to be left and half used. 

Watches are not a must but highly desireable for the kids to be aware of our time table.

Thank you!  Looking forward to it!

Please contact Joy Bullis with any questions 989-657-2453