Margaret Brennan ’13 | Staff Writer

The girls cross country team continued their winning streak this weekend at the state regional meet where they dominated their competition.

“We had very high expectations and the girls responded with our single best day of competition in our 34 year history,” said Zaranek.

South won the meet with 26 points, in second was Stevenson with 47 points and in third was Troy with 97 points.  Nineteen schools competed, however only the top three advanced to the state final meet, according to Coach Stephen Zaranek.

Of the 34 years of competing South has taken home the win at the regional meet more than 20 times, according to Zaranek. In recent years, South has started to set some records at the St. Claire Metro Park race venue.

This year Hannah Meier ’13 broke her own two-year old school record by running the 5k race in 17:16, Zaranek said.  This is the fastest time in Michigan and one of the very best performances nationwide.  While Kelsie Schwartz ’14 ran a career best of 17:37 to give an incredible 1-2 finish.  South’s first five runners all finished within the top nine slots for the varsity race.

The seven varsity runners are looking forward to their largest competition all year at the state meet this weekend located at the Michigan International Speedway.

Coming off their regional victory, the team will use this upcoming week for rest and sharpening their skills in order to achieve peek performances, Zaranek said.

“We tapered most of our team the final two weeks of the season as this was their last meet.  Our varsity worked harder with the expectation that our season would continue through the state finals this coming Saturday.  We worked hard to prepare mentally for this huge opportunity,” said Zaranek.

Photos By Carly Walkowiak ’14