Thursday, October 24, 2002

By Jeff Chaney
The Grand Rapids Press
SPARTA -- The Sparta boys cross country team finally ran away with an O-K Gold Conference championship last week at Johnson Park.

The Spartans won their first conference championship since 1988 by narrowly winning the league meet last Thursday over Wyoming Park. Sparta finished with 57 points, while the Vikings had 60.

A.J. McConnell led the Spartans and finished first in the race with a time of 16 minutes, 37 seconds.

"It's been a while since we've won this," Sparta coach Ted Smith said. "It was one of our top goals to finally win a conference championship, but we still want to do well at regionals and make it back to the state meet."

Last year, Sparta made it to the state meet by finishing third at the regional meet. The Spartans came in 17th place at state.

The process to return to the state finals at Michigan International Speedway begins Saturday when Sparta hosts a Division 1 and Division 2 regional starting at 11 a.m.

The Spartans compete in Division 2.

"The guys would like to be in the top 10 at the state finals this year, and that's going to be tough," Smith said. "First, we have to get through our regional meet, and that will be tough with teams like Fremont, Ionia and St. Johns taking part.

"But we feel good coming out of the conference," he added. "For some of the guys, their goal since middle school was to win a conference championship, and they've worked very hard for that. And now that has been done, now it is time to move on to the next goal."

If the Spartans can get the times they did at conference, they could be in good shape.

Besides McConnell's win, Sparta got scoring from Joe Skripka, who was eighth at the conference meet in 17:23, Mike Haskell, who was 12th in 17:51, Trent Barnhart, who was 17th in 18:06 and Zach Kurek, who was 19th in 18:08.

The Sparta girls cross country team also will be looking to advance to the state meet.

The Spartans are coming off a second-place finish at the conference meet. Sparta finished with 53 points, 19 behind champion Caledonia.

"One of our big goals was to make it out of regionals and go to state," Sparta coach Adam Pfeffer said. "Last year we were hurting heading into the postseason, but this year we are healthy and excited about Saturday."

The Spartans' top runner at the conference meet was Carrie Debski, who finished second in 20:25.

Friday, October 18, 2002

By Steve Ungrey
The Grand Rapids Press
A.J. McConnell was only a few yards behind Mark VanderMeer in the O-K Gold Conference boys cross country race, with the two runners vying for league supremacy at Thursday's meet.

McConnell, a junior at Sparta, rounded a red flag and headed for the finish line with VanderMeer, a Wyoming Park senior who has posted some of the area's lowest times this season.

Then McConnell kicked it in, and lead Sparta to a conference title for the first time since 1988.

Sparta joined the Caledonia girls team as conference champions, as the Fighting Scots pushed past the Sparta girls team to win their second straight league title.

McConnell beat VanderMeer for the second time this season, crossing the finish line in 16 minutes, 37 seconds to VanderMeer's 16:44. That extra burst of speed helped Sparta clinch the title, as the team scored 57 points to Wyoming Park's 60.

"Mark and I are really good friends and he's someone I really respect as a runner," McConnell said. "He knows I have a good kick.

"Ever since I've been a freshman I've looked at that conference banner in the gym and it said 1988," McConnell said. "I said to myself 'Man, we've got to get this title before I graduate.' "

Sparta, which was 8-0 entering the tournament, hadn't won a cross country conference trophy since the school was in the O-K White.

"We're not picky," Sparta boys coach John Thomas said. "We'll take it. This was great today, A.J. just worked so hard and he was a competitor today."

Tom Anderson and Tony Shelton, Sparta's sixth and seventh runners, finished ahead of Wyoming Park's fifth runner to provide the winning cushion for Sparta.

McConnell and VanderMeer will not see each other at regionals, as McConnell stays home for Division 2 action on Oct. 26 and VanderMeer travels to Yankee Springs State Park for what may be one of the toughest regionals in the state. Holland Christian, Middleville, Lowell and Grand Rapids Christian are among the teams running there.

Caledonia senior Tricia Miedema was also focused on winning Thursday's race.

Last year, Miedema faded at the finish line due to an anaerobic condition, where her body wasn't getting enough energy to continue. It resulted in blurred vision and wobbly legs.

Miedema had no such problem on Thursday, running a 20:18 and finishing seven seconds ahead of Sparta's Carrie Debski. Caledonia also finished ahead of second-place Sparta, scoring 34 points to Sparta's 53.

"We weren't all feeling our best today, we may have been burned out a bit by the end of the season push with conference, regional and state," Miedema said. "But we were so psyched about winning the conference meet and now we're focused about going to the state meet as a team.

"I've gone the last couple years with another runner and the team comes down to root us on, but it's so much more fun when the team goes."

Caledonia put four runners in the top 10, as Katie Ryan (fourth, 20:47), Brandi Victory (seventh, 21:09) and Becca Busfield (ninth, 21:22) had a solid day.