Novi Boys Cross Country Comes in 7th at KLAA

-Submitted by Coach Robert Smith

Led by senior Eric Gardner, the Novi men’s cross country team came in seventh in the KLAA Kensington Conference meet held Thursday.

“It was nice for Eric to earn All-Conference honors,” Coach Robert Smith said of Gardner. “His time of 17:03 was a career-best. He put together a nice race…even with the less than ideal conditions."

Gardner came in 17th place in the race, which included teams from both the Central and South Divisions of the Kensington Lakes Athletic Conference.  “A 12-team field is a fairly large league meet. All-Conference is a big achievement," said Smith.

Brian Barnes (30th place/17:21), Kevin Hanlon (36/17:26), Ben Jenkins (45/17:40) and John Potter (47/17:44) ran 2-5 for the Wildcats to give Novi their score of 175 points.

“All of our top five finishers today ran either JV or middle school last year. For five new guys to assume the top slots is pretty amazing. I am very proud of the way they raced and represented ," Smith said.

In the JV race, Casey Croad finished in 11th place (17:50) with Cameron Richman (12/17:54) close behind.

“These two guys were part of our top times today,” said Smith. “That means we had two seniors, one junior, two sophomores and two freshmen as our top seven. Our youth was evident in the varsity race today, but on the other hand, our future looks promising”.

The Wildcat JV finished second in the 12-team field, and all 17 of the JV runners from the race are returning next season.