Rogers, Vikings have breakthrough season

Steve Rogers had an idea all the way back in June that he could have a good girls cross country team on his hands.

It took the girls themselves a little longer to realize just how good they were.

“Even when we got second at the Marysville Invitational (in early October), they were like, ‘Are you sure?’” Rogers said.

He was, and his team backed him up, winning the Macomb Area Conference Blue Division title, and finishing second at the Division 2 regional to qualify for the state meet for the first time since 1989. For his efforts, Rogers is the Times Herald Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year.

“I knew when we signed up in June, I thought this might be the year we can bust through,” Rogers said. “We didn’t get a great start. I thought we had a good week at camp, but when our first meet came up, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t a really great start.

“That second (Macomb Area Conference) jamboree, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve got what it takes.’”

The Marysville Invitational, in which the Vikings placed second, also sent Rogers a message.

“When we did that MAC Blue second jamboree, two days later we had the Marysville Invitational,” Rogers said. “That’s a really tight turnaround. The fact the girls finished second, and the way they finished second — they were pretty close to winning that thing — and they were running on fumes.”

The Vikings made their mark with a strong pack. While junior Kenzie Weingartz wound up running near the front of races by the end of the season — she was the MAC Blue MVP and finished seventh at the regional — the six girls behind her ran, essentially, in twos on their way to keeping Marysville’s point total down.

At the regional, Weingartz’s seventh-place finish was followed by 19th and 20th place finishes (Makenna Hill and Audrey Sylvia), 27th and 32nd (Paige Dawson and Esperanze-Hope Reyna) and 44th and 47th (Meghan Sylvia and Hannah Sampier).

On the year, Marysville had eight runners under 22 minutes in at least one meet.

“They do pack together in practice, but it’s by twos,” Rogers said. “Some of them are kids who really like to race, and practicing is not something that is as exciting for them as a meet.

“When they get their uniform on, they gel right together.”

Contact Paul Costanzo at (810) 989-6251 or pcostanzo@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @PaulCostanzo.