Advertisement

"It's a neat atmosphere (at the state meet),"East Jordan head coach Yaro Middaugh said. "It's nice that both (Thomas and Oliver) ended their careers at the state meet."

Thomas was in 24th place at 2.5 miles into the race, but the senior found another gear with a half mile to go and moved up five spots.

"Meghan only got passed by one person at the end (of the race),"Middaugh said, "and she ended up running her back down."

Middaugh said that Oliver also had a strong finish to end up 61st.

"We had a good day,"he said.

Anticipating the adrenaline rush that often leads runners to go out faster than normal at the state meet, in practice last week Middaugh had his runners simulate the first minutes of the race after the gun goes off.

"We worked on going out hard and settling into race pace,"he said. "We wanted to feel comfortable going out hard but then settling in."

Freshman Lindsay Neal from North Muskegon won the race by 15 seconds with her time of 18:29.1.

Grand Rapids Northpointe Christian won the state championship with 109 points. Harbor Springs was the runner-up with 123, and Manton finished third with 173.