11-06-2022 9:48pm

CROSS COUNTRY: Saline Girls Race to 4th Place Finish at MIS, Mia Rogan Earns All-State Honors

The Saline girls cross country team raced to a fourth-place finish at the MHSAA Division 1 meet Saturday at Michigan International.

Senior Mia Rogan led the Hornets, placing 21st in 18:51.21 to earn all-state honors.

Saline finished with 201 points. Holland West Ottawa dominated the race with 97 points. Romeo was second with 172 and Pioneer finished with 196.

It was Saline's best state finish since taking third in 2019. The Hornets were fifth in 2020 and 2021.

The Hornets raced Saturday in windy conditions.

"I thought the girls ran well under the conditions, obviously running into winds up to 50 mph is not something you can really practice for, but our girls adapted well. We speak a lot about performing within this consistency window. We know not every day can be great, but it's important to perform consistently and I thought we did a good job with that yesterday," coach Eileen Creutz said. "Coryn Gady, Laney Alig, and Mia Rogan really fought the conditions well."

Rogan lopped 30 seconds of her state meet time as a junior and improved from 81st to 21st.

"Mia was so determined coming into the race to be all-state, so it was really great to see her accomplish that goal," Creutz said.

Rogan was thrilled to earn the all-state honor.

"It's been my goal since the beginning of the season. So to see that play out throughout the season, all the hard work I put in, to all come together at the end just feels amazing," Rogan said.

Rogan made her move in the second mile.

"I had to really move through that second mile. I think I passed at least 20 girls in the second mile, using the tailwind to my advantage," Rogan said. "I was telling myself it was the last race, at least until college, so just go out there and give it my all."

The windy conditions made the year's most important race a grueling ordeal.

"It was honestly a super tough race. You had to be the toughest out there in order to get what you wanted. The last 300 meters of the race was just a pure headwind - so just gutting it out to the finish was the main goal there," Rogan said.

Rogan was the only senior Hornet in the race.

Junior Laney Alig placed 37th in 19:12. Last year Alig was 86th. She was 135th as a freshman.

After Alig, it was all sophomores for Saline. Corynn Gady led the way, finishing 53rd in 19:26. Gady didn't run at MIS as a freshman. Sienna Snyder placed 94th in 19:50, Mackenzie Sellenraad was 124th in 20:05, Abby Roth was 151st in 20:16 and Grace Roth was 154th in 20:18.

Saline finished second place to Pioneer in the SEC Red and then won the regional race last week at Milan High School.

Coach Creutz was happy with the girls' cross country season.

"This team was so fun to coach this year. They really embraced the team culture and just supported and challenged each other all season. In particular, they focused on positivity and inclusion and you could tell from their dynamics this season that they really executed that goal this year," Creutz said.