9-11-2025 12:44am

XC: Saline Boys Take 2nd in First SEC Jamboree

Jacob Szalay led Saline to a second-place finish in the first SEC Jamboree Tuesday at Willow Metropark.

Saline XC Jambo 1 9-9-25 - thesalinepost

Szalay finished third, running the 5K course in 15:55.6. Pioneer's Kamari Ronfeldt ran the race in 15:04 and Beckett Crooks was second in 15:24.

Pioneer won the meet with 54 points, 12 better than Saline. Skyline was a close third with 71 points.

Saline sophomore Wes Rogan was seventh overall in 16:15. Senior Brennan LaRusso was 9th in 16:23.8. Jacob Cole was 20th in 16:51.4. Junior Ryan Rummel completed the top five by placing 28th in 17:11.4.

Also running the varsity race were Carlos Basulto, 32nd, 17:12.8; Gavin Bast, 37th, 17:22.5; William VanHaaften, 40th, 17:25.7; Will Sollenberger, 42nd, 17:27.5; and Carter Mitton, 46th, 17:35.

Spina said it's going to be a dogfight in the SEC this year.

"Every race in the SEC is going to be a really good battle between Saline and Pioneer, and that’s what ended up being tonight," Saline head coach Carl Spina said. "They had some better depth than us, and they have some really big star power upfront, and with a few kids out of the lineup, we weren’t able to compete with all they had, but it’s early in the season. It will be a tight race time and time again when we meet this year and every year.

Spina singled out the performances of Rummel and Bast.

"Ryan is a junior and he found himself the number five spot today which we should’ve seen coming but was still kind of a surprise. Gavin is one of the many very talented freshmen that we have on the squad this year. Today was his first true varsity race and he finished in the number seven spot. He had to get around a lot of older and more experienced runners on our squad to take that spot and I’m really impressed that he made it happen. He’s off to a great start," Spina said.

Reserve Race

In the reserve race, Saline was third with 128 points. Skyline won with 19 points and Pioneer was second with 39 points.

Lukas Bahena was the fastest Hornet. The freshman ran the course in 19:45.6, leading a convoy over the finish. Christopher Welt, 33rd, Gabriel Arreguin, 35th, Noah LeCompte, 36th and John Schmidt, 37th, compised the Hornet scoring five.

"In the reserve race, the highlight had to be the huge group of first-year runners that broke 20 minutes together for the very first time. I think we had five or six kids in that group who worked together throughout the race and got it done," Spina said. "It was a really great night for all of our JV runners, with many of them running lifetime or season bests and dropping a minute or more."

Saline XC Jambo 1 9-9-25 - thesalinepost