BAY CITY - A remarkable season by the Alpena girls cross country team got even more special on Saturday at Delta College as the Wildcats captured their first Division 1 regional championship in 10 years.

Alpena had 90 points to get past Midland Dow (99) and Midland (116) for first.

Taylor Stepanski and Samara Donajkowski led the way for the Wildcats, finishing third (19:08) and fourth (19:40), respectively.

"It was better than I even imagined it," said Alpena head coach Collin Riffert. "They (the team) were jumping, screaming and going crazy."

Xavier Donajkowski finished 12th in a time of 20:10, and was followed by freshmen Abby MacArthur (30th, 21:23) and Kelsey Lewis (41st, 21:44). The two freshmen had to overcome adversity to finish as highly as they did. MacArthur lost her shoe in a mud puddle in the first half-mile of the race, kicked off her other shoe and essentially ran 2 1/2 miles in socks. Lewis had to stop in the middle of the race to get sick, but managed to regroup and finish.

"It was unbelievable how determined they were," said Riffert. "Talk about mental toughness."

Senior Kaitlin Thomas had a personal best run of 21:56 to take 45th, while Racheal McDonald took 47th, finishing before the fifth runner from Dow, to round out the qualifying team.

The Wildcats advance to Saturday's state finals at the Michigan Speedway in Brooklyn.

The Alpena boys ended their year with an 11th-place finish. Alex Guzman had a 48th-place finish (18:13), followed by Jacob Benson (55th, 18:34), Cameron Duncan (64th, 19:08), Jimmy Guest (68th, 19:17), Travis LaCross (72nd, 19:30), Stuart Richardson (19:42) and Nathan LaBarge (19:48).

Saginaw Heritage won the meet, followed by Grand Blanc.

Onaway boys second

at Ellsworth regional

ELLSWORTH - The Onaway boys cross country team also punched its ticket to the state finals with a second-place finish at the Division 4 regional at Ellsworth on Saturday.

The Cardinals were led by Lane Viehl's second-place finish in a time of 18:24. It was the highest finish in a regional by an Onaway boys cross country runner.

Kyle Moreau came in 16th (19:37), followed by Anthony Lane (17th, 19:38), Beau March (27th, 20:38), Gus Robins (29th, 20:44) and Cory Grossman (34th, 21:03).

Harbor Springs outdistanced the field for first in the region.