By: Jonathan Szczepaniak | Grosse Pointe Times | Published October 29, 2024
GROSSE POINTES — It had been a long time coming for both Grosse Pointe South boys and girls cross country, but a league title was finally back in the hands of the Blue Devils.
The girls had last hoisted the dual-meet league title in 2016, while the boys were long overdue, winning its last one in 2008.
Led by a core of seniors on both sides, Grosse Pointe South swept the Macomb Area Conference White, winning both the dual-meet (combination of both jamborees) and the MAC divisional meet.
Here’s how they made it happen.
Boys
Led by head coach Mark Sonnenberg, the Blue Devils’ boys team took the meaning of “senior-led” to a whole new level, featuring six seniors and one freshman in its starting lineup.
Fortunately for Grosse Pointe South, Everett Wood wasn’t an ordinary freshman. Fitting in as a freshman can be difficult, especially when your teammates are all seniors, but Wood came on and made an immediate impact.
“We kind of saw it from the beginning,” Sonnenberg said. “We knew he was going to be good and we knew there was a spot or two for him, but he’s been wire-to-wire.”
Wood posted top-30 finishes in both MAC White Jamborees and the MAC Divisional Championship (21st), and ended his freshman campaign with a top-50 finish in his first-ever regionals appearance (49th).
While the Blue Devils had a freshman overachieving expectations, its veteran group, headlined by senior Jack Martin, was as advertised.
Martin, who had been battling injuries his past three cross country seasons, started to turn a corner near the end of 2023, and 2024 was the breakout season he was hoping for.
Martin brought home a pair of first place finishes for South, including in the MAC White Jamboree-One, and took second in the MAC White Jamboree-Two and third in the MAC Divisional.
“We never really saw how talented and what he could truly be until this past spring, and now that’s bled into this season and he’s chomping at the bit,” Sonnenberg said. “He’s a big time comeback player of the year kind of guy.”
Martin’s explosive season helped South place first in both jamborees, earning a 14-0 dual-meet record, and take first by 29 points in the MAC Divisional Championship over Utica Ford II.
But it was a collective effort all throughout the season as seniors Tethyan McKenzie, Edmund Shall, Joshua Sonnenberg, Brody Fitzgibbon, and Ian Bowman all kept their noses to the grindstone for the Blue Devils.
McKenzie, a calm and quiet runner, became one of South’s most consistent runners, placing fourth in both jamborees and fifth in the divisional meet.
McKenzie also had the highest regional placement, earning 11th. Overall, it was just a collective unit getting the job done.
“As a team, we definitely shaped up,” Martin said. “We’ve lost a lot of guys the previous years, but we really shaped up as a team. We really built a strong bond between the guys.”
South’s season as a team came to a close at the regional meet Oct. 26 st Goodells County Park in St. Clair County with a fifth place finish, but McKenzie himself isn’t quite done yet.
His 16:30.70 time qualified for the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 state finals meet Nov. 2 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
It will be a whole new group, aside from Wood, for the Blue Devils in 2025, but it will be a much younger core as Sonnenberg hopes to put together another impressive season.
“We’re losing so much of our varsity, but we’re really bringing back this youth core where in two years they’re going to be very good,” Sonnenberg said.
Girls
There’s two things that longtime head coach Steve Zaranek prides his team on each season — depth and competing as a pack.
This year, the Blue Devils executed both of those ideas to perfection as they ran away with the MAC White, winning both jamborees and finishing in first place at the MAC Divisional Championship by 35 points.
Similar to the boys, it starts with the seniors who set the standard for not just how things are done, but how the team is going to carry itself.
“They’re amazing leaders,” Zaranek said. “They truly set the tone for our entire team in terms of how hard they work and how focused they are for each of our competitions. To top it all off, they’re just incredibly fun to be around. With that combination, it allows for great team chemistry.”
Senior Sarah Koval, the lone state qualifier, headlined the group alongside seniors Savannah Spangler, a three-time state qualifier, Chloe Caulfield, and Adelina Parikh.
For South, being a veteran is so much more than leading at events — it’s about building a “pack mentality,” as Zaranek describes it.
At every meet, you’ll see other South racers, varsity or JV, cheering on other racers because that’s the expectation as a member of the program.
Parikh said Zaranek believes that being the best team is more about team support at times, and said it’s an ideology engrained early on as a member of the program.
“A lot of rules on the team may seem pretty strict but ultimately build up that chemistry,” Parikh said. “When a race day has both varsity and JV races at separate times, we aren’t allowed to leave until everyone is done running. We watch each other race in every race and we get invested in each other’s success.”
Then there’s the matching hair ribbons, silly locker signs, and captains’ practices that involve scavenger hunts that all bring the team closer together, which ultimately shows itself come race time.
Koval has been dominant all season, taking home first in a MAC jamboree and the MAC divisional meet, and also posting a 15th-place finish to qualify for regionals, but the rest of her teammates are always right alongside in the leaderboards.
In the first MAC jamboree, Koval, Parikh and Spangler finished first, second and third, respectively, and all four seniors came back and finished in the top-10 in the second jamboree and MAC divisional meet.
“They just work together extremely well,” Zaranek said. “In the middle of the race, they’re having conversations with each other. They run with each other to push each other.”
While a fifth-place finish at the regional kept the team from qualifying, Koval will end her cross country career at the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 state finals Nov. 2 at Michigan International Speedway, qualifying for the first time in her career.