Berkley Cross-Country Running In Right Direction

The cross-country team is back on the map.

Just two years ago, the Bears boys and girls teams both finished in last place at the county meet. This year, six Berkley runners finished all-league and the team is in good position to be a top contender in the Oakland Activities Association Blue division for the next couple of years.

“We are really trying to rebuild this team to back the way it was when I was on the team,” second-year head coach Jared Purcell said. “We usually had one runner for boys and girls for states each year, we haven’t had that in a few years.”

Purcell graduated from Berkley in 2005 after running three years of cross-country. He was hired as the boys and girls coach before last season and, after a “major rebuilding year,” is really excited about the talented young group he has. 

Strongest boys team in years

The Berkley boys almost earned a third of the all-league awards for the OAA Blue this season. The top 15 runners were named all-league and four of the Bears earned the award. 

“We had four boys finish all-league, all for the first time; they were all on the team last year and didn’t finish all-league,” Purcell said. “It was really nice to see them step up.” 

Purcell only had one runner finish all-league last year and he graduated. This year Sebastian Betzer (6th), Jonathan Sollish (8th), Gunnar Holmes (9th) and Tommy Porter (12th) were named all-league.

The whole group will be back again to improve on their times next year. Holmes and Sollish are juniors. Betzer and Porter are only sophomores.

As a team, Berkley tied with Harrison for second place in the division behind Royal Oak, a school that has dominated the league the past few years.

The Bears hope, with the group of runners they have coming back, to challenge the Ravens for the top spot next season.

Injuries slow down the girls

At the start of the season, Purcell was confident that his girls would finish near the top in the OAA Blue. Early meets didn’t dampen his optimism. The girls finished second in the first Blue jamboree and were only two points away from winning it.

“The girls season started out really strong,” Purcell said. ““Then we had some bad luck with injuries.”

Three girls missed significant portions of the season. Erin Desmond, Berkley’s fastest senior girl, went down with knee tendinitis halfway through the year and hasn’t been able to come back. 

The Bears top two freshman – Anna Ricci and Megan Kossak – also were out nearly a month each.

“We lost three of our top five girls this season while our boys have remained mostly in full health,” Purcell said.

At the final Blue jamboree, Berkley finished in fifth place out of six teams. The disappointing finish wasn’t without some bright spots. Gabrielle Simeck (3rd) and Nicole Johns (5th) finished all-league.

Both are only sophomores and will be a big part of the team’s future. 

“It’s been a rollercoaster with the girls,” Purcell said. “As young as our girls team is, it’s going to help us in the future to be more prepared for what gets thrown at us in the future.”

Tough competition, course expected at regionals

The Bears' final race of the season will be their Division 1 regional Saturday at Hess-Hathaway Park in Waterford at 10 a.m. The top 15 individual runners and top three teams qualify for the state finals next week at the Michigan International Speedway.

Purcell had his team preview the course this week since none of his athletes have experience running it.

“It’s probably going to be one of the more challenging courses we’ve seen,” Purcell said. “There is a hill of very large proportions on the course that we have to run twice. The terrain is also very rough, the first half of the course is all on an incline, then runners have to go up the large hill.”

Another challenge for Berkley will be the competition in the regional. Waterford Mott has one of the top boys and girls teams in the state. Brother Rice, Royal Oak and Troy all have strong teams as well.

Betzer is the runner with the best chance to qualify, but he would have to run at least a minute faster than his fastest time this season because of the competition he’ll face. 

“We are just looking to go out with everything we have,” Purcell said. “This regional race is going to be the last race for our runners to prove something to themselves and set a tone going into next season.”