Lady Royals Roar in Tecumseh Preview

The Blissfield girls’ cross country team opened the season in fine form, winning the Tecumseh Preview at Tecumseh High School Saturday morning.

Senior Lauren Yates finished third in the junior-senior race, clocking in at 22 minutes flat. Senior Brittany Holdridge finished sixth, in 22:55.

Coach Al Navarro was especially impressed by the youngsters running in the freshman-sophomore race, where the Lady Royals finished 1-2-4.

Freshman Tatyana Pless finished first in the younger group, completing the 5K course in 22:30. Meaghan Gunner, a sophomore, finished second in 23:38. Freshman Brianna Yates was fourth in 23:55.

“This is a great start and you couldn’t ask for much more. Having our youngsters step up is going to push our seniors a little harder,” said coach Al Navarro.

The Royals graduated several seniors from last year’s squad, which qualified to run in the state championship meet at Michigan International Speedway.

Blissfield senior Autumn Owens also recorded a top-25 finish, completing the course in 24:32.

Britton-Deerfield senior Paige Goll finished 19^th (24:41).

On the boy’s side, junior David Dheel ran despite having a cut on his foot. Dheel finished 19^th (19:20) in the junior senior race. In the freshman-sophomore race, freshmen Evan Schnabele finished 15^th (22:09)  and freshman Eric Paulding was 23^rd (22:37).