08/27/2006

Duo on the way back

Haines, Warner win Benzie races

BY DENNIS CHASE

dchase@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Dennis Chase
Rockford’s Katie Haines won the large class race.

BENZONIA — Katie Haines and Kristi Werner are on the comeback trail.

Haines and Werner — who finished second in last fall's Division 1 and 3 state cross country finals, respectively — are trying to regain their form after illness and injury disrupted their spring track seasons.

The two started their comebacks Saturday by winning their divisions in the Benzie Central Invitational.

Haines, a junior, led Rockford to the large class title by pulling away to beat Glen Lake's Marissa Treece by 10 seconds — 18:44.4 to 18:54.8.

Werner, a senior at East Jordan, set the pace early in claiming the small class crown in 20:49.3.

Haines, who was second at Benzie a year ago, was diagnosed with mononucleosis on New Year's Eve and it took her several months before she could start running again.

"I'm so happy," said Haines, tears welling in her eyes. "It was a long, long haul getting over that (mononucleosis). I was out three months. I couldn't do anything. I was sleeping 18 to 20 hours a day. I didn't go to school for seven weeks. I didn't start running again until the week before track."

Haines qualified for the Division 1 state meet in the mile. But it turned out to be a day she would rather forget.

"I fell apart, I relapsed," she said. "I was last in my heat. It was pretty upsetting. But I'm over it now."

Haines looked at full strength on what turned out to be a muggy morning. She improved her time by 18 seconds from a year ago in battling back in the second half of the race to overtake Treece.

"She's (Treece) really good," Haines said. "She pushed me a lot."

Treece moved up to the large class field for the competition.

"She (Haines) was awesome," Treece said. "It was a good race. This shows me what I have to do to get better. I ran up ( a class) so I could see what I needed to do for states. Now I know what I need to do."

Treece's time was about seven seconds slower than a year ago.

"If it wasn't so humid I think we both would have run faster," Treece said. "I'm not blaming (the weather), though."

Benzie Central's Devyn Ramsay finished third in 19:19.4.

"She's really something for being so tiny," Benzie coach Pete Moss said. "And the thing is, she's not a good practice runner. But when the gun goes off (in a race), she's something else."

Ramsay's teammate, Crystal Alton, was ninth in 20:06.2.

"She (Alton) felt she had a bad day," Moss said. "Then I say keep on having bad days because that's a pretty decent time on this course at this time of year."

Traverse City Central finished fifth. The Trojans were led by Taylor Mattarella, who was 19th.

"It's early," Central coach Lisa Taylor said. "We're typically a team that takes 10 to 12 weeks to really develop.

"I'm happy with I saw today. This is a team that's going to work hard. They have high goals. They know today is a stepping stone toward November 4th (state finals)."

Werner, meanwhile, won the small class division by eight seconds over Katie Thorne of Big Rapids Crossroads Academy.

Werner was bothered by plantar fasciitis last spring and ran in just three track meets.

"I'm just trying to get back in the groove," Werner said.

Werner's time was nearly a minute off last year's time.

"I expected to go out faster than I did," she said. "I wanted to go through the first mile at six minutes and it was like 6:28. It was hard to pick it up after that. If you start faster, you're more apt to maintain a faster pace."

Werner's teammate, Meghan Thomas, finished third in 21:06.6.

"I ran slower than I should have, but it's the first race of the year so there's room for improvement," Thomas said.

East Jordan has just six runners on its team and only four raced Saturday. The Red Devils' goal is to return to the state finals.

"We've got a ways to go, but I think we can do it," East Jordan coach Dennis Snarry said. "This is just the first meet. We'll worry about that later on."

Kingsley and Bear Lake tied for the team championship. But Kingsley, led by Sarah McManus and Suzie Bussiere, won the tiebreaker.

A storm moved in after the varsity races finished. All JV races were canceled.