Holly-good

Plymouth harriers turn in best-ever third at ultra-competitive Holly Invitational

  Competing against some of the elite cross country programs in the state, Plymouth earned third place at Saturday's Holly Invitational.

  The invite was won by No. 1-ranked Ann Arbor Pioneer, which racked up just 34 points thanks to the 1-2-3 finish of Nathan Karr, Nick Kern and Adam Kern. No. 2-ranked Novi Catholic Central was second with 86 points and Plymouth was third with 120.

  "Our top four runners ran very well and Derek Gielarowski ran a 27-second PR in a break-out run," said Plymouth coach Jon Mikosz. "Derek ran a very smart race and got out faster than he normally does and just held on.

  "We still have some work to do to get our number five through eight runners closer to our top four, but we are working on closing that gap.

  Joe Porcari led the Wildcats with a ninth-place finish in 16:28. Also scoring for the 'Cats were Warren Buzzard (15th in 16:42), Matt Neumann (20th in 16:52), Gielarowski (21st in 16:55) and Jimmy Eiben (55th in 17:54).

  Running but not scoring for Plymouth were Stephen Balaze (56th in 17:54) and Garrett Neumann (81st in 18:32).

Ed Wright can be reached at info@plymouthcantonsports.com or (734) 453-1980.