Powers Catholic High School

Men’s Cross Country Team Win State Championship The men’s cross country team completed their dream season with a state championship by a narrow 8 point margin over 2022 state champions East Grand Rapids at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn Michigan. Ever since the crushing disappointment of a 4th place finish at the 2024 Regional kept the Chargers from an appearance at the state finals Senior Bryce Gross, Tommy Beiter and Caleb Carignan and the rest of their teammates have been men on a mission. The 2024 Chargers who were projected to a top 10 finish experienced one bad day and unfortunately that bad day kept them out of the state finals. Over the following 364 days the Chargers put in the work to make certain that they would never feel the same disappointment again. In a race where every place mattered the Chargers left nothing to chance. At the start of the race Lennox Naswell and Bryce Gross took off with the lead group and got in the mix for top 10 finishes. 3rd man Tommy Bieter hit the mile in 48th place just behind Caleb Carignan who was in 27th at the mile. 5th man Ryan Rathsburg sat in 71st at the mile. At the mile Powers trailed East Grand Rapids by a score of 73-99 but there was a lot of racing left. By the 2nd mile Naswell solidified his position in the top 10 as he had moved up to 6th place overall and was quickly followed by Bryce Gross who crossed the 2 mile mark in 11th. While the front of the pack looked good the state title would be decided by the 3, 4 and 5 finishers who were slugging it out with masses of runners. In a race where 5 seconds could mean a 10 point swing there was no margin for error. By the 2nd mile mark Tommy Beiter moved up to 37th and Carignan was sitting in 46th but Ryan Rathsburg was back in 81st. Through 2 miles Powers trailed East Grand Rapids by a score of 89-104. Importantly Beiter and Rathsburg were right behind the 3rd and 5th runners for East Grand Rapids. Those were wins the Chargers had if a Championship was to be won. The final 1400 meters of the race is along the inside oval of the track at Michigan International Speedway and when the runners enter the track this is the final point where fans and coaches can be within shouting distance of the runner. Coach Domerese, based on the experience of coaching hundreds of cross country meets, knew exactly where the Chargers stood. As Rathsburg entered the track Coach Domerese yelled to Ryan “You have to move up 20 places for us to win!” Like a force of nature Rathsburg methodically began gathering momentum and moved up place by place until he had gone from 81st at the 2 mile to 56th at the 3 mile mark and he still wasn’t done. In the final 200 meters Rathsburg caught another 5 runners to finish in 51st! While Rathsburg’s surge in the final stretch was the move that clinched the title, the front half of the race had plenty of fireworks for the Chargers. Lennox Naswell moved up again in the final stretch to capture 5th overall. Naswell joins all time greats Luke Walkers and Jesse Gould as sophomores who earned all state honors. Walker, the current school record holder, ended his career as an individual state champion. Goals that Naswell has targeted. Bryce Gross finished in 11th earning all state honors for the 2nd straight year and including track makes Gross a 5 time all stater! Tommy Beiter, who has been the rock of the team in his senior season was sitting in 32nd place with 200 meters to go. In a race where the top 30 runners earn state honors Bieter was not to be denied. Running a scorching fast 27.8 final 200 meters Beiter passed 2 other runners and earned all state honors!. In the top 50 finishers only 2 other athletes ran quicker final 200s. In his final cross country race in a Powers singlet Senior Caleb Carignan put on his finest performance. Carignan took off aggressively and held tough throughout the race. His finish was the penultimate nail in the coffin before Rathsburg completed the scoring for the Chargers. Junior Ben Bouchey was 6th man for the Chargers finishing in 135th running the 2nd best time of his career. Sophomore Alex Iordanu finished in 185th running in his first state meet. The strength of this team has not just been the stars up front but the work put in from from first through 25th. With each and every athlete prepared to step up for the team. This is the second state championship for the Chargers and the 1st since 1999. Head Coach Dave Wolbert was an assistant on the 1999 team. There have been some close calls with a runner up finish in 2003 and third place finishes in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2009. The Chargers scored a total of 98 points to East Grand Rapid’s 106. Alma was 3rd with 161. At the state finals individual qualifiers are removed from the team scoring. The 98 points scored by the Chargers would have been enough to win 3 of the previous 4 state championships. No slouches in the classroom the Chargers also maintained an unweighted team grade point of 3.978. With four returning state meet athletes and a very strong group of underclassmen including Griffin Solano, Miles Muxlow, Charlie Penneau and others the Chargers will look to put on a strong defense of their title in the 2026 season.