ANN ARBOR – Not one, not two, but possibly three-straight championships?
That’s the question surrounding Ann Arbor Pioneer’s girls cross country team heading into the 2021 season after the Pioneers rolled to a second-consecutive Division 1 state title last fall.
Pioneer won the state crown by nearly 40 points last year and returns its top five runners to hold the ranking as the top team in the state.
While the Pioneers are favored to clinch another state title, head coach Nancy Boudreau said the team will need to benefit from availability as much as talent to complete the 3-peat.
“If we can stay healthy, and that’s always a big if, I think we’ll be right in the hunt,” Boudreau said. “We have a good chance of being right in the mix, but injuries could really change things.”
Should the Pioneers stay injury-free this fall, their chances are as good as anyone’s to be the last team standing in D-1.
Their top five runners all finished within the top 60 at the 2020 state finals, led by now-sophomore Rachel Forsyth, who took second overall.
They also return senior Cookie Baugh, who finished fourth, senior Sarah Forsyth, who battled injuries but returned to take 24th, in addition to senior Charlotte Batra and junior Emily Cooper, who finished 42nd and 58th, respectively last year.
With as stacked of a team as the Pioneers have this season, not to mention being the 2-time defending champions, all eyes will be on how the squad performs this fall.
Of course, the road won’t be easy with teams like conference rival Saline, who’s ranked No. 2 in the state, as well as state runner-up Traverse City Central, among others all vying for the top spot.
“We kind of have a big bullseye on our back,” Boudreau said. “We try not to empathize it, we just say we’re going to go and do the best we can, but there are some expectations there.”
Last season, Pioneer lost to Saline in the Southeastern Conference Red meet, handing the Pioneers their first loss of the year.
That defeat helped refocus the Pioneers as they went on to defeat Saline in the pre-regional, regional and state meet. But the Hornets also return all of its top runners, which Boudreau knows will be a challenge for her team.
“We know that they’re going to be ready to come after us because they didn’t lose anybody either,” Boudreau said of Saline.
Although the expectations are high, Boudreau said she is hopeful the team will rise to the occasion once again.
“The girls are extremely motivated,” she said. “They’re a very tight-knit group and very motivated to do it again.”
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