EAST LANSING — There’s not much glory in being the sixth runner on a cross country team, that is until the first five have finished and nothing has been settled.
Brighton junior Elijah Forbord suddenly loomed large when the Bulldogs and Northville, the last two state Division 1 champions, were tied 93-93 after each team’s five scoring runners crossed in the Spartan Elite race Friday at the Spartan Invitational.
It came down to the sixth-man tie-breaker, an edge Forbord provided for Brighton.
Forbord finished 31st out of 206 runners with a time of 16:33.0. Northville’s sixth man, Ishaan Kundapur, was 34th in 16:35.6.
“We have a lot of kids working really hard,” Brighton coach Chris Elsey said. “We talk about making sure we have as strong a seven as possible. It’s not five kids and two also-rans. We’ve got a bunch of guys competing for all seven spots.”
It’s the third time in the last five Spartan Invitationals that Brighton has won the Spartan Elite race, which is reserved for teams that cracked the top 10 in their division at state meets the previous year.
“You’ve got an experienced group of kids who realize, yeah, it’s nice to get a feather in our cap today, but their focus is in late October and into November,” Elsey said. “It’s nice today, but we’re not training for today.”
The Bulldogs’ point total — and Northville’s, for that matter — was the lowest in the Spartan Elite division since Waterford Mott won with 90 in 2013.
Brighton’s five scoring runners made the top 26, led by Tyler Langley’s 13th-place time of 15:51.7. Luke Campbell was 16th (16:08.4), Brady Millington 21st (16:24.5), Tyler Brock 22nd (16:26.3) and Tyler Outlaw 26th (16:30.0).
Brighton, the 2021 state champion, and Northville raced each other twice in four days, with only one point separating them. The Mustangs won a dual meet Tuesday against Brighton, 27-28.
“We had some pretty nice battles this week and will have a few more as we continue throughout the season,” Elsey said.
Brighton’s girls also had a big day, finishing second to Ann Arbor Pioneer by a 79-114 margin.
Carrigan Eberly was 11th (19:00.3), Lydia LaMarra 17th (19:13.5), Elle Bissett 22nd (19:44.5), Gabrielle Bolitho 33rd 19:59.7) and Megan Kowalski 38th (20:12.1) for the Bulldogs.
“We had several girls really step up and have really good races,” Brighton coach Kristi Matuszewski said. “A couple have things to work on. We’re trying to put things together, especially in bigger fields like this. It was a good day. It’s fun to come home with a trophy.”
Soccer
Brighton 4, Novi 0
Devlin McGinnis scored three minutes into the game off the first of two assists from Colin Robertson. Mitch Tappen, Rudy Tappen and Braeden Allan scored in the second half for Brighton (6-2-1).
Reece Meyer made four saves in the first half and Charlie Burchfield four in the second half to split the shutout.
Fowlerville 4, Lansing Catholic 2
Tanner Camps had two goals and one assist, Ian Hartke had a goal and two assists, and Brandon Hunt had a goal for Fowlerville (5-2-1).
Hartland 2, Salem 2
Dino Gjolaj and Avery Bryan scored for Hartland.
Charyl Stockwell 6, Parkway Christian 0
Sam Siebert scored three goals and AJ Emmerich had a goal and an assist for the Sentinels. Greyson Bruski and Jason Kreps scored the other goals.
Volleyball
Brighton 3, Livonia Churchill 0
Brighton rolled to a 25-8, 25-4, 25-9 victory.
The seventh-ranked Bulldogs will host No. 1-ranked Northville at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in a match that should determine the KLAA West champion.
Swimming and diving
Salem 100, Brighton 86
Ola Bodyl and Grace Gray won two individual events and were on the winning 200-yard freestyle relay for Brighton.
Bodyl won the 200 freestyle in 2:00.70 and the 500 freestyle in 5:26.68. Gray won the 200 individual medley in 2:14.63 and 100 breaststroke in 1:10.64. Ava Sventickas won the 50 freestyle in 26.27 seconds for the Bulldogs.
Tennis
Mason 5, Fowlerville 3
Fowlerville’s No. 1 doubles team of Oliver Farmer and Ben Durbin improved to 16-0, despite the first team loss of the season for the Gladiators (14-1-1).
Mason Munsell and Ethan Way won singles matches for Fowlerville.
Plymouth 5, Brighton 4
Singles: Ben Fernandez (P) d. Dorian Pettengill 6-2, 6-0; Aarav Dalal (P) d. Tyler Adams 6-0, 6-4; Pierce Pettengill (B) forfeit; Logan Fossum (B) d. Ryan Belanger 6-3, 6-1.
Doubles: Jack Cristea-Rohan Savoie (P) d. Keegan Parrish-Ayush Shenoy 6-3, 7-6 (4); Sanath Reddy-Kunal Patel (P) d. Nate Reynolds-Jonathan Solgat 6-3, 6-0; Lucas Lamberjack-Matthew Wendrick (B) d. Jackson Grube-Pranav Merugu 6-4, 6-2; Abhijay Das-Arivan Mudaliyar (P) d. Logan Gardner-Joseph Mertes 6-4, 7-6 (4); Dylan McKee-Noah McKee (B) d. Hariswaran Balamurugan-Param Patel 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Northville 7, Hartland 2
Singles: Ben Krause (H) d. Kyler Fung 6-2, 6-4; Dominick Marinelli (H) d. Alex Boules 6-4, 7-5; Jay Thakral (N) d. Ryan Pompilius 6-1, 6-0; Rohit Maddali (N) d. Asher Smolinski 6-1, 6-0.
Doubles: Michael Rogala-Siddarth Ram (N) d. Gavin Sweet-Gavin Bangs 6-1, 6-1; Nathan Shields-Yashnav Mahadevan (N) d. Colton Krueger-Curtis Wynn 6-1, 6-1; Ansh Shah-Andrew Wu (N) d. Ethan Raap-Anthony Aung 6-1, 6-2; Jacob Rundell-Nathan Sarma (N) d. Evan Green-Logan Demeniuk 6-4, 6-4; Jasper Chu-Sagar Nandwana (N) d. Kruz Kruszka-Carter Derby 6-2, 6-2.
Salem 8, Hartland 1
Singles: Aarav Shah, (S) d. Ben Krause 6-1, 6-1; Aadi Huria, (S) d. Dominick Marinelli 2-6, 7-6 (2), 1-0 (12); Aarya Upadhyay, (S) d. Ryan Pompilius 6-0, 6-2; Nikunj Dixit, (S) d. Asher Smolinski 6-2, 6-4.
Doubles: Gabriel Chen-Owen Wagel, (S) d. Logan Demeniuk-Gavin Bangs 6-4, 6-3; Colton Krueger-Curtis Wynn (H) d. Bharadwaj Gade-Sharbin Sajadpour 6-3, 6-4; Farhan Junaid-Rohan Garimella, (S) d. Ethan Raap-Havoc Roberts 6-1, 6-1; Frankie Sietz-Ty Trumbull, (S) d. Evan Green-Anthony Aung 6-3, 6-2; Krish Patel-Vedanth Kondur, (S) d. Carter Derby-Kruz Kruszka 6-1, 6-2.
Novi 9, Howell 0
Singles: Harish Narayan (N) d. Lucas Nolen, Howell, 6-1, 6-1; Victor Fu (N) d. Nick Syrett, Howell, 6-0, 6-0; Shivaji Raj (N) d. Ashton Black, Howell, 6-0, 6-0; Surya Takawale (N) d. Carter Greeneisen, Howell, 6-0, 6-0.Doubles: Michael Mohtadi-Anshu Gopalam (N) d. Noah Heilig-Giovani Maisano, Howell, 6-0, 6-0; Novi won Nos. 2-5 doubles by forfeit.Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X@BillKhan
