The Powers Catholic boys’ cross country team has a chance to win a state championship during the Division 2 state finals on November 1 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. But where they are at now has as much to do with last year as it does this year.
“We had a really good team last year,” said coach David Wolbert, who has coached at Powers for more than 20 years. “We had one bad day, and it was at the regional, so we didn’t qualify (for the state finals).”
However, that frustrating end to last season fueled the team in its offseason and has resulted in impressive and consistent improvement, with Powers starting the season off on a high note and pushing themselves to get better in each meet since.
Powers was ranked No. 4 in Division 2 to start the season, but it didn’t take long for them to show that ranking wasn’t high enough.
“The first race of the season, they ran the fastest time in the state in any class,” Wolbert said.
That high standard didn’t change all the way through the 14-team regional meet in Shepherd, MIchigan, on October 24. Powers cruised to a regional title, had two of their runners finish first and second, and took five of the top 10 spots overall.
The top two runners in that meet, sophomore Lennox Naswell (15:23) and senior Bryce Gross (15:44), qualified as individuals for the state finals last year but are excited they’ll have their entire team with them this time around.
“It’s fun going to states in general, but it’s a lot more fun when you can do it with your teammates,” Gross said. “Last year was great, but it just felt really nerve wracking going into it as an individual. I’m just looking forward to sharing the success with the rest of these guys.”
Gross has also been able to share some of the knowledge he gained last year with teammates who haven’t experienced a state finals meet before.
“It is a lot different than a regular meet,” said Gross, who finished 20th overall in the state meet last year and earned All-State honors. “We’ve talked a lot about it, just strategies for how we should race and finish and sharing what works with the younger guys. Mostly, it’s just about running your own race and being smart. Looking at it this year, it’s all about our team. The individual places don’t matter as much to me, it’s just about how our team can do. Hopefully we can all run well and get our goals that we need.”
Junior Ben Bouchey, who missed time this season due to illness, has been working himself back into shape and just last week set his personal record by 12 seconds.
“I think the main point of the start (to our season) was that over the summer everyone was working really hard,” Bouchey said. “Last year, we didn’t make it to states, and we were just so fired up that we needed to have a great start to our season. Me and a few of my teammates, we were getting up at like eight in the morning every day. And we were always going out and running and then we’d go to practice at six in the afternoon and go run. And that just allowed us to have a great start at the beginning.”
Wolbert said that mentality has been team-wide, and he’s been impressed all season with the leadership from the team’s more experienced runners and the overall connectedness of the group beginning last offseason.
“The energy is just phenomenal from our seniors on down,” Wolbert said. “They work hard and they do it with glee. I don’t know how to describe it. They are happy, motivated. They just make each other accountable.”
A Family Legacy
In his first two years of high school cross country, Naswell has already built an impressive list of accomplishments. In addition to finishing first individually in this year’s regional meet, he also competed in the State Finals last year as a freshman, finishing 32nd overall and just missing out on an All-State selection (the top 30 runners make All-State).
But his success as a runner isn’t surprising considering his family lineage. His grandfather, Kenn Domerese, had a legendary track and cross country coaching career spanning approximately five decades at Carman-Ainsworth and multiple state championships.
“When his grandson enrolled here, the first thing I did was call (Kenn),” Wolbert said. “I was always pretty proud that we had close to 100 years of coaching experience on our staff, and we almost doubled it when we hired Kenn (as an assistant).”
Domerese has served as an assistant coach, providing his years of expertise and insight to Powers runners. But he’s also been able to spend time with his grandson.
“He’s always been by my side, I have a whole bunch of baby photos of him carrying me around, and he used to take me on runs all the time,” Naswell said. “I’ve loved being able to hang around with him, he’s my best friend.”
Domerese said Naswell has been running from a young age, beginning with the Crim Festival of Races annual Teddy Bear Trot. But his first 5K was an indication he had a special future as a runner.
“There were about 650 runners (in the 5K) that year, and they make the turn on Court Street and there’s four motorcycle cops leading at the front with their lights on to lead the course and I look closer, and he’s right in the middle of the motorcycle cops,” Domerese said. “He won the whole thing, not just his age group.”
Domerese is impressed with Naswell’s constant desire to push himself and get better.
“The amazing thing is, I never push him,” Domerese said. “He’s always been a kid who just absolutely loves what he does.”
Naswell said that he’s proud his grandfather can share his knowledge and experience with the entire team.
“When you hear all of the accolades he has, it’s almost like, we have to believe this person because he’s done amazing stuff,” Naswell said. “And I feel like it has helped the team. He has lots of things to say, and our team, they really take it to heart.”
For Domerese, he’s impressed with the talent of Powers’ team, but he’s been even more impressed getting to know them as people.
“They’re phenomenal runners, but also phenomenal kids and phenomenal students,” he said.
Team Culture and the Golden Shoe
The Powers Catholic boys’ cross country program hasn’t won a state championship since 1999. This group is hungry to end that on Saturday, and if they do, it will of course be due to their talent as runners but the culture of the team is also a big factor.
Senior Caleb Carignan, who finished ninth in the regional meet (16:26), is excited to perform at the State Finals, but he’s also just happy to be a part of such a close-knit team. He actually began running in sixth grade because Gross got him into it.
“I joined because Bryce, he ran,” Carignan said. “And I hated it. I wanted to quit every single year until my freshman year. But I started seeing that improvement and that team dynamic and it just kind of hooked me.”
During his freshman season, Carignan added to that team culture by creating “the golden shoe.” It is a running shoe that he spray painted gold and whoever has the best 5K time gets awarded the shoe, adds their initials to it, and takes it home.
Carignan is hoping to break his best time of the season, which was 15:56 at the Corunna Early Bird Invitational in August, at the State Finals. But he’s mostly just excited to compete with his entire team in Brooklyn this weekend.
“I’m really proud of what this team has become,” Carignan said. “Every single guy from our first runner to our 25th runner, they care about this team.”
Alex Iordanou, a sophomore, was connected to the Powers program before he even got to high school.
“My brother ran in high school, and my parents just love the coaches,” Iordanou said. “Honestly, just the feeling of getting better every single day is why I love running.”
Iordanou said the team pushes itself and has been able to be competitive with each other while still being supportive.
Senior Tommy Beiter, who finished sixth in the regional meet with a 16:03 time, credits that inter-team competition as a big key to their success.
“I think the main part is that we all have something in common, and that is running,” Beiter said “We all love it, we all want to get better. It just makes us push each other. Some of us are really close in time, and so when we’re next to each other and we’re getting to that finish of the workout or the race, we just really want to push each other to that next level.”
Iordanou’s brother’s teams didn’t make it to the State Finals, so he’s also looking forward to representing his family in Brooklyn.
“My family’s been all fired up about this weekend,” he said. “I’m the first in the family to go to states for cross country, and I think we have a good shot (to win).”
Ryan Rathsburg, a sophomore, said that the team culture this year has helped him love the sport even more.
“This year I’ve gotten into it way more just because the feeling after a workout is the best, just because you know you’ve improved,” he said.
Rathsburg finished 11th at the regional meet with a time of 16:31. He’s hoping for a great performance for the team at the State Finals for their present, but also to help the program in the future.
“I’m looking forward to just learning what to do for my future and also just enjoying what we have in this team and what we can do,” said Rathsburg, who is also leaning on his two teammates with State Finals experience for advice. “I ask them all types of questions on what to do, how to do it, and if I’m nervous, how to make it so I’m more excited and nervous instead. I’ve learned so much from them.”
The coaching staff has already been impressed with the team’s accomplishments, and believes they have the maturity and discipline to run one more great race to try and win the state title.
“It doesn’t make any difference what kind of workout we give them, they attack it,” Wolbert said. “Whatever the workout is, they absolutely go at it and attack it and push each other like crazy. From our first kid all the way down to our last kid, they all just had phenomenal growth this year.”
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