Jaxon Allen had grown accustomed to leading the Reeths-Puffer boys cross country team.
Allen usually finished with the best time for the young and developing squad last year and accomplished a lot over the past two seasons, qualifying for the state finals as a sophomore and junior and finishing third at the GMAA City Meet last season.
This year Allen had been a little off his pace, finishing behind talented junior teammate Kye Grant in several races.
He turned on the jets again on Saturday, however, leading the Rockets with a time of 16:44 and finishing in 10th place out of 196 runners at the prestigious MSU Spartan Invitational in East Lansing.
R-P's Jaxon Allen
Allen earned a medal for his efforts.
“It was fun to see Jaxon lead the team while being up front competing with some very talented cross country athletes,” said R-P Coach Darin Grant.
The entire Reeths-Puffer boys team did very well at the MSU event, finishing ninth out of 21 teams from throughout the state. That’s a big step up from last year, when the Rockets were 19th out of 27 teams.
Kye Grant battled some minor injuries on Saturday and finished in 24th place individually with a time of 17:10, which was 48 seconds faster than his mark last year. He also won a medal for his performance.
Kye Grant
R-P’s Tate Bradley took 43rd place with a time of 17:49, which was 20 seconds faster than last year. Jamie Neel finished 87th with a time of 18:49 and Jack Yonkman was 103rd at 19:16.
Dylan Sturr finished in 19:52, which was an incredible 2:48 faster than last season. Gage Bouwman came in at 21:20, which was 1:02 faster than his previously best 5K time. Nate Darling posted a time of 26:42, which was 59 seconds faster than last year.
