STATE FINALISTS - Tawas Area’s Chelsea Smith, left, and Emily Short, right, competed in the Division 3 State Finals at Michigan International Speedway. - Courtesy photo

Two Tawas Area runners compete at state finals
by Ben Murphy

BROOKLYN - The Tawas Area girl’s cross country team sent two runners to the state finals meet at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, Nov. 1.

Those runners were sophomore Emily Short and junior Chelsea Smith, who got to the race by qualifying in last week’s regional meet at Delta College.
Both runners ran personal best times in the finals, with Short placing 90th overall and running a time of 20:29, and Smith finishing 134th with a time of 21:02. The duo competed against over 240 athletes in Division 3. While both runners claimed personal best times, Short cut off over a minute from her time at last year’s state finals race.

“This was a great finish to a very successful season for these two athletes,” Tawas Coach Chris Owens said.

Competing in Division 4 was Hale sophomore Kelsey Scott, who finished with a time of 21:47 and finished 12th in a field of 235 runners.