Ventures Persevere at Hilly Hess-Hathaway Park

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Bishop Foley Catholic placed two runners among the top 21 and had four athletes complete a demanding, hilly course Thursday at Hess-Hathaway Park. Gavin Samona led the Ventures boys cross country team by finishing 16th in a field of 49 runners with a time of 21 minutes, 44.6 seconds.

Samona, competing in his second season with the Ventures, set the pace for Bishop Foley and secured the team’s top individual result. He handled the elevation changes well enough to earn a top-20 finish, giving the Ventures an experienced runner at the front of their lineup.

Otis Pogodzinski followed in 21st place, crossing in 22:42.2 during his first cross country season with Bishop Foley. Pogodzinski and Finnegan McGlinchey formed the team’s strongest pack, finishing only 1.5 seconds apart as McGlinchey recorded a time of 22:43.7.

That tight spacing gave the Ventures consecutive finishers and demonstrated effective pack running on a course where the hills made maintaining rhythm difficult. McGlinchey, a second-year runner, stayed close to Pogodzinski through the finish, strengthening Bishop Foley’s middle group behind Samona.

Jeremy Slotnick completed the Ventures’ group with a time of 30:57.1. The third-year runner added another finish for Bishop Foley as all four listed competitors worked through the course’s repeated climbs and descents.

The race began at 4:30 p.m. under mainly clear skies with a temperature of 67 degrees and winds around 10 mph. Samona’s top-20 performance and the close finish between Pogodzinski and McGlinchey highlighted an afternoon in which the Ventures established a solid front three on one of the more challenging courses on their schedule.