Varsity Boys

2016
Comstock Cross Country
Coach Peter Livingston-McNelis
BCS Champions

2016 Champions
Front Row - Casey Nolan, Coach Pete Livingstone-McNelis, Jaylen Neighbors, Garrett Green, Seth Ansel, Mubark Hasan, Mateo Oleas,Rodrigo Juarez, Leo Juarez & Dagan Poe
Back Row - Zach Perkins, Dino Sivley, Sage DeCamp, Vincent McNelis, Johannes Kraemer, Michael Rooney, Ryusuke Asami, Brad McIntrye
Not Pictured - Johnny Warren

11-5 - MHSAA State Finals


Approximately, a third of the boy's team came to watch Mubark Hasan compete at the State Championship held at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn. Mubark was able to compete at the State Championship based on his outstanding performance at the Regional Meet whereby he took 13th place and thereby received All-Region Honors. In this race, Mubark wound up capping his highly successful high school cross country career by setting a new personal best time of 17:38 and placing 100th in a field of 242 of the best Division III runners in the State. The hope is that returning runners such as Seth Ansel and Rodrigo Juarez who came to watch Mubark run this year will next year not only compete at the State Championship themselves but will make it possible for the entire boy's team to qualify for the State Championships. We were ooh so very close this year, let's make it happen next year!!! Go Colts!!!

10-29 - MHSAA Regional

The boy's team entered the Regional Meet with high hopes of qualifying for the State Championships being ranked 3rd going into the meet with the top 3 team advancing to the State meet. However, the boy's team instead finished disappointedly in 6th place out of 14 teams but only 19 points out of 3rd. Nonetheless, Mubark Hasan probably had his best race of the year finishing in 13th place (18:04) and making the All-Region Team. As a result of his performance, he will individually qualify for the State Championship. Finishing in 2nd for the team was Casey Nolan in 26th place (19:01) followed by Vincent McNelis in 34th place (19:13) who also had an outstanding race running 11 pts. better than his projected finish, then Seth Ansel in 39th (19:23), and Ryusuki Asami in 43rd (19:38). Sadly, Rodrigo Juarez who was running well most of the race was forced to drop out of the race after he collapsed. This meant that the team finished with only six runners after Johannes Kraemer crossed the line in 76 place (21:15). There is, however, a lot of optimism regarding next year's team despite losing Mubark, Casey, Vincent, Ryusuki, and Johannes next year because of the fact that Seth and Rodrigo will be returning and their a host of talented runners such Jaylen Neighbors, Sage DeCamp, Leo Juarez, and Johnny Warren among others who with another year of training should be able to mount a challenge for another BCS title,and perhaps, be good enough to advance to the State Championship.

10-21 - Gobles Invitational Champions

The boy's team without two of their top 3 runners still won the Goble's Invitational against 13 schools by placing four runners in the top 15 out of field of 84 runners. Leading the field was Casey Nolan who finished 2nd overall (18:00 P.R.), followed in quick succession by Ryusuki Kesami in 13th place (18:45), then Rodrigo Juarez in 14th place (18:45) and Vincent McNelis in 15th place (18:51). Rounding out the Top 7 were Jaylen Neighbors in 34th place (19:50). Johannes Kraemer in 43rd place (20:15), and Johnny Warren in 56th place (21:01 P.R.). The top 5 runners on the team all medalled and four of the Top 7 runners missed their P.R.'s by a total of 22 seconds on a very tough course. The team seems to peaking just ahead of the Regional Championship where this team is attempting to be the 1st team since 1989 to qualify for the State Championship.

10-11 - BCS Meet at Brandywine

The boy's cross country team won their 1st League Championship since 1988 after winning all three League Championship Meets and winning the final League Jamboree by dominating the field. In so doing, the boy's team placed five runners in the Top 15 with Mubark Hasan making 1st Team All-Conference by placing 7th (18:15) followed in quick succession by Seth Ansel in 8th place (18:28), Casey Nolan in 9th place (18:36), Vincent McNelis in 12th place (18:48), and Rodrigo Juarez in 15th place in (18:58). Seth, Casey, and Vincent all made All-Conference Honorable Mention based on their finishes in this race. The boy's team entered this race with several runners nursing injuries including Mubark, Seth, and Rodrigo, yet all three rose to the occasion in a dramatic way, on top of Vincent having arguably his best race of his career. Other notable performances were turned in by Sage DeCamp who ran 8th for the team in 20:41 (tying his P.R.) and Johnny Warren who finished 11th for the team while lowering his P.R. to 21:08.

10-8 - Allegan Invitational

The boy's team had one of its best races with 8 out of the 18 runners races achieving P.R.'s, including Seth Ansel who rebounded after last week's subpar performance at Otsego with 8 second P.R. (18:00) and 21st place finish against largely Division I & II schools in the Varsity I race made up of the Top 3 runners from twenty-one schools entered. Finishing 30 seconds back was Casey Nolan who finished in 36th place just six places out of earning of medal. Running with the 3rd fastest time for the team was Vincent McNelis who finished 19th in the Varsity II race made up of the fourth thru 7th fastest runners for each of the teams. His time of 18:53 was just 7 seconds off his P.R. and was good enough to earn him a medal in this race. Fourth for the Team was Mubark in 19:08 followed closely by Rodrigo Juarez in 19:26 and Johannes Kraemer in 19:38 P.R. and Ryusuke in 20:09 to round out the Top 7. Stellar performances were also turned in by Leo Juarez in 20:54 (P.R. by almost a minute), Johnny Warren 21:40 (P.R.), Mateo Oleas (22:34 P.R.), and Dagan Poe (22:39 P.R. by almost a minute). The boy's team took fourth out of 12 teams losing to #7 Division II Ranked Otsego, #12 Ranked Division III Grand Rapids Christian Covenant, and losing to Division II ranked Allegan while edging out Division II Paw Paw which took fifth. In short, a very competitive field and a great tuneup for next Tuesday third and final BCS Championship Meet.

10-1 - Otsego Invitational


The boy's team finished 3rd out 11 teams in the Varsity race losing to Bangor the 23rd Ranked Division III team and being edged out by 6 pts. to Bronson which finished 2nd to Comstock just a few days ago in the 2nd Jamboree. The close loss to Bronson was even with Seth Ansel who is always runs in the Top 3 for the team feeling sick and running 6th for the team some 3 minutes slower than normal. A major reason for the team still doing well was that the team had three runner in the Top 15 in the race out of field of 80 with Casey Nolan, despite running on an injured foot, taking 7th overall in the race (18:07), followed closely behind by Mubark Hasan in 12th (18:25), and Ryusuki Asami in 15th (18:32 PR). Medals were awarded to the 25 runners. Rounding out the Top 5 for the varsity team were Vincent McNelis in 30th (18:57) and Rodrigo Juarez in 39th (19:12).
In the boy's J.V. race, Comstock fielded one of the largest teams and finished 2nd out of the 5 teams entered. This was done based on the front running of Jayleen Neighbors (20:25), Garrett Green (20:26), and Sage DeCamp (20:41 PR) who finished 6th, 7th, and 9th out of field of 39 runners with all three earning medals in the race. Top 10 runners in the race earned medals.

9-27 - BCS Meet at Mendon

The boy's team made a statement yesterday at the 2nd BCS Jamboree by having their Top 5 runners finish in the top 20 and six runners finish under 19 minutes enroute to winning the 2nd Jamboree. With this win the boy's team after having won the 1st League Jamboree as well is the prohibitive favorite to win the overall league title with one more league meet remaining. Should the boy's team win the championship it will be the first time the boy's team has won a league championship since 1988. The top seven runners in this meet were Casey Nolan in 6th place (17:47 PR), Mubark Hasan in 9th place (17:57), Seth Ansel in 12th place (18:13), Ryusuke Asami in 17th place (18:40 PR), Rodrigo Juarez in 18th place (18:43 PR), Vincent McNelis in 21st place (18:46 PR) and Johannes Kraemer in 33rd place (19:44 PR). 

9-21 - Lawrence Invitational

The boy's team really stepped up by winning the Lawrence Invitational despite missing three out of the top 7 runners (Seth, Mubark, and Jayleen). In so doing, Comstock boy's team beat five other schools and won by a comfortable margin over second place Bloomingdale 38 to 67. Lawrence finished 3rd with 96, followed by Fennville with 127, then Decatur with 138 and sixth place Hartford with 153. This victory was secured by the front running of Casey Nolan (18:08), Rodrigo Juarez (18:48 ), Ryusuke Asami (19:16), and Vincent McNelis (19:20) who all finished in the Top 7 and sealed by Johannes Kraemer (20:59) who finished fifth for the team and 22nd overall, only two places out of medalling. Casey and Rodrigo were the top 2 finishers in the race.

9-17 - Mendon Invitational

The boy's team turned in one of its strongest team performances despite Seth Ansel not running in the meet with the top five runners all running under 20 minutes. Even though this meet was not officially scored Comstock finished 3rd out of field of 12 teams. In the process, four runners earned medals by finishing in the Top 30. They were Mubark Hasan 9th (17:45 PR), Casey Nolan 16th (18:48,) Vincent McNelis 22nd (19:09 PR), and Rodrigo Juarez 28th (19:30 PR). In addition, several other runners on the team set PR's with Jaylen Neighbors finishing 32nd (19:47 PR), Ryusuke Asami taking 42nd (20:19-awesome first race), Sage DeCamp 105th (21:11-major PR), Johannes Kraemer (21:59 PR-great 2nd race), Michael Rooney 117th (25:48 PR), Brad McIntrye 125th (27:17 PR).

Mendon Invite Results

9-13 - BCS Jamboree at Parchment - 1st Place

The boy's team took 1st place out of 8 teams in the 1st BCS Jamboree Meet which counts 1/3 towards the League Championship Final Team Standings. This race puts Comstock in position to win its first cross country league championship since 1998. This championship performance was made possible by the upfront running of Casey Nolan (18:43) and Seth Ansel (18:55) who finished sixth and seventh in the league meet which if the season ended today both runners would have earned 1st Team All-Conference Honors. Also Mubark Hasan (19:29) turned in a clutch performance after almost sitting out the meet with a hamstring injury but instead finished 12th overall. He was followed by Rodrigo Juarez in 14th (19:53) and Vincent McNelis in 23 (20:35) to round out the top 5. Stellar performances were also turned in by Jaylen Neighbors and Garrett Green who even though they were Comstock's 6th and 7th runners they still managed to finished ahead of the 4th runner from the 3rd place team in the meet and last year's defending BCS Conference Championship team (Bridgman).

9-6 - Comstock 41 - Olivet 18

The boy's team without two of expected top runners (Travon Blakely and Mubark Hasan) and the top runner from the last race (Seth Ansel) finishing a very disappointing 8th for the team showed that this team which is currently ranked 2nd in Region 22 could finish 4th in our conference unless this team commits itself between now and the end of the season to doing whatever it has to do to be ready to race when the time comes to toe the line. On a day when the top runners on the team were expected to excel against a strong Olivet team, it was the first year runners on the team that stood out, notably Sophomore Jaylen Neighbors who finished 2nd for the team in 21:36 as well as Junior Johannes Kraemer who finished sixth for the team in 24:16. Thankfully one of the more seasoned runners on the team, Casey Nolan, though not running his best was able to challenge Olivet's No. 2 runner and finish a respectable 3rd overall in the race in 20:27. The team wound up losing to Olivet 18 to 41 but the team will be expected to bounce back next Tuesday when the team will run in its first Conference Jamboree race worth 1/3 towards the final team standings. 

8-27 - Muskegon Invitational

The boy's team for the first team this season the team ran with all of its expected top runners and did well against very strong competition. The race which featured 17 teams with ten Division I & Division II schools in the field and 182 finishers allowed Comstock's Cross Country team to showcase the potential of this year's team. Final meet results showed that Comstock tied for 8th with Division I Muskegon Reeths Puffer out of 17 teams, and beating 4 Division I & II schools. The team also came close to beating, Kent City, an expected Divison III bubble State Championship Qualifying team even with the fourth place finisher for the team, Casey Nolan, still nursing a leg injury. Key to the team's success was the upfront running of Seth Ansel 18:08 and Mubark Hasan 18:09 who both won awards for their Top 30 finishes with Seth and Mubark placing 26 & 27th respectively. Also, the team received outstanding performance from No. 3 runner Rodrigo Juarez who placed 43rd in 19:04 and Vincent McNelis who rounded out the scoring with a 55th place performance in a time of 20:00.

8-23 - Three Rivers Big Hill Climb

The boy's team again without the team's top 3 runners & two additional runners that might run in the top 7 did not fare well in the overall meet results taking 10th out of 11 teams. Nonetheless, the group that did run made up of a large number of first year runners did put up a competitive effort and there were a couple strong individual performances. Leading the way for the boy's team was Vincent McNelis who ran 21:48 taking 44th place out of 128 runners on a very hilly course followed closely behind by Jaylen Neighbors 48th in 22:06 and Rodrigo Juarez 51st in 22:07. These three runners, plus the five who sat out this meet should make for a very strong team, especially since all three of the above runners are expected to run much faster as the season progresses.
9-23 Three Rivers Big Hill Climb

8-19 Lawrence Pre Run

On the boy's side, we took half of the team mostly first year runners (six out of eight) and ran against 4 other schools at the Lawrence Summer Kickoff. In this race, the boy's team finished fourth with Paw Paw winning it with 34 followed by Eau Claire with 49, Lawrence with 69, Comstock with 78, and Hartford with 112. Two runners on the boy's side ran particularly well with Rodrigo Juarez lowering his P.R. by 54 seconds in 19:50 and finishing 13/31 and Jaylan Neighbors running in first XC race ever finishing 3rd for the team with an excellent time of 22:06.
8-19 Lawrence Results