WOW... 14:10!

Ritzenhein and a teammate celebrate
Dathan's and the TEAM'S victory.

-photo by Judith Cutler , RMDC -

Past XC Stuff...

1999 XC State Meet
Full Results and More!

1998 XC State Meet
Full Results and More!

Sister's Emily &
Katie Anderson of
Marquette take 1-2
at the UP XC Finals!

DATHAN AND ROCKFORD
RULE DIVISION ONE

Senior realizes goal of
team's championship

Jackson, MI 11/4/00

by Scott Collins &
Dave McCauley, rmdc

The MHSAA LP Cross Country Division 1 race, as expected, was decided very early. Rockford great Dathan Ritzenhein, the nation's top high school distance runner, cruised through the half mile mark in a blistering 2:09 and left the field in his wake.

Dathan came through the mile in 4:24 with only eventual runner-up Novi's Chris Toloff having any remaining site of the leader. Ritzenhein then flew through the two mile in an amazing 8:59.

With the huge finish line crowd encouraging him, the only question was just how fast he would finish. The possibility of breaking 14 minutes was very real. Ritzenhein finished just over that barrier in 14:10, setting a number of records in the process.

Despite the fact that he just ran one of the fastest 5K times ever by a high school cross country runner, Ritzenhein's main focus was on his team as he stopped in the chute, trying to count finishing places and think about his team's chances at a State Title.

That goal for him and his team came true as Rockford took home the team championship.

Speaking with RunMichigan's Scott Collins right after his race, Dathan talked about his team's success and his race.

"I'm just happy cause I think we won the team thing and that's what I was really looking forward to this year."

Ritzenhein has a rare ability to deal with the pressure of his success and focus on working hard and running his best despite doing it mostly by himself in every race.

"I knew that if I could go through the first mile fast enough that I would just be thinking about how fast I could run. I just wanted to run as fast as I could."

Almost a full minute behind Dathan in second place was Toloff of Novi who ran 15:05. Third went to Tim Moore, also of Novi, in 15:06. Lakeland's Pat Klein took fourth. This, as a whole, was possibly the fastest ever MHSAA high school cross country race. In all, 31 runners ran 16:00 or under.