By By AUTUMN GRAYSON / Niles Daily Star
BERRIEN SPRINGS – History has repeated itself for the Niles girls' cross country team.
The Lady Vikings placed second to the Lakeshore Lancers at the Berrien Springs Shamrock Invitational once again this year. Lakeshore narrowly won the meet with 43 points, with Niles trailing with 47 points. Hartford was a distant third scoring 117, Bangor finished in fourth place with 129 points and Berrien Springs rounded out the top five, earning 135 points.
Amanda Balk of Lakeshore was the champion for the second year in a row, running a time of 20:08. Trailing Balk was Niles' Sam Brawley and Madie Rodts who boosted the Vikings by finishing in second and third places, with times of 20:44 and 20:49, respectively.
Niles had a total of four runners in the top 10, more than any other team. This included Liz VandenHeede (seventh, 21:45) and Autumn Grayson (10th, 22:07).
Runners also finishing for the Vikings were Sarah Tyler (29th, 24:08), Bree Donohue (32nd, 24:20) and Ashley Allison (47th, 25:32).
In the men's race, Niles was also the runner-up. Bangor took the title for the second straight year, scoring 24 points. Niles finished with 116 points. Third place went to Bridgman with 129 points, Lakeshore was fourth with 131 and Lawrence earned 157 points to end in fifth place.
Three Niles runners ran their personal season-best times, including Mark Calhoun, who finished second in the meet, as he clocked a time of 17:22. Justin Kronewitter (25th, 19:24) and Shawn Calhoun (33rd, 19:45) both ran their season-best times as well.
Finishing for Niles was Brett Ortiz (11th, 18:26), Anthony Horvath (52nd, 21:03), Paul Mooney (90th, 24:05), and David Rudolph (92nd, 24:10).