By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
Samatha Brawley's fifth-place finish Saturday at the Edwardsburg Invitational held at Southwestern Michigan College led Niles' individuals.
The Vikings finished sixth overall with a combined boys' and girls' score of 174.
Cedar Springs was the overall combined winner with 71 points. Coldwater was second with 96 points, while Kalamazoo Hackett and Plainwell tied for third with 127 points.
Rounding out the Top 5 was Bangor with 132 points.
Edwardsburg finished seventh with 192 points. Dowagiac finished with 219 points.
Paw Paw and Berrien Springs round out the Top 10 with 246 and 263 points respectively.
Participating on Saturday but not finishing a complete team were Allegan, Brandywine, Cassopolis, Delton-Kellogg, Howardsville, Mendon, Sturgis and Watervliet.
Coldwater was the boys' overall winner with 12 points. Sturgis was second with 25 points and Cedar Springs third with 30. Niles finished fourth with 50 points. Bangor was fifth with 57 points.
Dowagiac took seventh with 84 points and Edwardsburg 10th with 121 points.
Plainwell won the girls' overall winner with 33 points. Cedar Springs was second with 41 points. Third was Kalamazoo Hackett with 52 points, fourth was Bangor with 67 points and Edwardsburg fifth with 71 points.
Niles finished eighth with 114 points and Dowagiac 10th with 135 points.
Jessica Banish of Berrien Springs was the winner in the girls' junior/senior race with a time of 21:37.78.
Marissa Ingle of Delton-Kellogg finished second with a time of 21:59.72, while Kristin Bevins of Plainwell was third, Kristen Wilfinger of Delton-Kellogg was fourth and Witney Knollenberg of Delton-Kellogg was fifth.
VanHusan posted a time of 24:06.95.
Dan Cramer of Cedar Springs was the boys' overall winner in the junior/senior race with a time of 16:26.62.
Jay Bilsborrow and Ransom Brown, both of Coldwater, finished second and third with times of 16:50.25 and 17:36.69 respectively.
Nick Tomsic of Bangor and Tim Murray of Sturgis were fourth and fifth.
Tabbert finished with a time of 18:26.34.
Tyler Emmorey of Cedar Springs was the winner of the freshman/sophomore race with a time of 17:27.42.
Nate Knisely of Coldwater was second with a time of 18:07.83. Kyle Dornan of Bangor was third, Ben Murray of Sturgis fourth and Zach Mills of Coldwater fifth.
Meagan Neary of Coldwater was the girls' freshman/sophomore race winner with a clocking of 20:09.87.
Samantha Draney of Allegan took second with a time of 20:43.40. Kathy Cramer of Cedar Springs was fourth and Samantha Brawley of Niles fifth.
In the boys' freshman/sophomore race, Andrew Cuthbert was 23rd, Adam Hess was 31st, Mike Kasper was 36th, Clay Hewitt was 42nd, Evan Bressler was 43rd, Tony Saviano was 50th and Kevin Billingham was 61st.
In the junior/senior race, Jeromy Northrop was 49th and Andrew Howard 65th.
In the girls' freshman/sophomore race, Katie Hewitt was 35th, Lori Key was 39th, Kayla Saviano was 47th and Chelsey Preston was 56th.
In the junior/senior race, Ashley Willis was 47th.
Niles runs again Wednesday at Buchanan. The meet is set to begin at 5 p.m.