Cross Country | 10/15/2025 1:44:00 PM
JACKSON -- Coaches Nicole Solis and Eric Solis gave two simple messages to their runners -- "run as a pack" and "finish better than you started".
The Clinton Junior High School Boys Cross Country team executed those strategies in the 3000m race at the MHSAA Middle School Cross Country Invitational on Tuesday afternoon.
The Arrows grabbed three top-10 spots and outpaced their second-place opponent, Madison, by 21 points to win the invitational's large-school division's state title at Choctaw Trails. It was the seventh-ever MHSAA Middle School Cross Country Invitational.
"I am really so proud of these young men," Eric Solis said. "Honestly, I didn't expect us to be as fast as we have been this year. However, we ran together, we worked hard all season. (The boys) did everything that they needed to do to achieve this state championship."
Micah Kieffer led the Arrows with his second-place finish, clocking a time of 10 minutes, 47 seconds. Sniffing the top 10 at the 1-mile mark, Kieffer picked off several front runners to propel himself to the silver-medal spot down the closing stretch.
"It looks good to come out first at the beginning, but what looks better is coming out first in the end," Nicole Solis said. "The end of the race is where you have to dig deep and finish as strong as possible."
Coleman Finch finished in sixth with his 10:56 pace, and
Jace Williamson rounded out the top 10 in 10th, running the course in 11 minutes, seven seconds.
"Before the meet, and, really, we've talked all week and today about running closer together as a pack," Eric Solis said. "We've run our top three pretty close but then the fourth and fifth scoring runners were even further apart. Today, we were definitely more of a pack to hold off Madison and some stiff competition."
Adrian Brown recorded an 11:13, finishing in 16th, and
Ethan McQueen was the last scoring runner, landing in 23rd place with an 11:26 time.
Maddox Box,
Michael Onyia,
Jaden Dasary,
Emmaus Vandersteen, and
John Chittom were the other runners who represented the Arrows in the race and spaced out the Jaguars and other opposition in the competition's results.
Madison defeated CJHS at the Clinton Arrow Invitational on Saturday, October 27. Eric Solis felt that it was a blessing in disguise for an Arrow squad that had not lost a race all season until that day.
"Maybe it was a blessing," Eric Solis said. "They realized that 'we aren't invincible.' It put a charge into them a little bit today to execute on the course."
