DAVISBURG, Michigan – If you weren’t in the know, you might have expected the individual showdown in the Nike Holly Invitational D2 Boys race to be a duel between St. Clair’s jr Addis Habtewold and Danny Jackson, Dexter’s sr leader. After all, Habtewold dominated the harrier scene most of the fall in 2005, before a rough state meet, while Jackson was the top 2-miler (9:10) in the state after now-graduated Landon Peacock and has competed on the national stage.

Jackson, however, is still recovering from an infection he picked up at a late summer camp. But he isn’t the only member of the deep, deep Dexter team with front-running abilities. Enter jr Bobby Aprill (yes, that’s spelled correctly). As it became evident that Jackson was going to be limited to 3rd, Aprill exchanged surges with Habtewold and made the decisive move with about 400 to go. His 15:51, and the 28-point tally of MW#2 Dexter, were good for the top performances of the day.

Of course, the boys D2 race was just one of 19 that went off every 20 minutes in bang-bang fashion on the historic course. The forecast for the 39th running of the Invitational was supposedly warm and sunny, but an unexpected cloud cover seemed to indicate rain in the area. Blessedly, it never got really warm and never rained, leaving competitors with humid, but mild and cloudy conditions on a course that had a little mud from the previous week’s rains and was an ideal cross-country test.

So in order from D1 to D5, it was these teams that passed the test on the highest level: Grand Blanc, Flushing, Hillsdale, Schoolcraft, and Ubly on the girls side, and Ann Arbor Pioneer, Dexter, Jackson Lumen Christi, Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Central, and Munising for the boys. Individually, in the same fashion, crossing the line first was Hannah Cavicchio (19:13), Molly Waterhouse (19:20), Adrienne Pastula (19:09), Sara Turschak (20:22), and Kylee Kubacki (20:24) for the girls, and Robert Fisher (16:14), Aprill, Wes Stoody (16:19), Andrew Breyer (16:56), and Kevin Oblinger (17:09) for the boys.

Meet director Matt Weisdorfer had more than 1300 high school runners (plus more middle school and open), and with 39 Holly Invitationals in the books, will plan a big celebration for the 40th in 2007.

But with all the racing going on over six hours, it was still that D2 boys race that enticed many the most. Habtewold’s win here last year was on the crest of the wave of his sudden rise to the top of the state’s harrier rankings. Meanwhile, Jackson was becoming the consistent leader and standout of the Dreadnaughts. Neither ran as well as they wanted to at state and Landon Peacock rose above everyone to become one of the top harriers in the country.

During track, although it was Peacock who ran the state’s top 3200, it was Jackson who made a name for himself nationally with strong finishes at NIN and NON. So when Habtewold, began lighting it up again with fast times in his first two meets, it looked like Holly would be a showdown of epic proportions. Despite the ailments of the principals (Addis had health issues, too), it still was a showdown – it’s just that the star was different.

Aprill, or Jackson for that matter, is hardly someone to talk much about himself being a top individual. After all, Coach Jamie Dudash has created nothing if he hasn’t created the supreme “team,” a concept all of his runners embrace. But after a very solid sophomore campaign in both XC and track, Aprill showed he might be ready to take things to a new level when he won the Tortoise and Hare meet last week, leading Jackson in by 11 seconds. And it’s not as if he hadn’t competed with Habtewold before; he was a second behind him at last fall’s state meet.

But still, this was a little different. At the 1600, Addis surged around a curve and into a downhill to lead in 4:56. There was some back and forth, but at 3200 it was the St. Clair star again at 9:57. In the section after that, though, Aprill made his biggest move yet, taking a lead of three seconds coming up the long hill out of the woods to pass the finish line. Then between 800 and 600 to go, Habtewold made his final bid in retaking the lead.

He couldn’t extend it, however, and Aprill exploded with 400 to go. His 15:51 was five seconds ahead of Habtewold (15:56). Jackson outlasted everyone else for 3rd in 16:12, and was followed by sr teammate Ryan Neely (16:17), and Shawnee (OH) sr Thomas Scott (16:20) to round out the top five. Dexter closed it out with Ben Stevenson (8th/16:47) and Jason Bishop (12th/17:20) to score 28.

Fenton, with a strong 6-7 from Joe Dimambro and Alex Ralston, scored 97 to take 2nd in a tight battle with Sturgis (107), St. Clair (115), and Shawnee (123).

“(Addis) made a surge at 2-1/2, but I was confident in my kick,” said Aprill, “although I knew he had a good kick, too. He went out awfully hard in the first mile, but then it settled down.”

He admitted it was a little different being in the driver’s seat. “Danny’s always been ahead of me,” he said. “But really, not much has changed. The important thing is that the team does well.”

Habtewold said he’s had a cold the last few days and his back has been bothering him, “but I’m not complaining. It was a good race. (Aprill and Jackson) are two tough guys. They train hard and race smart.”

Jackson seemed completely unconcerned that he wasn’t in the race for first at the end. “I was sick for a while, but I’ve had a solid last couple of weeks. I’m not worried. I always start the season kind of slow anyway.

“It was an incredible performance by these guys,” he said of his teammates. “Bobby is actually the first Dexter runner to win here and Ryan is really coming on strong.”

Coach Dudash was also quite enthused by Neely’s performance. “He’s taken a huge step this year after a strong track season (4:27 1600),” he said. “He’s propelled himself to the next level. When we do hill workouts, we call him The King because no one can run with him.

“Bobby’s been very consistent,” he added. “His success has been due to working hard with his teammates every day.”

Although he isn’t planning to consider a trip to Nike Team Nationals, due to regulations from Michigan’s state association, Coach Dudash’s team had moved up to #2 in the NTN Midwest rankings the day before the meet. It looks like the Dreadnaughts have every intention of continuing an ascension to the top.

(more to come)