Mackinaw City boys win their fourth Northern Lakes Conference cross country title in six years, with four Comets on the all-conference first team

MACKINAW CITY, Mich. — The Mackinaw City boys cross country team is the Northern Lakes Conference champion again, its fourth league title in six seasons and its second in a row.

The Comets locked up the title with a meet to spare on Thursday, Oct. 8, by winning the fourth NLC meet at Boyne Falls, ahead of Boyne Falls and Wolverine, The St. Ignace News reported. They then won the conference championship meet at Ellsworth on Oct. 15 with 23 points, while Ellsworth scored 50, according to the Cheboygan Daily Tribune.

The front pack. At Ellsworth, Mikey Sullivan ran second in a personal-best 18:50, Kyle Valot was third in 19:11, Knox Wilson was fourth in 19:20 and Clayton VanOrman was sixth in 19:45, the Tribune reported. All four made the all-conference first team.

Depth won it. At Boyne Falls a week earlier, the Comets put four runners in the top five and seven in the top 10. Wilson was second in 19:35, Sullivan third in 19:37, Valot fourth in 19:38 and VanOrman fifth in 19:42, followed by Cobe Robertson in seventh, Joseph Ramirez in ninth and Malachi DeLong in 10th, according to the St. Ignace News.

“On the boys’ side, we secured the conference for the second year in a row,” coach Heather Huffman told the paper after that meet. “Today wasn’t about personal records or placement, just to get the team win.”

The girls. Mackinaw City has a girls team again this fall, and the Lady Comets locked up second place in the conference, Huffman said. Rian Esper led them with a third-place finish at Boyne Falls.

What’s next. The MHSAA’s Lower Peninsula regionals are Oct. 30 or 31, with admission $8, and the Lower Peninsula finals are Nov. 7 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, according to the association.

Sources:
The St. Ignace News, “Mack City cross country has boys’ team clinch NLC title,” Oct. 12, 2026, https://www.stignacenews.com/articles/mack-city-cross-country-has-boys-team-clinch-nlc-title/
Cheboygan Daily Tribune (via Detroit Free Press), “Mackinaw City boys capture fourth NLC cross country title in six years,” Oct. 19, 2026, https://www.freep.com/story/sports/high-school/2026/10/19/the-cheboygan-areas-top-high-school-sports-performers-for-oct-15-17/92275254007/
Michigan High School Athletic Association, “2026 L.P. Cross Country” media information sheet, https://www.mhsaa.com/sites/default/files/Media/MediaTournamentInfo/RL26-LPXC-10-16.pdf
Photo: Harrison Keely, “A high school cross country runner runs during a race at a meet in North Carolina 01.jpg,” Oct. 7, 2018, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_high_school_cross_country_runner_runs_during_a_race_at_a_meet_in_North_Carolina_01.jpg

The Straits

Tags: The Straits · Mackinaw City · Cross Country · Northern Lakes Conference · High School Sports · Comets