MILFORD >> Kensington Valley Metropark played host to the 65th Oakland County Cross Country Championships Saturday morning where a repeat individual winner joined rarefied air.

A new team champion was crowned in the girls race for the first time since 2020 as Rochester easily outpaced second place Rochester Adams with 51 points to the Highlanders’ 103 points.

The Falcons placed three runners in the top-10 with Lucy Cook taking the individual medalist honors with a time of 18:33.43. In doing so, Cook, a senior, becomes only the second-ever four-time winner of the event, following in the shoes of Rochester Adams’ Katie Boyles (1997-2000).

Cook mentioned that the Falcons had been doing a lot of hill training the past couple of weeks and felt that that helped a lot when it came to the end of the race. Her plan was “to frontload her pacing and not save it until the end” due to the hills being at the end of the race.

Behind her, Mallory Bigelow of Oxford took second place with a time of 18:52.60, nearly 25 seconds faster than her mark last year when she also only trailed Cook, while Cook’s teammate, Ella Abraham, finished third with a time of 18:55.42. Leah Corby of Stoney Creek (19:28.38) and Katelynn Egli of Novi (19:39.31) rounded out the top-five.

Falcons head coach Amy Oppat felt that the work put in at the beginning of the season contributed to her team’s victory.

“We worked first on building a great base and part of that base is team comradery,” Oppat said. “The team component is key. We knew we had a lot of returning athletes with strength, talent and a lot of passion. It was just a matter of getting everyone on the same page at the same time.”

On the boys side of the coin, Clarkston, ranked fourth in the state, clipped defending champion Oxford by eight points to reclaim the mantle of top team in the county, a position which the Wolves hadn’t held since their championship in 2019.

Clarkston placed five runners in the top-40, led by Ryan Barnes, who clocked in at third with a time of 16:20.67. Rounding out the top-five for the boys teams were Milford in third with 117 points, Troy in fourth with 169 points and Detroit Catholic Central in fifth with 171 points.

The individual medalist was junior Kyle O’Rourke of Milford who, running on his home course, turned in a time of 15:47.82, which was 12 seconds off the course record and the fastest mark achieved on the Possum Hollow track since Brendan Favazza in 2019. Oxford’s Alexander McArthur took runner-up with a time of 16:08.45. Clarkston’s Barnes took third place (16:20.67), with Kian Schneeweis of Troy (16:20.85) and Nate Linden of Troy Athens (16:22.17) finishing out the fastest five individuals.

Afterwards, O’Rourke — last year’s second-place finisher — credited his course knowledge as a huge advantage, stating that “knowing all of the twists and turns, knowing were to take all of the tangents” was important because “this is a pretty tricky course and you definitely need to run it a lot of times to get a decent grip on it.”

(At Kensington Metropark’s Possum Hollow)

GIRLS TOP 10 TEAMS:

1. Rochester (51), 2. Rochester Adams (103), 3. Novi (168), 4. Royal Oak (190), 5. Oxford (195), 5. Farmington (196), 7. Troy (247), 8. Clarkston (273), 9. Birmingham Seaholm (304), 10. Auburn Hills Oakland Christian (308)

GIRLS TOP 30 RUNNERS:

1. Lucy Cook, Rochester (18:33.4), 2. Mallory Bigelow, Oxford (18:51.6), 3. Ella Abraham, Rochester (18:55.4), 4. Leah Corby, Stoney Creek (19:28.38), 5. Katelynn Egli, Novi (19:39.3), 6. Eliza Keith, Auburn Hills Oakland Christian (19:39.8), 7. Linda Lopez, Lake Orion (19:39.9), 8. Paige Rohda, Berkley (19:42.7), 9. El McMahan, Rochester Adams (19:47.1), 10. Charlotte Jones, Rochester (19:53.1), 11. Ava Thomas, Rochester Adams (19:54.7), 12. Addison Herr, Bloomfield Hills, 19:55.8), 13. Avery DeGrendel, Clarkston (20:04.7), 14. Mea D’Agostino, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (20:08.0), 15. Taylor Brodeur, Oxford (20:10.6), 16. Audrey Hamilton, Troy (20:17.0), 17. Taylor Parsons, Rochester (20:20.9), 18. Emily Alt, Walled Lake Northern (20:22.5), 19. Kendal Russette, Clarkston (20:24.9), 20. Kaitlyn Kauppila, Rochester Adams (20:27.0), 21. Anna Macdonald (20:32.3), 22. Lauren Bradley, Milford (20:33.3), 23. Natalie Gibbs, Roeper (20:34.3), 24. Olivia Jenney, Bloomfield Hills (20:34.6), 25. Madie Miller, Troy (20:35.1), 26. Cora Liu, North Farmington (20:36.5), 27. Stephanie Bulat, Rochester (20:38.7), 28. Cecilia Kreiter, Rochester Adams (20:40.6), 29. Alexa Siegel, Walled Lake Central (20:41.9), 30. Maria Nunning, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep (20:45.6)

BOYS TOP 10 TEAMS:

1. Clarkston (92), 2. Oxford (100), 3. Milford (117), 4. Troy (169), 5. Detroit Catholic Central (171), 6. Novi (197), 7. Lake Orion (218), 8. Walled Lake Northern (259), 9. Troy Athens (260), 10. Holly (341)

BOYS TOP 30 RUNNERS:

1. Kyle O’Rourke, Milford (15:47.8), 2. Alexander McArthur, Oxford (16:08.4), 3. Ryan Barnes, Clarkston (16:20.6), 4. Kian Schneeweis, Troy (16:20.8), 5. Nate Linden, Troy Athens (16:22.1), 6. James Cusick, Oxford (16:24.8), 7. Abenezer Cerone, Royal Oak Shrine (16:34.7), 8. Drew Abbott, Detroit Catholic Central (16:38.9), 9. Max Houvener, Lake Orion (16:43.3), 10. Maxton Myrand, Oxford (16:55.4), 11. Cole Wisniewski, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (16:57.99), 12. David Dubeck, Clarkston (16:58.34), 13. Bastien Beaubien, Milford (16:59.3), 14. Soma Sato, Novi (16:59.5), 15. Cayden DeGrendel, Clarkston (16:59.8), 16. Finn Gammerath, Walled Lake Northern (17:00.9), 17. Dylan Pascoe, Rochester (17:01.4), 18. Omar Elbashir, Detroit Country Day (17:02.4), 19. Nole Lorenzen, Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest (17:03.2), 20. Musa Kay, West Bloomfield (17:05.0), 21. Trevor Baptist, Novi (17:05.5), 22. Todd Tobin, Milford (17:06.8), 23. Broden Ladd, Holly (17:07.3), 24. Benjamin Peura, Farmington (17:10.5), 25. Raymond Lucero II, Lake Orion (17:15.4), 26. Aiden Baugh, Waterford Kettering (17:17.5), 27. Myles Linden, Troy Athens (17:18.4), 28. Jaxson Nowik, Clarkston (17:20.2), 29. Gavin Tisch, Detroit Catholic Central (17:21.4), 30. Akshat Arora (17:21.4)